Sports Partnerships From Another Perspective

Over the past months, Noblesville and Fishers have announced partnerships to build new arenas. In addition, Lebanon is also planning to build a large youth sports complex.

It’s not the purpose of this article to say if these are good or bad projects for the respective communities, only be careful as things proceed.

Working in economic development and community planning in Illinois, I witnessed a few projects that got sideways in a hurry when the wrong people got involved.

In 2003, our economic development office got a call from an out-of-state entity interested in bringing minor league hockey to our area. Problem was, the community did not have any existing facility with ice. Illinois State University had a 10,000-seat arena with no ice and no interest to add it.

The smaller college in town, Illinois Wesleyan, didn’t either. Their venue had already been built out and hockey was not in their plans.

As a junior staffer, I forwarded the request on to my boss. He did all the right things to my knowledge and did not peep a word of it as is usual practice.

You see, when word gets out in the early stages in a site search, a $4,000 an acre parcel quickly becomes a parcel that has increased four-fold in value in a matter of weeks.

A couple of weeks passed.

This is when I found out the powers that be decided this was a project that should be headed up by the local convention and visitors’ bureau.

In any business venture, loose lips sink ships and this ship had already hit a small iceberg.

Before anyone knew, our office was getting calls from politicians and developers wanting to know more. No one in conventions owned up to how it had already gotten out in the community but two of us had an idea.

In the interest of reading time, I will spare everyone the details of what happened in between because it really had little bearing of the bad theatre that followed.

After a parcel near the local airport was rejected for the arena, the mayor, who had a personal interest in downtown redevelopment, brokered a deal with the county to purchase one of their parking lots for the arena which was located downtown.

As an aside, the mayor’s son had been big into ice hockey, so naturally she thought all of this was a great idea without worrying much about further due diligence.

Before the first shovel of dirt was turned, she did see fit to have a public vote on the arena. Of those that went to the polls, 60 percent voted “no.” Did I mention the mayor declared before the vote that the referendum was “non-binding” so it was full speed ahead no matter what the voter thought.

Ground was broken next to the Law and Justice Center in August of 2004. The primary design contractor was from Canada, but as local builders progressed, they added their own “additions” to the facility that did not include the best of materials suggested.

The $37 million, 8,000-seat facility was opened in 2006.

Original tenants included indoor football and minor league hockey. The football team was cobbled together by a local retired football coach and made up of mostly local players.

The hockey team had IHL and eventually, UHL affiliation.

Original arena management was comprised of the politically connected, with only two having any type of sports management experience.

The stage was set for a total cluster.

At first, attendance was not great but good for both football and hockey. It took only two years after opening for the novelty to wear off. What followed was five more indoor football franchises and three more for hockey.

Attendance fell to an average of about 1,000 a game on good nights. Minor league basketball was tried (MPBA) and failed miserably. Basketball was a memory after two years.

In fairness, country concerts and ice shows did the best. Acts like Kenny Chesney, Reba McIntyre, and others in addition to 1980s rock acts sold or nearly sold out. High school sporting events also did well.

However, trouble was on the horizon.

Financial losses were in the neighborhood of $650,000 to $700,000 for less than 25 events a year.

The city had failed for at least three years to ask for financials or request independent audits of the operation trusting the arena management to do these tasks as part of the contract and make quarterly reports to the city council on progress.

By not properly overseeing the operations, four on the management team took it upon themselves to embezzle and steal the city blind for several years by helping themselves to receipts, mainly consisting of concession profits and creative book keeping.

Those responsible were prosecuted, some getting a more favorable outcome than others.

To save face, the city fired the existing management company and hired another based out of a Midwestern state. They turned out to be just as bad, if not worse. The bright side was that only one person on their team got caught with their hand in the financial cookie jar in the first months on the job.

Another two years went on with no improvement in attendance or bookings, then came COVID.

Currently the city is managing the venue on their own with no corporate sponsor. I forgot to mention there was sponsorship but both contracts ran out long ago.

However, two of the firms were getting free sponsorship since the signs remained up on and inside the building. What was hilarious or sad depending on your outlook was the primary sponsor of the arena had gone out of business a year prior but no one thought to remove their signage.

I’m pretty confident that our Hamilton County projects involve people with more experience and brains but time will tell.

There is a point with possible oversaturation on these projects as pointed out by Nikki Kelly in her May 12 piece in the Indiana Capital Chronicle and this area needs to recognize that fact.

Like anyone else, I love entertainment and sports of all types but I think sometimes its better left to those proposing the project to take on the majority of the financial burdens and therefore, the risks, if things go south.

That said, good luck to the communities, the Pacers, Indy Fuel and others as you move forward. Hoping it’s smooth sailing and long lasting.

-Rick Nolan is retired and moved to Noblesville from Illinois. He has a background in the newspaper world and has worked in news, sports and business.