Chevy Centre deal up for vote
If everything goes according to the plan, SMG would start Thursday.
YOUNGS-TOWN — City council will consider a contract today to hire a company to help manage and promote the Chevrolet Centre.
Mayor Jay Williams is strongly recommending council approve the five-year-plus contract with SMG, a Philadelphia company that manages more than 200 facilities worldwide.
With the uncertainty of hockey at the city-owned center and the need to book acts for the facility’s summer schedule, approval of the contract today is “imperative,” Williams said.
“Every day we don’t have them is a financial detriment to the center,” the mayor said of SMG.
If council approves the SMG deal today, the city’s board of control will ratify the contract Thursday, said Williams, chairman of that board. SMG would start working for the city later Thursday, Williams said.
Councilmen Jamael Tito Brown, D-3rd, and DeMaine Kitchen, D-2nd, said they support the SMG hiring.
Councilwoman Carol Rimedio-Righetti, D-4th, said she’d prefer the contract be for three years.
Also, she questions whether Eric Ryan, the facility’s executive director since October, has the expertise to manage the center. Ryan will continue to run the center’s day-to-day operations once SMG is hired.
SMG would provide support with marketing services, event booking, risk management and insurance, administration and financing.
Though Rimedio-Righetti said the SMG contract “seems all right,” she added she’d wait until today to decide whether she’ll vote for it.
The council members expressed concern Tuesday about the uncertainty of hockey at the center.
The Youngstown SteelHounds, a minor-league hockey team, played its home games at the center for the past three seasons.
A financial dispute between the Central Hockey League and Blue Line LLC, the SteelHounds’ parent company, led to the team’s getting kicked out of the league June 2.
Herb Washington, owner of Blue Line, is looking for a new league for his team.
Washington said he’s had discussions with International Hockey League officials, but won’t rush a deal.
“It’s not a quick process if it’s done right,” he said. “Everyone has to take a deep breath and make sure this is done right.”
The six-team IHL is interested in having the SteelHounds play this season, and league officials have said they can redo the schedule to accommodate the Youngstown team.
The IHL plays 76 regular season games compared with 64 in the CHL.
If the SteelHounds join the IHL this season and play at the Chevrolet Centre, it would need the facility for 38 dates compared with 32 when it played in the CHL.
“Our priority is to have hockey if at all possible,” Williams said. “But we need to make a decision promptly.”
The center’s top priority is having Blue Line field a team at the facility this season, Williams said. If that doesn’t work out, the next priority is hockey this season without Blue Line, he said.
“If not hockey this year then the next priority is hockey next year,” Williams said.
The city filed a court document Friday seeking the authority to remove Blue Line from the center.
Without hockey, the city would have to work to fill up to 32 dates at the center.
“We’ve had a number of inquiries about a number of those dates,” Williams said.
The city hasn’t scheduled anything on those dates with hockey being a question mark this season, he said.
As for the SMG contract, the company would waive its monthly fee through Dec. 31 and be paid only for travel expenses pre-approved by the city.
Effective Jan. 1, SMG would receive $80,004 a year. JAC Management Co., the Struthers company operated by Ryan, gets $108,000 annually for its services. That would drop to $96,000 a year effective in January.
SMG and JAC would also receive a percentage of net operating income above the $100,000 mark.
Neither company would receive commissions.
Global Entertainment Corp., the Phoenix company that ran the center for two years ending in October 2007, received $150,000 a year from the city in management fees as well as about $200,000 a year in commissions.
Also, the city paid a Global employee between $85,000 and $95,000 a year in salary to be its executive director.
skolnick@vindy.com