Bidding (Part 2)

Part Two of a series

Where baseball and football stadium construction has exploded in the years since Camden Yards, there is something to be said for arenas used for basketball, hockey and other indoor sports. For the NYSCC, the combination of a football stadium and convention center seemingly solve the problems of maximizing the space (therefore generating dollars). For Cablevision's Madison Square Garden, this is a HUGE problem. The current and fourth version of Madison Square Garden has hosted more events outside of NBA and NHL games than any place in recent memory, possibly ever. While still providing the NBA and NHL action, "The Gah-den" features dozens of concerts, boxing matches, exhibitions, even the intense action of the Westminister Dog Show. What makes MSG unique from other indoor venues is its location within New York, not just its history. Unlike many arenas, MSG is situated in the middle of a commercial district. Even the three predecessors of the current arena were located in the same district as pre-existing shops, restaurants and commercial businesses. With the adjacent McGraw Hill Publishers' office building part of the complex and many other Fortune 500 headquarters in the area, MSG appears like a condensed office building. Though MSG blends into the commercial district that is Herald Square and nearby East Midtown, the district does not soley depend on the arena for total financial gain (though when the Knicks and Rangers are in contention, the financial gains are tremendous). I bring this to mind when discussing other indoor venues.

Many arenas around the country have different locations, none as viable as The Garden. Some are located out in suburbia, such as The Palace at Auburn Hills (Detroit Pistons) and newly minted Glendale Arena (where the Phoenix Coyotes would play if there was an NHL season). Some are in the commercial center of the city as many of the latest arenas are located (Staples Center in Los Angeles, Gund Arena in Cleveland, MCI Center in Washington DC, Toyota Center in Houston, etc.). Then there’s Continental Airlines Arena in the swamps of New Jersey. All have had some sort of financial arrangement with their local and state governments, but not as costly. Because these venues can host multiple events and do not hold anything more than 25-26,000 seats, owners can make revenues quicker than outdoor stadiums. Concerts are common for arenas rather than stadiums because unless Bruce Springsteen is in concert, most artists cannot sell out a football stadium, but can sell out an arena and pocket some cash. Local events such as high school tournaments and touring circuses can come for similar reasons. Yet, for MSG, a new stadium/convention center can swing all of these events a few blocks west.

Going back to the locations of other arenas, a specific one that can be considered in the realm like Camden Yards is Gund Arena in Cleveland. Cleveland, like Baltimore, has also its own image problems. This is a city, mind you, that is called "The Mistake by the Lake" after the Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969. Not to mention years of sports failures after the great Jim Brown retired from football after the 1965 season. Outside the sporting world, Cleveland was one of many cities in the northern United States caught up in urban plight as the sixties became the seventies and eighties. As Baltimore, Cleveland officials felt that it was pertinent to civic pride to rebuild the city through large public venues. While Jacobs Field was to Cleveland what Camden Yards had been for Baltimore (except that the Indians actually became successful in time for its opening), Gund Arena set a slower pace. The arena, which is housed by the NBA Cavaliers as well as minor league hockey, was completed in October 1994 in time for the start of the NBA season weeks later. Gund Arena, its next door neighbor Jacobs Field and the Gateway Plaza make up the Gateway Sports and Entertainment Complex; its purpose being to bring life back to Cleveland's Central Market. The Central Market was... well, the name says everything, a center for residential and commercial activity for about sixty years until the area was scorched by fire in the 1940s. It would not be for another fifty or so years that there would be significant efforts to rebuild the area. When ground broke in 1990, the area had been a predominantly empty lot with a few commercial buildings.

The financing for the arena was similar to those in other cities, but on a smaller scale than for larger venues like football stadiums. The $152 million construction costs were taken from tax-exempt bonds issued by Cuyahoga County as well as "sin" (liquor and cigarette) taxes levied by the county. Gordon Gund, the former Cavaliers owner who sold his majority share to Dan Gilbert in March, purchased the 20-year naming rights for $14 million. As most modern arenas, much of the hoopala stems from the 92 luxury suites, of which 24 of them are 15 rows from the hardwood. This brings in a majority of the revenues when the Cavs are in season. Now that the franchise is centered around phenom LeBron James, those luxury suites have been filled to the windows and the revenues that were slow to come in the nine years before LeBron have arrived.

Arenas can do something that stadiums cannot; grant quicker returns. Outside of sports, major arenas host concerts, conventions and some private engagements. The greatest deterrents from other entertainment at a stadium are weather and capacity. Because stadiums have at least double the capacity of an arena, stadium owners charge as much, leaving promoters and entertainers to go elsewhere. Plus, since the weather is never guaranteed to be great, what's the point of paying thousands more for Safeco Field in Seattle when you can play a town over at Tacoma's Key Arena? Team owners have been making the push for retractable roof stadiums so that these alternate events can be hosted and that games are never canceled due to inclement weather. Yet, for every SkyDome in Toronto, one of the few retractable roof stadiums fully utilized, there's the newer parks such as Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix and Miller Park in Milwaukee, neither which have hosted major concerts. The question for New York: will it be fully utilized as it should?