Ballparkdigest On Parkview Field
Ballpark Visit: Parkview Field, home of the Fort Wayne TinCaps
Link (Ballparkdigest.com)
“We are in the midst of a very special season, ballpark fans: talk about an abundance of riches. Earlier in the season we proclaimed Huntington Park, home of the Columbus Clippers, the perfect ballpark. We certainly stand by that assessment; if anything we may have underestimated how quickly local fans would embrace such an outstanding facility.
We have our second gem of the year: After all is said and done, Parkview Field, home of the Fort Wayne TinCaps, earns our praise for achieving the same level of perfection. At a time when the new Yankees and Mets ballparks are attracting a lot of attention, the really noteworthy new ballparks are at the minor-league level. In Fort Wayne, TinCaps owner Jason Freier and architect Populous have managed to create an intimate, thoughtfully designed facility where community is king and fans are prompted to have a new experience every time they visit the park — even if they’re season-ticket holders on their thirtieth visit.”
Check out the link for the full review!
Scott – I have tried to send a comment to Chad’s post and no matter what I send, his blog rejects it as “spam”. I guess he doesn’t allow any comments that don’t agree with his position on an item.
I agree with Baseball Digest’s comments about Parkview Field – it is really a great place to watch a game. But, it has been done, at least to this point in time, with only tax revenues and tax credits to pay for the facility. In reality, Hardball Capital has not spent even one cent of their money on anything at Parkview Field! Yes, they have paid some bills, but only after receiving the prepaid lease money for the suites, their one half of the “Naming Rights’ plus the revenue from 227,380 attendees to date. (At a conservative $9.00 per ticket average , that is $2,046,420) In addition, they get all the net profits from all concessions – which can be guessed to be well in excess of $1 million to date.
And the city has to pay, per the contract, $230,000 per year into the Stadium Maintanence Fund. At the rate of paid attendance to date, it appears that the city will (if the Tin Caps play at least 4 home games in the playoffs), receive about $65,000 in “performance license fees” for the season. Adding the city’s one half of the “naming rights” ($150,000) they will end up with $215,000 revenue for the baseball season or about $15,000 less than the $230,000. And the city gets to pay ALL the utilities for Parkview Field – estimated at over $50,000 per year.
Yep – all the profits go to Atlanta, GA and we get to pay all the bills!
@john-I’m not sure why it is not allowing you to comment on my blog John. I’ll look into it this evening to see if there is something stopping you from doing so. Been doing a lot of behind the scenes maintenance lately so I might have messed something up.
Great story! Nice to be known as the home of a “gem.” With a great team to boot!
It is a fantastic ballpark. I ended up attending the game on Sunday night, for my wife’s company picnic. An hour and a half into the game, we ended up getting rained out, but there were heeps of people there on Sunday night. For the majority of people attending the company picnic, it was their first time at the ball park. From the people I spoke with, all of them were impressed with the stadium.
We ended up parking our car a few streets over and walked to the ballpark. We cut through the Library Plaza and to our surprise, found a large crowd of people attending an outdoor concert on the plaza.
It seems to me, that slowly but surely, people are starting to migrate back to downtown. Think about it – a few years ago, there was no downtown baseball stadium, no library plaza for outdoor concerts, no Irish Pub with outdoor seating, no Bourbon Street Hideaway, no Barr Street Farmers Market.
Could it be that downtown FW is starting to have a pulse again ???
I remember hearing something about the ox blue camera moved to focus on the hotel. I was wondering if anyone has any information on where to find it or if it is even up and running anymore. Thanks
Do the Good Charlotte tickets count toward the season total, as it relates to the city operating fund? Anyone know how the sales are going?
The city should have got to keep all of the naming rights money. Bottom line.
Mark: Yes the count for this “Hardball Event” will count toward the 275,000 before the city stadium maintenance fund gets $1.00 from Hardball for every attendee over that total for the year. Also, any Hardball events after the Tin Caps season, held yet this calendar year will count also. The present total attenance to date (as of yesterday’s game) of 235,247 still means that for the city to receive enough from Hardball, they need a minimum of 119,753 persons to attend the last 19 home games plus any that attend the playoff home game(s) plus any events like the Good Charlotte concert. To date, the average attendance at the ball games has been 4,613. So, assume 4 home playoff games, plus 19 = 23 left. The attendance at playoff games will probably be sell-outs, so assume 8,000 for each game and that would then be 19 times 4,613 plus 4 times 8,000 = 119,647 which looks good. But, the city pays all the utility costs (estimated at $50,000/year) so the city will need Hardball events like this concert to draw another 50,000 attendees, just to break even.
Mr. Kalb,
I continue to predict that it’s going to be okay. Your average attendance figure of 4613 is for the entire season from April through July 29th. Correct? Again, games in April and May when it was cool, school wasn’t out yet, etc. were not going to attract the crowds that later games would. In the 5 games since you posted the average attendance was 7274. Only one game, a Monday night game, was the attendance below 7000. I predict that since they are now down to 13 games left, the team is playing amazingly well, people realize that if they want to go to a game they are going to have to get on it, etc. they are going to draw more than enough to satisfy your concerns. And who knows what other concert or other events may still be in the works? It’s going to be okay.
Steve – I guess tonights attendence of 3838 and last nights 5860 (or an average of 4848) doesn’t meet the “over 7000″ number. So, does that mean you are wrong? The average (for all 57 games this season) is now 4806 per game.
