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In no particular order...
1. Puts Roberts Stadium back on the tax rolls via sales tax revenue generated on items sold.
2. Puts heads in beds with high school basketball tournaments, college basketball preseason tournaments, mid-sized concerts, BMX tournaments, and trade shows.
3. Is cheaper than demolishing the arena and building a green space.
4. Since Roberts puts "heads in beds" it would be a good use of the Innkeepers Tax which is completely separate from the general fund.
5. Addresses the concerns of Councilwoman Connie Robinson who would like to see more diverse acts come to town.
6. Allows Venuworks to push all smaller acts out of the Ford Center so that bigger and more profitable acts can be scheduled in their place.
7. Allows the back lot, which is roughly the same size as the old airport lot on US 41 that is scheduled to be converted into a green space, to be converted into a green space as well.
8. Enables the grounds crew overseeing Roberts Stadium to take care of the green space in the back lot.
9. Would compliment both a future indoor water park resort and/or indoor natatorium next to Hartke Pool as well as an expanded Swonder Ice Rink that contains an indoor skate park.
10. Promotes the growth of mid-sized sports such as Evansville Crush indoor soccer and Evansville Rage indoor football who are drawing decent crowds at their existing venues but need a bigger facility to grow their businesses.
11. Helps grow nearby restaurants such as Kipplee's, Western Rib-Eye, and Turoni's who use to host pregame meals for tenants at Roberts Stadium.
12. Roberts Stadium, with room to grow around it, is the real "something for everyone'' due to its ability to host multiple events.
13. Roberts Stadium upgrades city safety by being designated a disaster relief area.
14. Roberts Stadium, using the projections given to us by Rector, only costs roughly $646 a day to run. With the water pumps gone, this figure would be trimmed significantly lower. The Evansville Crush, who would be the lowest rent tenant of all the interested tenants would be paying roughly $1,000 a day in rent. And that is even before revenue from concessions, tickets, and parking are even considered.
15. Roberts Stadium's parking lot can still be used for events such as Tox Away Day. A source in the Winnecke administration indicated to me that Rector told them that there are multiple organizations interested in renting the parking lot as well.
16. Roberts Stadium would still be intact to pay tribute to Evansville Mayor Hank Roberts who is a veteran whereas naming a dog park after him is offensive.
17. Roberts Stadium can be used to market local architect Ralph Legeman who holds the patent for the Indiana field house design, is recognized at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame by having it next to one of his gyms, and created over 32 gyms around the Midwest (Roberts being his biggest).
18. Renovating and then leasing Roberts Stadium maintains the $16 + million taxpayer dollars invested in it in 1990/91 as well as the taxpayer dollars from 1956.
19. Roberts Stadium allows Venuworks/ the Ford Center to maintain a place for storage thus eliminating the need to construct another one on the future site of the downtown hotel.
20. Renovating and then leasing Roberts Stadium gives the city/county control over all three of the Centre, the Ford Center, and Roberts Stadium thus giving the government the right to prevent similar events from taking place at the venues on the same nights (ex: Aces basketball and NBDL basketball games).
21. Roberts Stadium can be co-branded with the Ford Center to attract tourists and guests to Evansville.
22. Since Roberts Stadium would need to be scaled down to become a mid-sized arena, most of the things auctioned off were not needed anyways.
23. Selling naming rights to the gates, plazas, and walkways inside and outside of Roberts Stadium will drastically cut the renovation price tag down.
24. Roberts Stadium, with its economy of scale, will attract new business to the city that can't afford the Ford Center and/or the Centre such as the Boat Show.
25. Roberts Stadium, on non event days, can serve as the indoor trail hub for the greenway which would run behind the arena from Wesselman Woods on its way over to the State Hospital grounds.
26. A renovated Roberts Stadium would address the vast majority of the ideas presented at the task force such as a disaster relief area, a BMX tournament center, as well as a green space in the back lot (plus whatever the city builds around it).
27. Roberts Stadium can serve as a shuttle stop for the Ford Center so that those who liked parking at Roberts Stadium for Aces games may do so and take the shuttle to the Ford Center. This also cuts down on drunk driving as well as grid lock downtown.
