With the center heading into its ‘leaner part of the year,’ it is booking events very

By David Skolnick

With the center heading into its ‘leaner part of the year,’ it is booking events very carefully, its executive director says.

YOUNGSTOWN — It was the busiest six-week period in the history of the Chevrolet Centre.

It started with the Jan. 31 sell-out for the Harlem Globetrotters. It continued with sell-out crowds for Motocross, a fight card highlighted by a successful middleweight boxing title defense by Kelly Pavlik, and Monster Trucks and ended with seven Cirque du Soleil performances, including near sell-outs on March 7 and 8, the last two days of the show.

“We are on fire; we’re absolutely on fire,” said Eric Ryan, the center’s executive director.

Between the sellouts and other shows, more than 70,000 people have attended events so far this year at the Chevrolet Centre, Ryan said. That number will grow to 105,000 by the end of the month, he said.

So what will the center do for an encore?

Be very careful, Ryan said.

“We’re heading into a leaner part of the year,” Ryan said. “We want to pick the correct events that will draw people.”

The indoor event business between April and August is a challenge because most people want to be outside, he said.

“We need to be very careful,” Ryan said “We’ve come off a whale of a run.”

Those carefully picked events include:

U Two Playhouse Disney Live! shows on March 29.

U A World Wrestling Entertainment show, loaded with the company’s top performers, on May 9. The past two WWE shows at the center attracted about 6,000 and 4,500, respectively. “WWE on a Saturday is a monster,” Ryan said.

U A May 15 concert by music legend Willie Nelson.

• A June 12 concert by Celtic Women, an Irish female music ensemble.

U Also, the Mahoning Valley Thunder af2 football home opener is March 27. The team plays eight home games at the center.

Tickets for every event, except the Celtic Women, are on sale. Tickets for Celtic Women go on sale Monday.

Big crowds at the center typically translate into better business for downtown restaurants and bars, but it has to be the right kind of event, those operating establishments say.

The Pavlik fight was a “once-in-a-lifetime” event, said Michael Blake, general manager of Rosetta Stone, a West Federal Street restaurant. Sales at the restaurant were double the normal business it does on a Saturday night, he said.

The restaurant had a record week when Cirque du Soleil was at the center from March 4-8, Blake said.

Business at Cassese’s MVR on North Walnut Street was huge for Pavlik and Cirque du Soleil, said Joe Cassese, the restaurant’s manager.

But the Monster Truck and Motocross shows brought very little business to Rosetta Stone and MVR.

Also, Mahoning Valley Phantoms hockey games and family events don’t draw customers to Rosetta Stone, Blake said.

The Imbibe martini bar on West Federal Street also did great for Pavlik’s fight, said Jeffrey Kurz, one of its three owners.

“It was like the first night we opened,” he said.

But because it’s a martini bar, family shows don’t help the Imbibe, Kurz said.

It’s the same at MVR and Buffalo Wild Wings on West Federal Street.

“Parents have a limited time out with their kids,” Cassese said. “The kids want cotton candy, hot dogs and pop. They don’t want to sit down for dinner.”

Buffalo Wild Wings expected to do stronger business for the Globetrotters and Motocross than it did for those shows, said Doug Esenwein, the restaurant’s Youngstown regional manager.

Also, business at Buffalo Wild Wings isn’t as strong for Phantoms games as they were for Youngstown SteelHounds games, he said. The SteelHounds team stopped playing last year after three seasons when it was kicked out of the Central Hockey League over a financial dispute.

It’s a mixed review from downtown restaurant and bar owners as far as the communication from city and center officials about events at the facility.

Lyndsey Hughes, the city’s downtown director of special events and special projects, said she speaks to them and sends e-mails regularly updating them on what’s happening at the center.

Rosetta Stone relies on that information to properly staff the restaurant, Blake said.

“It keeps me abreast of events and the e-mails tell me about sell-outs and near sell-outs,” he said. “But it’s up to us to decide what we’re going to do” because some well-attended shows at the center don’t translate into increased business at the restaurant.

The center provides an area at its guest service booth at its main entrance for restaurants and bars to place fliers advertising their businesses. Most of the fliers are for restaurants and bars that advertise with the center, Ryan said.

One of those restaurants is Cafe Cimmento on East Boardman Street, the place closest to the center to get a meal and a drink.

George Mager, the restaurant’s owner, said business increases when there are events at the center — it had to turn away people during the Cirque du Soleil five-day, seven-event run at the facility earlier this month.

But Mager said the center and city need to work on providing him more information about activity at the facility.

“I have to go online to find out what’s going on there,” he said. “I need to have better communication.”

The Imbibe doesn’t get much information about events from the center or the city, Kurz said.

“But we look at it as our responsibility to know what’s going on at the Chevrolet Centre,” he said. “Sure, we’d like to have communication because we’re all in this together.”

Communication between Buffalo Wild Wings and the center and city is virtually nonexistent, Esenwein said.

“We’ve lost connection, and I would share the blame,” he said. “It’s the responsibility of both of us to communicate better. We anticipated a higher level of traffic [for the Trotters and Motocross]. Maybe we need more communication to get better information.”

Cassese described the communication he receives from the center and city as “great.”

“They do an excellent job and that helps us tremendously,” Cassese said. “You know when to prepare” for larger crowds. “They give us a feel for what’s going on. For downtown to work, we’ve got to work together.”

skolnick@vindy.com