Fee change at Chevy Centre will wait

YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s plan to reduce the cost of most tickets to events at the Chevrolet Centre is going to have to wait a bit.

Monday was supposed to be the first day that a flat 9.5-percent admission tax replaced parking and facility fees of $3 to $3.50 per ticket. But its implementation is going to take up to five months in some cases.

Eight events on the center’s calendar — such as concerts by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and blues legend B.B. King next month and Disney On Ice shows in December — include $3.50 parking and facility fees and not the flat admission tax.

Contracts with promoters for those shows and others already on the schedule, negotiated as long as a year ago, include provisions for the inclusion of the parking and facility fees and not the flat tax, said Tim McGrath, the center’s executive director and Kyle Miasek, the city’s deputy finance director.

The center also has three unannounced events, two in December and one in March 2008, that have the same provision.

Other future events at the center will include the admission tax and not the fees, McGrath and Miasek said.

The promoters prefer the fees to the admission tax because they receive a portion of the fees, Miasek said.

For the complete story, read Wednesday’s Vindicator or vindy.com