Monday, April 23, 2012
Reading's Hockey Arena to Report $700k Loss
Nearly a year ago, The Morning Call warned that Reading's Sovereign Center - a combined hockey arena and event center - was by no means a smashing success. Now, from The Reading Eagle, we know that their Sovereign Center to show an operating loss of $700,000 this year.
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9 comments:
The facility isn't there to make a profit. It's there to entertain the populace, that include the citizens who receive a government check>
None of these things "make money" otherwise the team owners and private sector would build them. I bet that the team itself made some money. You want a team, you pay. Thats how simple it is.
If it made money, it wouldn't be a gummint scheme. Do they serve gummint cheese on the cheesesteaks?
Spurious conclusions to be drawn.
Shouldn't we expect it to at least break even? Why do we allow these things? Typical of what government subsidizes.
That's ominous news for a couple reasons.
1. The Sovereign Center is professionally operated. It's not as if the whole thing is run by a non-profit in some basement of City Hall. They know what they are doing and still can't fill the place.
2. It has successful franchises. The Royals and Express bring out fans and the teams are successful but they can't fill the place every night.
3. It even gets the Jehovah Witness "convention" which takes up a solid week. Still no go.
4. It has little competition locally. There is nothing else in Berks County that it competes with in terms of size of venue. On the other hand, the Allentown Arena will have plenty of very local and well healed competition.
5. Despite it being in the heart of downtown, it has spurned next to no redevelopment around it and obviously the City hasn't improved. It's the poverty capital of the United States. People visit the arena and go right home.
The THODE-GEETING NIZ is too big to fail.
Future Downtown Arena Attendee can explain it.
Shaibu!
VIKTOR TIKHONOV
The Royals and Express are the arena equivalence to the Allentown Ambassadors, and what ever that "Philadelphia" Womens Pro-softball that also played in Allentown was called.
Sure the Royals are affiliated to an NHL team, but one several time zones away with little local following. Not to mention that arena cut a deal for that team to play there. Hence the loss.
And no one looks at the fact the "naming rights" was supposed to prevent this. Heaven forbid we should examine banks putting their name and logo all over the property of the taxpayers.
ANON 9:33 the arena events often fail to compete with another venue in town, its called the Reading Phillies one of the best draws in all of AA Eastern League Baseball.
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