The Indianapolis Colts are throwing a party Tuesday for RCA Dome suite holders as the team continues its effort to renew the 104 skybox leases for the facility’s final season and sell premium inventory for the new $500 million stadium opening in 2008.
Every suite contract at the RCA Dome expires after the 2006 season. The Colts took control of suite sales in 1998 from the Capital Improvement Board, the dome’s owner and operator, and wanted to coordinate those leases to expire in 2007, when the team could exercise its “out” clause in the stadium lease and leave for another venue, said Pete Ward, Colts senior executive vice president.
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The Colts are also pitching long-term deals
for suites at Lucas Oil Stadium. |
The Colts are determining contract terms for suites at
Lucas Oil Stadium. To entice suite holders to buy skyboxes in the new facility, the team eliminated some price escalation clauses that normally kick in every year, said
Tom Zupancic, senior vice president for sales and marketing.
The number of “free years,” the period of time when annual rental fees stay the same as the previous season, depend on the contract length, he said. The team is offering six-, seven-, eight- and nine-year deals at the new building. Prices range from $40,000 annually for an eight-person minibox to $275,000 a year for a 50-yard-line unit seating 36 people.
Suite holders that decide not to buy the final year at the RCA Dome face a minimum 3 percent escalator for buying a suite at Lucas Oil Stadium, Zupancic said.
At Tuesday’s function, the Colts plan to show RCA Dome suite holders a video about the new stadium and what the new skyboxes will look like. “It’s a drastic change from what they’re used to,” Zupancic said.
Team officials expect to sell the 142 Lucas Oil Stadium suites by this time next year through renewals, suite rentals included in sponsorship deals and a waiting list that’s now at 60 names, he said.
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| An arena planned for Louisville is the subject of a site fight. |
DOWN TO THE RIVER? The Louisville Arena Authority has suspended selection of an architect to design a 22,000-seat arena until political officials resolve a conflict over two downtown sites: one on the Ohio River, and the other closer to the heart of the main business district.
An arena task force voted 16-1 last year to build on the riverfront, a site where Louisville Gas and Electric Co. transmitters need to be relocated. The group spent about nine months researching the best place to build a home for University of Louisville men’s basketball that would replace Freedom Hall, which sits on the state fairgrounds.
In recent weeks, however, Papa John’s Pizza owner John Schnatter, who has pledged $5 million for the project regardless of the location, and David Jones, another local businessman, put their support behind the alternative site, where the Louisville Water Co. building once operated.
They disclosed the results from a study The Bonham Group completed in 17 days, in conjunction with developer Icon Venue Group and facility designer Rossetti, stating that the central downtown location would save $115 million in construction costs.
The Kentucky House of Representatives approved $75 million in state-issued bonds last Tuesday to help build the arena if it is built on the water company site. The Senate acts next on the measure. The $75 million is included in the $7 billion state budget that the Legislature has to approve before it adjourns April 14.
The university was part of the task force that selected the riverfront site, and school officials said publicly that Louisville would not play games at the new arena unless it’s at the riverfront location.
Jim Host, chairman of the arena authority, said the Bonham report mistakenly assumed that tax increment financing receipts, the new taxes the development would create to help pay construction debt, would stay the same regardless of where the facility was situated. That is not the case, he said.
While laying out lower costs for the downtown site, the Bonham study supported the arena authority’s conclusion that the riverfront site would generate $100 million-plus more in total revenue over 30 years compared with the water company site because it would attract a more lucrative naming-rights deal and would have a hotel attached to the arena, authority officials said. The water company site would provide fewer advertising impressions compared with the riverfront arena, where signs would be visible to the thousands of cars traveling daily on Interstate 64, Host said.
“We knew it was going to cost more in land acquisition, but we knew it would generate more revenue,” Host said.
HIGH AND DRY: New Orleans Arena was to debut its new $1.5 million Daktronics center-hung scoreboard when it reopened for the NBA Hornets last Wednesday.
It includes an LED ring and four bigger video screens than the previous system, said Bill Curl, media relations coordinator for SMG, which operates the arena.
The new board also contains the four screens that were part of the old scoreboard, Curl said.
The new and improved scoreboard is part of the $15 million in facility upgrades the state of Louisiana committed to spending as part of the agreement to bring the old Charlotte Hornets to town in 2002, he said.
The new scoreboard was to be installed for the start of the 2005-06 season until Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.
“It was sitting on the loading dock [in South Dakota] ready to be delivered until we called Daktronics and told them to hold off,” Curl said.
Don Muret can be reached at dmuret@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
