Now, You Will Meet The Investor I Have Been Talking About

(Evansvillerage.com)

For well over a year now, I have been teasing you the viewers of this blog and residents of Evansville about an investor that I have who can bring indoor soccer, football, minor league basketball, concerts, and much, much more. The amazing part about all of this has been the people who have called my bluff on it. I tried telling several prominent members of the Democratic Central Committee about it- they didn't believe it. But today, the pie is going to be on there face because I am now prepared to introduce to our investor who wants to make Roberts Stadium a productive member of society.

If you recall, I said this in the Evansville Courier & Press earlier this year..

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/jun/19/roberts-stadium-deserves-judgment-from-fair/?partner=RSS

"I know a local investor who is willing to work with the city to raise the stadium floor. He is eager to place football, soccer, trade shows, youth sports tournaments, mid-sized concerts, and minor league basketball in the facility.

He isn't interested in the new arena — it is too expensive for his type of business."

So who is this investor and what does he want to do with Roberts Stadium?

Back on December 13th, 2010, I received the following email from Mr. Chip Rossetti...

"Hi Jordan,

My name is Chip Rossetti. I am the owner of the Evansville Crush Arena Soccer team here in town. I am intrigued by your efforts to save Roberts Stadium. As I said, I own the Crush and we are currently a semi pro team. I have acquired the Evansville rights to put a professional team here in Evansville. I am a bit concerned about the potential costs of using the new arena to house my team. We currently play at Metro Sports Center, but we would need a larger facility to accommodate us at the professional level.

My thoughts are as follows, if we can get a group of people together that are interested in doing some renovations to Roberts, namely making the floor a bit bigger, I would be willing to move my team into the new arena. I would also be interested in purchasing an indoor football franchise and possibly a minor league basketball franchise. These teams, too, could play at Roberts.

Long term, I think that Roberts could be turned into a very good, smaller facility that can house these sports, as well as some smaller concerts. If the seating capacity was taken down to about 5000-6000, it would open up a lot of doors that I have connections to. I don't know who is on board with your plans, but if there are people that we can talk to that can help make this possible, I would be interested. Thank you

Since that email, I have gone to you the public, our local leaders, and many other organizations who might be interested in helping put this together. The 3 Save Roberts Stadium candidates on the right- Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley, Al Lindsey, and Dr. Dan Adams- have all expressed interest in this plan.

Since this initial email, some things have changed while some have stayed the same. First of all, Chip has sold the Evansville Crush but that doesn't mean that we can't or shouldn't approach them about making Roberts Stadium their home. Secondly, Chip has just helped officially acquire the new indoor football team- The Evansville Rage...

http://www.14news.com/story/16069585/indoor-football-returning-to-evansville

I talked with Chip just a few days ago, he still firmly believes he can fill in an adequate amount of dates with mid-size concerts. He also is willing to provide professional indoor lacrosse and inline skating teams. With the rest of the dates (if there are any), I believe that we should talk to USI about their men's basketball team, schedule high school basketball tournaments such as the Ralph Legeman Classic (scroll down a few posts to read about this), we should schedule youth tournaments in soccer and basketball, and we should approach small trade shows.

It's important to understand that NONE OF THIS is competing with the Ford Center. At the Ford Center, you will find that the majority of dates are booked with premier concerts such as Reba and Bob Seger, Aces basketball, and Icemen hockey. Mr. Scott Schoenike has done an EXCELLENT job with the Ford Center and I tip my hat off to him and VenuWorks. I have no desire to take any of their business away from them, and I will do whatever VenuWorks asks me to do to make the Ford Center a success as well.

If you look at all of the possibilities for Roberts Stadium..

1. Professional Basketball
2. Indoor Football
3. Indoor Soccer
4. Indoor Lacrosse
5. Professional Inline Skating
6. Mid-Sized Concerts
7. Youth Sports Tournaments
8. High School Basketball Tournaments
9. USI basketball games
10. Small Trade Shows

ZERO, and I mean ZERO, of those organizations belong at the Ford Center, will compete with the Ford Center, or can afford the Ford Center. Therefore, there is no reason to look at this proposal as an either/or situation.

Also, Chip tells me that he believes his indoor football team can average 2,500 to 3,000 tickets per game. He says his team is willing to negotiate with the city to share ticket sales AND concession stand sales with the city in exchange for them raising the floor.

Even better, is the fact that we can sell some of the seats, sell naming rights, host benefit concerts, and sell bricks outside of Roberts Stadium to finance this minor renovation.

Mayor-Elect Winnecke and the newly elected Evansville City-Council, I now urge you to strongly consider and investigate this plan. I'm willing to meet with any of you at any time (email: JordanBaer1@gmail.com). We cannot afford to let this opportunity pass us by.

Let's stand behind great businessmen like Chip Rosetti who want to make their community a better place to live at the same time. LET'S WELCOME THE EVANSVILLE RAGE INDOOR FOOTBALL TEAM!

(EvansvilleRage.com)