Revenue loss at arena may have silver lining

Several months ago, Global Entertainment Corp. executives predicted that the Chevrolet Centre in Youngstown would lose money in the third quarter of this fiscal year. Well, the sports and entertainment facility, which the Arizona-based company operates and manages, recorded a $205,215 loss in the period April through June.

But before you give the company an “Attaboy!” for its correct prediction, consider this: The revenue loss is $116,791 more than what officials had projected several months ago. The company’s record of failing to come close to its financial projections is intact.

As Mayor Jay Williams said in May, every time such projections aren’t met, the city of Youngstown, which owns the Chevrolet Centre, is “subject to ridicule.” At the time, we assured the mayor that it’s Global, not city government, that is being held up to ridicule. After all, the company is a part of a huge conglomerate that operates worldwide, and yet it can’t seem to get its act together.

But, there may be a silver lining in the April-June accounting: Global has a sizable sampling of events to begin the process of determining what the people in the arena’s market area want in terms of entertainment.

It has been almost two years since the $45 million facility opened to much fanfare and chest-pounding by some city government officials, and it’s time that the company being paid by the city tells us what works and what doesn’t.

Why were Ludicris and The Doobie Brothers/Peter Frampton money losers, while Blue Man Group, Stevie Nicks and ZZ Top had the cash registers ringing?

Huge success

On the other hand, given the huge success of the WWE wrestling show, which was televised to a national audience, should Global be concentrating on this genre of entertainment?

Is everything being done by Global to help the owners of the Mahoning Valley SteelHounds hockey team and the Mahoning Valley Thunder arena football team meet attendance goals? They are the mainstays of the Chevrolet Centre.

With the third quarter loss in revenue, Global’s anticipated profits of $726,585 for the fiscal year to date are actually a negative $33,451. That’s because the company missed its projections for the first two quarters by a mile.

For its part, city government through Deputy Finance Director Kyle Miasek is closely monitoring the situation and has made it clear to Global that the status quo is unacceptable. Such oversight is important, given that the arena was built with taxpayer dollars.