Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

Pirates push for rights to more revenue

The managing owner outlines the major changes he's seeking in a new lease with the civic center in order to keep the hockey team in Portland.

By Edward D. Murphy emurphy@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

The Portland Pirates want a fundamental shift in the team's financial relationship with the Cumberland County Civic Center, CEO and managing owner Brian Petrovek said Thursday. He called for revenue sharing on everything from naming rights to concessions in order to keep the Pirates in Maine.

In an interview with the Portland Press Herald, Petrovek also confirmed for the first time that he has talked to officials in Albany, N.Y., about moving the team there. But he said he's still focused on trying to craft a new 15-year lease with the civic center.

The civic center's board is set to meet this morning to discuss Petrovek's two-page memo outlining plans for a new lease. He said he will be "very disappointed" if the trustees don't agree to his proposal.

But the board's chairman suggested that a deal is unlikely, especially today, given the broad scope of the changes that Petrovek is seeking.

"It's a different universe," Neal Pratt said of the proposal that Petrovek discussed with the newspaper. "It is a sea change in the relationship between the civic center and the Pirates."

Pratt said the proposal would, in effect, hand over some of the management of the arena to the hockey team. "I don't envision the trustees making a radical decision in terms of the way the civic center is currently managed," he said.

Petrovek and the civic center's trustees have been negotiating amid rumors that the team is being courted by officials in Albany, which is losing its American Hockey League team to Charlotte, N.C.

Petrovek has denied reports – and did so again Thursday – that a deal is close to move the Pirates to the Times Union Center in New York's capital. Until Thursday, he had refused even to confirm that the move was being discussed.

The Pirates' five-year lease with the civic center expires April 30, and Petrovek said "the current situation isn't working for the building and it's not working for the team."

The Pirates pay $2,500 in rent for each of their 36 regular-season home games and any playoff games they host. The team also hires ushers, security and other personnel, which Petrovek said makes the cost of a home game about $8,000 for the Pirates.

The Pirates pay $20,000 a year for the right to sell most of the advertising in the arena. Petrovek said that brings in about $900,000 in cash, as well as "in-kind" promotional and operational help that he valued at about $200,000.

The civic center pays the Pirates $40,000 a year to cover a deficit that the Pirates projected when the current lease was negotiated five years ago.

The team also has received nearly $160,000 over five years for meeting attendance goals, about $60,000 last year from the city of Portland for a share of parking garage receipts, and free parking for players and team personnel that the city valued at more than $50,000.

The civic center provided about $20,000 a year in promotional support for the team – but has not allocated any money for that this year. It provides ice time for practices that is valued at more than $20,000 a year, although Petrovek said that's customary for the lead tenant of a sports arena.

Petrovek said he would forgo the $40,000 annual payment and attendance rebates in a new deal. But he said the Pirates deserve what have been "missed revenue opportunities," including naming rights for the civic center, "sub-naming rights" for parts of the center such as the rink and entrances, and income from new businesses that provide food and drinks.

The food concessions could be valuable if they are tied to team sponsorships, such as an official pizza maker of the Pirates, Petrovek said.

He would not provide specific numbers on what the new revenue streams would generate, or specify how the money would be split, although he did say it's standard in the industry for a team to get 20 percent to 25 percent of an arena's concession sales.

Under the current lease, the civic center gets all concession revenues, which totaled nearly $350,000 during the 2008-09 season.

The civic center's proposal has been to extend the current lease for three to five years, which Petrovek rejected.

Petrovek declined to offer specifics of the deal being offered by Albany, but did note that the city is more centrally located in the league, which would save on travel costs and physical wear on the team. Albany also is closer to the Pirates' National Hockey League affiliate, the Buffalo Sabres, but Petrovek said the Sabres will support a decision to stay in Portland or move to New York.

Pratt said Petrovek's proposal to the civic center lacks details, such as the amount of money that might be generated from things such as naming rights or the split between the Pirates and the county-owned facility on the various initiatives.

"Essentially, the civic center would be giving up a number of things and the Pirates would be giving up a few things, and how does that come out in the wash? I don't know," said Pratt, who has been the lead negotiator for the civic center in the lease talks with Petrovek. "If the civic center is going to give up a substantial amount of what it currently has, it's going to have to make substantial sense, and it's up to the person proposing that we give it up to show how it makes financial sense."

Both Pratt and Petrovek suggested that time for negotiations is running out.

Petrovek said he is months behind on sponsorship deals and season ticket sales for next season. He noted that if he moves the team to Albany it would require a lot of catch-up work, possibly including a new name, uniforms, a team logo and even a mascot, as well as sponsorship deals and marketing.

Pratt has said that Portland will remain an attractive city for a hockey team if the Pirates were to leave. An AHL team based in Lowell, Mass., also has an arena lease expiring this spring. Pratt declined to say if the civic center has talked to other teams about replacing the Pirates.

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com