The Family Arena:
A Showplace That Could Have Been
By Louis J. Launer
It appeared at first to be a self-destruction when the Missouri River Otters ceased operations in early May. Although there were symptoms from within the organization that the team was closing up shop, there could also be an outside factor. The River Otters were the last of the anchor tenants of the facility. In fact, the hockey team was the very first team to agree to a lease on the facility in 1997, two years before it was built.
Family Arena came with expectations from everywhere. It was a private and a public investment. Frank Trulaske, a St. Louis businessman agreed to invest half of the construction money to the project. The city of St. Charles agreed to partner with the County for the rest of the investment to complete construction and establish operation of the arena.
Tom Engel, who served as the general manager of the Family Arena in 2000, said, “Frank Trulaske felt that St. Louis needed a mid-size arena, and the area was missing out on a lot of events, not just amateur sports. The Fox was too small and Kiel [now Savvis] was too big.”
The late Kevin Kipp wrote in the December, 2000 edition of St. Louis Commerce magazine, “Experts and financiers told Trulaske that he could build a mid-size arena privately, or he’d go broke.”
The County Council agreed and passed legislation on the agreements. County Executive Joe Ortwerth vetoed the measure twice. On its second return to the County Council, the Council overrode Ortwerth’s veto and Family Arena was finally born. According to St. Louis Commerce, “Trulaske agreed to lease the arena for $2.2 million. The county agreed to commit $300,000 and for the last $300,000, the partners looked to the city of St. Charles.”
County Councilman Dan Foust said in a November 18, 1997 public hearing that the Council “spent many hours making sure the best deal for the taxpayers has been presented.” According to Foust during the time this project was proposed, he only received positive reaction to the project.
Ground was finally broken along South River Road (later known as Arena Parkway) in 1998. After some labor trouble and two cancelled events, the arena finally opened in October 1999 with a hockey game between the River Otters and the Asheville Smoke. The fans were entertained and pleased with the new hockey team and the arena itself. There was plenty of fanfare that first year. The River Otters had quite a first year and so did its other tenant, the International Basketball League’s St. Louis Swarm. The Swarm won two IBL championships in 1999-2000 and 2000-01. The Swarm folded because the league folded. Plus, the Swarm was lucky in their second year to draw only 800 fans per game in a 10,000-seat facility.
One could say that it might have been the lack of marketing and publicity that caused the team’s demise. But why did attendance drop suddenly from both the teams’ inaugural seasons to their second season in 2000-01? Was it really a lack of marketing and publicity by the teams? How did the “newness” of Family Arena suddenly erode after its first year?
Trouble in Family Arena appeared just two months after it opened. On December 31, 1999, a concert was held at Family Arena that had suspicions of drug use and other unusual goings-on. It was never confirmed as to what really happened. It appears that it was enough evidence for County Executive Joe Ortwerth to take over control of the facility. Ortwerth has been known throughout this decade as an outspoken critic of the Family Arena. Many have believed that he never liked the facility from its very origins. Family Arena Management Enterprise (FAME), the organization originally contracted to operate and maintain the facility, lost their contract in 2002.
In-between that time and the present, the River Otters were sold twice to two different local investor groups. At the same time, Family Arena began seeing decay, not just of the lack of patrons for sporting events, but the facility itself began to look neglected. A tour of some abandoned concession areas at Family Arena in the last two years provide evidence of the neglect. In observing the atmosphere of Family Arena not just during the hockey season, but during other events, anyone can easily see and find a number of pieces of arena or concession equipment in haphazard storage throughout the facility – some of the equipment not used since at least 2000, mainly in concession areas that haven’t been opened for five or six years. A lot of it contained dust as if it hasn’t moved for a long time.
Since 2002, only four concession areas at Family Arena are used, mainly at the main level and two on either side of the main concourse seating. There were times that only two were in operation. There are about 20 permanent stands and 10 portable stands throughout the facility. Many of them are unused and most of the stored equipment is found close to the Gate 5 area behind sections 109 through 112. One would think that no one goes through those sections. But many of them buy upper deck tickets for sections 208 through 212, also located near Gate 5.
A more serious concern faces Family Arena. It’s not just the unused equipment. It is the strained relationship/partnership between St. Charles City and St. Charles County. St. Charles City is refusing to pay their part of the $300,000. They did not pay their share of the agreement due in September, 2005.
The $300,000 that the city of St. Charles has to pay is a part of debt service for the construction and development of the Family Arena. According to the August 30, 2002 edition of the St. Louis Business Journal, it is a part of a ten-year letter of credit between St. Charles City and County.
