Southern Professional Hockey League is on the County Commission’s agenda for tomorrow. In Feb. 26 letter to Commissioner Wilson Robertson, former Ice Pilots owner Tim Kerr made the following offer to lease the Pensacola Civic Center:
1. $2000 per night per game
2. $1 per ticket sold
3. 15% of the concession revenue
Kerr wants 1/3 of the parking revenue and the ability to sell signage in the arena.
In staff notes given to the commissioners, the estimated capital outlay to prepare the Civic Center for hockey again is $247,000:
Scoreboard repair $15,000
New computer & software for scoreboard $8,000
Steel dam $36,141
Dasher & Glass system $148,103
Additional glass $2,000
Pressure valves for ice $38,000
SPHL has eight fewer games scheduled and the season is only six months. Rent offer is $1,500 less than the Ice Pilot lease and the old lease had no sharing on concessions and parking with the team.
Estimated breakeven for Civic Center – average attendance 6,798. Staff estimates the attendance will be closer to 2,000 and will generate a loss of $270,652. See hockey spreadsheet.
The highest paid attendance that the team averaged was 5,836 in 1997-98 – the team’s second year when they placed second in the league. The paid attendance averages: 2005-06 2,212; 2006-07 2,050; 2007-08 1,829.
Not having ice hockey in the Civic Center has saved the county $167,000 in electricity and water utilities.