Even if we assume 7000 per game for last 13 home games plus four playoff games at 8,000 each
the total Hardball attendence would be under 400,000. So, the city would get $125,000 from Hardball. Add the $150,000 half of the “naming rights”, you get $275,000 toward the $230,000 due to Stadium Maint. Fund and the $50,000 for utilities. They are still short – and they will not average 7,000 for the 13 games left!
(And the Tin Caps lost two in a row for only the second time this season tonight!)
John,
I’m saying the average keeps going up. Your season’s average went up 193 in one week. A few weeks ago your statistics were Much different. Let’s see where it ends up. And if it does end up that the city is in the hole somewhere between $0 and $50,000, let’s say $25,000 – that’s 10 cents per person in Fort Wayne (pop 250,000). For what this beautiful park has done and will do for downtown, I’ll gladly pay your dime and mine. (Yes, I’m heading to the game tonight – I’ll look for ya!)
And they’re pulling in these numbers (I think it’s safe to assume they’ll end up averaging over 5,000 a game for the season) DESPITE being in the midst of the worst and longest-lasting recession since the Great Depression. So, hopefully, by next year we won’t even owe that dime.
Okay, last one. I looked at your numbers one more time. The $230,000 Maint fee + $50,000 utilities = $280,000. $280,000 – the $275,000 you say we’ll get from naming rights and attendance = $5000. $5000 is what your upset about?!! That’s 2 cents per person in Fort Wayne. If I see you tonight at the game and give you your dime, you’ll owe me 8 cents back! :)
Steve, I don’t agree with the depression argument. My numbers for my business current summer season in a similar sports/entertainment business took one of the biggest shots upward that I’ve had. I believe people are looking to have more fun locally right now…
So Steve – using YOUR numbers (the 7000 per game for the remainder of the season), “the cost is 2 cents per person” – that’s your figures – I said “even if we use your numbers …… et al”
Remember, the first year at Memorial Stadium, 318,000 plus fams attended the 68 games. It looks like for the 70 home games in 2009, 350,000 fans will attend. The drop-off we can expect (and we will experience it!) in 2010 will be in the range of 125,000 to 150,000 per year. So in 2010 (even with a pick-up in economic activity) the Tin Caps will be seeing less than the 275,000 fans necessary BEFORE Fort Wayne gets a penny in Performance License Fees. Therefore, Fort Wayne’s only income will be the $150,000 in the “Naming Rights” fee. So then Fort Wayne will have to come up with $130,000 per year – that’s then $.52 per person in Fort Wayne or over 5 times what it is this year. Plus the city is going to be paying for the stadium ! and with NO RETURN AT ALL!
Like I said, Fort Wayne is spending $50 million over 30 years for the baseball stadium plus the above amount that was not in our city budget this year – but will have to be included in future years. Per Pat Roller’s figures, the yearly payment to cover the lease agreement with the Fort Wayne Redevelopment Authority will be in excess of $3 million per year for 15 years and drops for the last 15 years until paid off. The total debt service, including over 16 million paid out of cash on hand will be $59,250,000 plus the above estimated $130,000 per year for utilities and stadium maintanance. That comes to $252,600 per resident over the 30 years. This equals $ 8,420 per Fort Wayne resident per year! So your generous offer has gone from $.02 to $8,420.00. Does that sound like anything else happening in our county at the present time? I’ll bet that your property tax bill plus your CEDIT tax is no where near this amount per year. I know mine isn’t. So who is paying this? Why it’s those nice people running businesses in our town. And who do they pass this cost off to – You and me when we shop for all our needs (and go to Parkview for health reasons – who do you think pays Parkview the $300,000 per year? ). So please enjoy your ball game! You sure are paying for it – but not in your ticket, food and drink costs! And those that don’t attend the games are forced to pay the same costs.
Enjoy It!
John, it’s tough to hit a moving target. For weeks your concern has been how Ft Wayne is going to get screwed this year – the attendance just wasn’t going to be there. Well, now it looks like it will be there. And now it seems that you concern is next year, and beyond. You give more numbers than I can address – except one. I am not at all convinced that we’ll see a drop-off of 125-150,000 next year. How can you be so sure? Because it happened at Memorial Stadium? You’ve been to both. There’s no comparison. PF is SO much nicer. I think people will keep coming back. And, I’ve heard numerous people say that they want to go to a game, they just haven’t had a chance yet. So, they’ll go next year. We’ll see…but I certainly don’t think there’s going to be a drop-off of any such magnitude.
p.s. Definitely did enjoy last night’s game. Another win for the Tin Caps! One of my friends, who attended for the first time, said “I can’t wait to come back.” So…
I often mention stuff about Parkview Field or the Tin Caps on my Facebook page. I went back and looked at some old posts and found 5 different comments from women who said things like “I don’t even like sports/baseball, but I love going to Parkview Field.” They’ve made it so nice that the “event” of attending is something people want to be a part of.
Now, I think, the word about that niceness may take a bit longer (re: future seasons) to spread to a lot of the folks in outlying towns, but as they hear how nice (and safe) it is – they’ll come too. And some will spend money at local establishments pre or post-game. Okay, I promise I’ll stop commenting.
I also do not think there will be a huge dropoff in attendance next year, but do think the city let Hardball back them into a bad deal.
Call me crazy, but I actually felt “lucky” to have a ticket last night. 8,572 others probably felt the same way. THAT was a good time downtown.