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Covelli Centre management is negotiating a contract with the Youngstown Phantoms
YOUNGSTOWN
Covelli Centre management is in negotiations with the Youngstown Phantoms for the amateur hockey team to play its home games at the city-owned facility next season and possibly longer.
A decision could come as early as the end of this week, said Bruce Zoldan, the Phantoms owner.
The team is about two months from finishing its fifth-straight season of poorly attended games at the Covelli Centre.
Average attendance last season was 1,371 per game and is down to 1,106 per game this season with 23 of 30 home games played. The Phantoms have been near the bottom of the United States Hockey League teams in attendance every season.
The team’s contract with the center calls for it to pay $2,750 in rent for games that have less than 3,000 in attendance. There’s also a $750 penalty paid by the team to the center for every game with attendance below 1,500. There’s only been two Phantoms games this season, so far, that had attendance above 1,500, said Eric Ryan, the center’s executive director.
“We like having a main tenant and a team in the building, but it has to be the right agreement,” Ryan said. “There has to be changes to the current agreement. Our revenue is based on attendance. The attendance is less than satisfactory. It needs to be better for it to be worth our while to have hockey. It hasn’t been better so we want them to pay more money.”
A flat fee is one consideration for a contract renewal, he said.
Because of expenses, largely utilities, of having hockey, the center loses a small amount of money having the Phantoms play there, Ryan said.
The two sides have negotiated for about a month over many issues, Zoldan said.
He declined to discuss details Monday saying he didn’t want to negotiate through The Vindicator.
Zoldan said he is “optimistic” the team can “get the right schedule” next season with fewer games in October and November — competing against high school football — and more in January and February, months with better attended games.
The team played a total of eight home games in October and November this season and will play its 10th home game of January and February on Feb. 27.
The team has seen better crowds on “group-night events” such as for the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and the Second Harvest Food Bank, Zoldan said.
The team has scheduled 18 such nights among its 30 home games next season as compared with about a half-dozen this season, Zoldan said.
That assumes the team returns next season.
Repeating what he’s said in previous years, Zoldan said it’s been a challenge to attract a following for the team and “this is not a money market for Bruce Zoldan or Phantom Fireworks,” the brand name of his B.J. Alan Co. fireworks business.
“Once our community understands this Tier 1 brand of hockey, they’ll appreciate it,” he said.
The team needs to average about 2,000 fans a game to break even, Zoldan said. Of the 16 teams in the USHL, there are only three, including the Phantoms, with attendance below 2,000 a game.
Zoldan said he has no interest in a hockey team from a different league, including minor leagues.
In June 2013, when Ryan decided to give the Phantoms a fifth season rather than opt out of a contract, Zoldan said his goal was to sell 1,500 season tickets for 2013-14. The team didn’t come close to that number, and efforts to sell season tickets through an organized effort failed almost right after they started.
The team sold about 350 season tickets for the 2012-13 season and sold more this season, according to Zoldan, who didn’t have the figure Monday.
However, he said Monday that the team’s “success is not season tickets, but attracting devoted fans who want to watch” the Phantoms play.
The Phantoms’ struggle to attract fans to the center during its first four seasons allowed the center to have an out last year as far as cutting ties with the team unless Zoldan agreed to pay a $75,000 penalty.
Ryan decided to give the Phantoms another season without requiring the penalty, saying he would evaluate how the fifth season progressed in ticket sales and other financial issues before making a decision.
The team’s attendance this season was lower than the prior season, and the second lowest in the league.
Keeping the Phantoms fills 30 days at the center, which has about 100 events annually, said Ryan, who was noncommittal about a sixth season for the team.