Friday, December 16, 2011

A Deficit Staved Off by Football - Go Team!!

The Bismark Tribune wrote a short article that the winning Bison of NDSU have saved the Fargodome from a deficit in 2011. Actually, the Tribune called it a financial boon.

The Fargodome which sits on the NDSU campus, is home to NDSU's Bison Football team. It has seating capacity for 19,000 for football games and 25,000 seats for concerts. It was financed in part by a half cent sales tax approved by the taxpayers.

It seems the Fargodome would have had a deficit had it not been for NDSU's football team playing in the Football Championship subdivision playoffs.  The Fargodome estimates it nets $30,000 off of each game played at the Fargodome.   Three home playoff games are turning an expected budget deficit into an anticipated surplus of $20,000.

Isn't that interesting? The Fargodome is home to a Division 1 football team which is a big draw for the facility. Even with the anchor tenant of  a big Division 1 football team, this facility was heading towards a deficit in 2011. Even with those 3 playoff games, it will only push it to approximately $20,000 over expenses. That is not very comforting news.

SMG reported to the city council that the Arena netted about $700 per Skyforce game in the 2009-2010 season and that the overall revenue was up a little more in the 2010-2011 season. So the mindset seems to be "no big deal" that the Skyforce is leaving the Arena and going to the Sanford Pentagon to play. Even if the Storm and Stampede agree to "anchor" at the Event Center, it might not guarantee the facility a surplus. It depends on what kind of a "deal" they negotiate in their contract.

The fact is there are no guarantees when operating an event center. It's going to take more than two semi-pro teams to push the event center to a surplus. Maybe the mayor can get the USD and SDSU presidents to sign on the dotted line since they stood before the bright lights of the media to say they supported the building of the event center.

Then we can hope they get into the Football Championship subdivision playoffs and stave off a deficit.  Go Team!!

4 comments:

  1. This whole entry illustrates exactly why this white elephant will never fly in this town. We have no marketable tenant to make this place profitable. We will never get the prices for suites and loge seating honest mike wants with no marketable anchor tenant. The Skyforce is far from a division one draw. Same for Stampede and the Storm.

    FAIL

    Polly Amalo

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  2. And let's not forget the Fargo taxpayers approved a 1/2 cent sales tax to support their FargoDome. That's another funding source missing from the Sioux Falls event center. Maybe that should have been included in the vote and those that voted for it would have had to put some skin in the game.

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  3. Oh...we'll have skin the game alright. Lot's of it. But thanks to a media blitz starring the two valley girls goin to Omaha and Nicki Ellerbroeck telling us it's for the good of the children...the voters were duped. Much the same way huether duped the too old or too young into predatory fee harvesting credit cards.

    Polly Amalo

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  4. Does anyone else get this weird feeling, like we're living in a strange new dimension. Why... we're in the "twilight zone"; where nothing is as it is promised. Where we're told one thing and yet, something far different happens. Is there any escaping this.....NOOooooooo!!!!! And why not, you might ask? Because we live in the future Sanford Falls, of which King Huether rules with an iron fist and a pal with money!!! Ha ha ha ha ha (evil, diabolical laugh)

    PS I'll try to be more hopeful on my next post.

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