Hockey’s Green Bay Packers? ECHL Elmira Jackals become ‘community owned’

[tazman911]

Check out this well-written piece by Greg Wyshynski, editor of Puck Daddy on Yahoo! Sports.

 

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/hockey-s-green-bay-packers--echl-elmira-jackals-become--community-owned-174850134.html

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Jackals long term future depends on community support

 

 

Officials answer community concerns about making the Elmira Jackals a community-owned team.

 

Fans of the Elmira Jackals hockey team have three years to start filling the seats in First Arena to boost ticket revenue or the team could be sold.

That's the situation as plans are in the works to turn ownership of the Jackals over to a local development corporation.

Tom Freeman and Nate Cook announced last week that they would convey all of their rights and interests in Victory Associates, current owner and operator of the Jackals, to Chemung County Economic Development. A board of directors made up of local business leaders, residents and elected officials would oversee ownership of the team.

An Elmira law firm that has reviewed plans to turn ownership of the Elmira Jackals hockey team over to the community expressed concerns about generating sufficient ticket revenue to cover costs.

On the Chemung County Legislature's behalf, Chairwoman Donna Draxler, R-14th District, asked the Keyser, Maloney and Winner law firm to review the proposed transaction.

According to an Aug. 27 letter obtained by the Star-Gazette that is signed by Richard D. Keyser, if all of the 2015 forecasted revenues are received and all operating expenses incurred, Jackals operations would essentially break even, and for that to happen, first-year ticket revenue must increase by $448,700, or almost 60 percent.

If it is not achieved, the Jackals will continue to operate at a deficit, using the balance of bank financing to make up the difference, according to the letter.

While the revenue forecast is based on a significant increase of about 1,000 people in Jackals game attendance, it is within the historical range of past seasons, Freeman said in a letter responding to Keyser. He and Cook are willing to provide a minimum three-year "backstop" on future losses, so that if unreserved losses exceed reserves, they would be covered by the arena.

"I want this to succeed, and I think it's going to succeed," Freeman told the Star-Gazette Friday. "I think it's more of a question of what we do with the profits than how do we handle losses. The team can be very profitable. The team was very profitable in the first years, and all we need is attendance."

There are 71 communities with professional hockey, and Elmira is the smallest market in the country and consequently has the smallest fan base in the country, he said. All things being equal, getting people to come to the games is probably one of the bigger challenges, and while attendance was up last year, it wasn't back to historic levels, he said.

"It really wasn't so much the losses but we wanted it to be a bigger success," Freeman said of making the Jackals a community owned team.

He used Green Bay, the smallest NFL market, as an analogy.

"That team will never move from Green Bay because it's community owned. I wanted to make sure this team never moves, and this is a way to do it," Freeman said.

"If Ralph Wilson, the owner of the Buffalo Bills, would've donated the team to the community, there would be no talk of a team ever moving. We don't ever want to be in a position that anybody's ever thinking of moving," he said. "I just never want to see that happen."

Draxler, who sought the three-year protection, said Friday she is not concerned about the planned change in ownership but for the protection of the county. Getting the community involved gives people more ownership of the team, she said.

"Any new business that starts up, it take three to five years to get established. That's kind of a given. I had asked if they wouldn't do it for three years, and they agreed. It's going to take them that long to find out whether they can make it," she said.

"The concept is a very good concept. I really think it's a very good idea and a good way to go. I'm very happy with it. I just want to make sure that all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed and the county's protected," Draxler said.

"That is all of our jobs on the legislature. It's to make sure we don't end up paying for something 20 years that's not existing. That's the only concern that I have at the moment."

County Executive Tom Santulli emphasized that the Jackals would not be a government-owned team either by the county or the City of Elmira.

"For the people out there saying this is huge debt being taken on by government, that is absolutely not true," he said Friday. "I don't want the message to be that there's going to be huge debt created. That's not what's going to happen."

For a number of years, Jackals attendance was terrific, but attendance number declined largely because neglect by the arena's prior owners resulted in its deterioration, Santulli said. After Freeman and Cook took over the arena, they probably put about $2.5 million into it.

"The place has never looked better," he said. "The place needed work. It wasn't in good condition. They let it deteriorate, and I think a lot of people left."

There is a lot of enthusiasm among members of the business community who said the ownership change is an idea that's worth looking at, and a meeting is scheduled Thursday with them, he said.

"I look at this as a positive," Santulli said. "We're talking about a team that has real value." The team is an asset with an appraised valued between $1.5 million and $2.5 million, he said.

"If it becomes obvious very early on that despite all of our efforts as a community that the seats can't be filled, then you sell the asset, pay down whatever debt the team has — not the arena — and move on. I hope that's not the case. I hope the community feels that this is worth saving," he said.

"I can tell you what the alternative is. It's just the whole place goes dark."