28. Using a small portion of the Innkeepers Tax to fund renovations to Roberts Stadium would prevent the city from taking $8 million from the Aztar fund which can then be used on other much needed projects.
29. Renovating Roberts Stadium would show that the city cares about what the vast majority of its residents want, including the 150 neighbors of Roberts Stadium who displayed Save Roberts Stadium yard signs in their yard.
30. Renovating Roberts Stadium prevents unwanted development such as a strip mall, an entertainment center, or any other commercial use from being built on the land.
31. Renovating Roberts Stadium, and then leasing it to SMG/Venuworks, allows the government to take a mostly hands off approach to the site while getting around the deed to the land which would revert back to the state of Indiana if the land was sold outright.
32. Renovating Roberts Stadium immediately provides a place for USI to play preseason basketball tournaments, one-two regular season games, as well as the GLVC tournament (would be flexed from Ford Center since it only draws 1,000-2,000 so that the Icemen can have another weekend home game) and can eventually be used full-time by USI when the university decides they have outgrown PAC Arena.
33. Roberts Stadium would allow families who can only afford $5,$10,$15 tickets a place to go for concerts and sporting events when they regularly couldn't afford the Ford Center anyways (which sells out most of their premier events anyways thanks to Mr. Scott Schoenike and Venuworks).
34. Roberts Stadium provides a much safer place for graduations. Last year, several residents who attended the EVSC graduations had to be taken to the hospital for heat exhaustion.
35. With Roberts Stadium being an indoor greenway trail hub, a walking path can be constructed from Roberts Stadium to the 1977 Aces plane crash memorial on the campus of UE. This path/trail would pay respect to those who died in that fatal plane crash that will always be on the minds of local residents.
36. Maintaining Roberts Stadium and its parking lot will allow our local police to maintain the spot where they train their officers how to drive emergency vehicles at high speeds and through dangerous situations. On non event days, the police could train inside as well.
37. A mid-sized Roberts Stadium would continue to serve as a buffer between Wesselman Woods and the city of Evansville.
38. A mid-sized Roberts Stadium would bring back some, if not all, of the lost SMG jobs that couldn't be transferred over to the Ford Center.
39. Leasing Roberts Stadium to Venuworks or SMG would ensure that the facility does not compete with the Ford Center or the Centre as they would share the same venue operator who would be able to synchronize the two facilities.
40. Renovating Roberts Stadium would end the lawsuit against the city, thus saving the city any future legal costs.
41. Renovating Roberts Stadium would follow in the footsteps of the Conrad Baker Foundation who saved the Coliseum, the Old Courthouse, and the Old Jail which was clearly the correct and right thing to do.
42. Renovating Roberts Stadium, by selling commemorative bricks and plaques, will boost community unity by allowing everyone a chance to participate in saving Roberts Stadium and by everyone having the opportunity to have their name outside of Roberts Stadium.
43. Renovating Roberts Stadium instead of constructing a dog park gives the city of Evansville one less park to have to maintain.
44. Renovating Roberts Stadium would follow in the footsteps of smaller cities who are working their way up by maintaining multiple arenas. Such cities include Grand Forks, ND, Sioux Falls, SD, Grand Rapids, MI, and Wichita, KS.
45. Keeping Roberts Stadium would avoid duplicating the situations of the Executive Inn and Corpus Christi's horrendous demolition of their old arena that drove the demolition company into bankruptcy and took over a year.
46. Roberts Stadium would be another tool the ECVB could use in their marketing of Evansville.
47. Roberts Stadium could either have a food court built inside it or next to it with another development project while avoiding the dreaded strip mall at the same time. This idea has been around since the 1980s.
48. Saving Roberts Stadium is what Kris Beard and her daughter Lisa Jean Beard support. They are the grand-daughter and great grand-daughter of Hank Roberts.
49. Renovating Roberts Stadium is STILL cheaper than building a new mid-sized arena.
50. Roberts Stadium does not have the roof support, the club seats, or the seating capacity (once scaled down) that the Ford Center does thus guaranteeing the two will not compete for premier concerts, hockey tenants, or anything else that the Ford Center wants/needs.
There you have it. No matter how you slice it, the truth still remains, saving Roberts Stadium is the right thing to do!
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