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The Chevy in transition
The center’s executive director is working to fill the facility during its traditionally slower months.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Chevrolet Centre lost $30,264 during the first three months of the year, but officials at the arena and with the city say the facility is heading in the right direction.
The change in management at the center adversely impacted its ability to schedule events in January and February, said Kyle Miasek, the city’s deputy finance director, and Eric Ryan, the facility’s executive director.
Global Entertainment Corp. managed the center for two years until it parted ways with the city in October. Because the company knew it was on its way out, it did little to fill the center’s calendar for January and February, considered two of the busiest months for indoor arenas, Miasek said.
“The building held its own with a lack of events,” he said.
The city released financial figures Friday for the center’s second quarter of this fiscal year, January to March, that show the $30,264 loss for that time period. During the first six months of this fiscal year, October 2007 to last month, the center had a profit of $120,938.
The center lost money in January and February, but made a profit last month, Miasek said. He declined to disclose the financial figures for each month.
Not included in the financial figures is $50,796 the city received from a 9.5-percent ticket tax. The tax revenue for March is still being calculated so that amount will be even greater, Miasek said.
If ticket taxes are included, the center turned a profit during this past quarter, he said.
That ticket tax is not shown on the center’s income statement because that money doesn’t go to the facility, Miasek said. It goes to the city’s general fund.
If the city used Global’s accounting methods, it would have shown an additional profit of about $100,000 for the first six months of the center’s fiscal year, Miasek said.
Global showed an entire year’s worth of income for the rental of luxury suites and club seats up front and not spread out over a full year, Miasek said. The latter method is more accurate and in compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, he said.
To help the center’s finances, Ryan is focusing on booking events for the period between April and September. One of Global’s biggest problems running the center was booking events for those six months, a problem common to indoor entertainment facilities, Miasek and Ryan said.
During each of the two years it ran the center, Global showed profits during the first half of the facility’s fiscal year (October to March), and then lost it all and more during the second half of the fiscal year (April to September). The center ended the 2006-07 fiscal year with a $254,388 loss, and a deficit of $23,653 in its first fiscal year.
But that’s not going to be the case any longer, Miasek and Ryan said.
“We have events booked for this quarter [April to June] and other events are being negotiated for this quarter and the fourth quarter” of July to September, Miasek said.
Among those events is a June 11 Carrie Underwood concert, which sold out in just a few days. The concert sold out faster than any other in the center’s brief history.
“We’re showing that this is a very viable market,” Ryan said. “We’re turning this place around. It won’t happen overnight. You book four months or so in advance, and [Global] didn’t book much of anything.”
An expected major boost to the center, Miasek and Ryan said, is a contract the city will sign with Ticketmaster to handle ticketing for the facility effective May 1. The deal is expected to be finalized Thursday by the city’s board of control, Miasek said.
Ticketmaster is guaranteeing $125,000 over five years, paid in $25,000 increments annually. Also, the company projects the city will receive $942,000 during those five years in royalties on ticket surcharges, ranging from 25 percent to 40 percent per ticket. City officials also say more tickets for center events will be sold because of the size of Ticketmaster, the largest event ticketing agency in the country.
skolnick@vindy.com