Cavaliers company ends race for Chevy

By David Skolnick

Cavaliers company

ends race

for Chevy

The two remaining companies declined the city’s request for a $900,000 annual guarantee.

YOUNGSTOWN —¬†With the city wanting to make the Chevrolet Centre’s interim executive director a permanent hire, the Cavaliers Operating Co. is no longer interested in helping to operate the facility.

The Cleveland company had teamed up with International Facilities Group of Chicago offering to run the city-owned center.

Two other companies — SMG and Global Spectrum, both of Philadelphia — informed city officials that they would be willing to work with JAC Management Co., the center’s interim manager. Eric Ryan, an event promoter from Struthers, is the head of JAC.

On behalf of the city, James G. Floyd, a Youngstown lawyer, wrote a letter to the companies interested in managing the center asking if they’d be willing to work with Ryan’s company, who’s run the facility since October 2007.

The city envisions the larger companies providing support in marketing services, event booking, risk management and insurance, administration and financing, Floyd wrote in the letter.

In response, Len Komoroski, the Cavs’ president, wrote that his company wouldn’t enter into a relationship with Ryan.

“The best way we can improve the Chevy Centre’s financial prospects, implement our proven marketing systems and leverage the Cavalier’s vast business synergies and promotional resources would be by being directly responsible for the venue,” he wrote.

Joseph J. Briglia, IFG’s vice president of development, said Tuesday his company and the Cavs aren’t interesting in a “consulting relationship” for the center.

“The Cavs have offered a more inclusive approach that’s much more substantial in terms of manpower and opportunity,” Briglia said. “The city has its reasons to stay kind of in-house with Eric Ryan. We wish them all the best, and if they’re looking at outsourcing management, we’re interested.”

The Cavalier Operating Co. owns and operates the Cleveland Cavaliers professional basketball team and its home center, Quicken Loans Arena. IFG operates a group of facilities in Stockton, Calif.

The city is continuing to negotiate with SMG and Global Spectrum and should have a decision on which one will be selected by early April, said Kyle Miasek, the city’s deputy finance director. He described the discussions with the two companies as healthy.

SMG operates 209 facilities worldwide.

Global Spectrum manages 70 venues. It is not affiliated with Global Entertainment Corp., the company that operated the Chevrolet Centre until October 2007. That company had a major falling out with the city ending in a dissolution of its management agreement after two years.

Also, the city asked the companies wanting to manage the center if they’d enter into a long-term agreement that would guarantee an annual $900,000 net payment to Youngstown. The companies politely but directly said “No.”

The center ended its two fiscal years with operating deficits.

The $900,000 annual figure is about the average yearly payment the city would need to make over a 20-year period to pay off the $11.9 million it borrowed for its share of the center’s $45 million construction cost. Most of the money to build the center came from a $26.8 million federal grant obtained in 2000 by then-U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr.

Also, the city is seeking proposals from companies interested in taking over the center’s ticketing services. City officials will open the proposals at 4 p.m. March 21.

GetTix.Net, owned by Global Entertainment, is the center’s ticketing agency. Besides Youngstown SteelHounds minor league hockey games and Mahoning Valley Thunder AF2 games, there is little on the center’s schedule.

There is a “Special Needs Expo” on April 26, and a “Woman’s Heart Day” on May 8. Both are free. The only nonsporting events on the center’s Web site with an admission are eight “Sesame Street Live” shows running May 1 to 4.

skolnick@vindy.com