St. Charles City Councilman Rory Riddler wrote in his First Capitol News column in March 2005 that the County had five years to get the Family Arena fully operational and had established the agreed amount of “ticketed” events to be 115 throughout a 12-month period. When Mr. Riddler was presented the report from the County for 2004, there were 120 events. Eight of those events were high school graduations. Six of them were Jehovah’s Witness conventions and there was one Bush/Cheney political rally. Mr. Riddler contends that those 19 events he mentioned are not “ticketed” events; that is a purchased ticket at the box office to get into the event. The Family Arena contends that every event held there has to have a control by the use of a ticketed system, because of security reasons. But Mr. Riddler defined the agreement as event tickets purchased with money at a box office or ticket broker (in this case, MetroTix), rather than an entity (school district, church, political party) handing out free tickets just for crowd control purposes.
Riddler wrote in his column, “When the City agreed to help with the financial structure of the Family Arena it was with the hope that the sales tax revenues would help offset some of the cost of participation. When you book a group that draws a few hundred people instead of a few thousand, the taxpayers are losing out on the sale of tickets, food, beverage and souvenirs that otherwise might have occurred. It isn’t just the taxpayers of St. Charles City being shortchanged, but the taxpayers of St. Charles County, who subsidize the operations and long-term debt with their tax dollars.”
According to Steve Ehlmann, who is the County’s Chief of Staff, the Family Arena, “had a good year this year. We made money.”
It is probably accurate to say that the Family Arena made money. But was that for calendar year 2005. That was when the Steamers, Rage and the River Otters were still at Family Arena and drawing low attendance figures. There were also several concerts as well as a rodeo, circus, ice motorcycle racing and two St. Louis University basketball games. Also, the NHL was locked out in 2005 and the only professional hockey in town was the River Otters. What about 2006? What’s going to happen on July 1 when most of these winter and indoor sports teams begin new fiscal years? The Rage and Steamers are still committed to Savvis at least for another season. They could be there for a long time, if their new landlord feels that they draw enough into Savvis Center.
In the last few hockey seasons itself, the River Otters were very lucky if they drew 5,000 for a game. On many nights, they drew between 1,000 and 3,000 fans. There were some nights with no inclement weather where there were less than 800 in the building and it was either a Friday or a Saturday. That’s quite small compared to the 10,000-seat capacity the place holds. There was never a sellout for a hockey game at Family Arena in the eight seasons the River Otters were there. Even the 2006 UHL All-Star Classic only drew 5,500.
In an August 30, 2002 edition of the St. Louis Business Journal County Executive Joe Ortwerth said, “Whether I like it or not, the arena has become part of St. Charles government, and I’ve got to be involved. I have an operation in the red that I need to turn into a break-even proposition. Otherwise I have to turn over money from my budget that would go to other things to fund this arena.”
In that same story, writer Chad Garrison wrote, “two of the four minor league sports teams that call the arena home (the St. Louis Steamers indoor soccer team and the St. Louis Swarm basketball team) have folded within the last year, leaving even more empty dates on the calendar. It is a lack of events at the arena that is drawing the ire of many in the community.”
“We would like to see more ticketed events,” then-St. Charles City Administrator Jim O’Connor said in the same article. “When you look over 2002 you see a lot of activities at the arena, but many of them dealt with conferences and trade shows. We want to see more entertainment programs that serve the community.”
In late 2005, the River City Rage and the current St. Louis Steamers took advantage of sub-lease deals at Savvis Center at the same time the Laurie family tried to sell both the St. Louis Blues hockey team and the primary lease holding of Savvis Center. Successful minor league sports teams can take advantage of any bargain possible, which going to Savvis was the primary reason why both teams disappeared from Family Arena. The Rage and the Steamers have become more successful now that they are at Savvis. Also, both teams are operated as serious businesses. The Rage has an ownership group that has genuine interest about metropolitan St. Louis as a whole, rather than just exclusively St. Charles. The same holds true for the current Steamers. Their indoor soccer league is finally reaching stability once again, plus the Steamers reached the championship series for the first time since returning to St. Louis proper.
It also appears that the Family Arena will never see another professional basketball team, since both the Swarm and the St. Louis Flight of the ABA could not succeed in the facility. One could say that it was a lack of marketing on their part. But did the arena and the county really want to have them there? Many sports experts claim that professional basketball doesn’t work in this area. The track record at Family Arena reflects that. But is it just the fault of the basketball franchises or their respective leagues? Should the county have made the place friendlier for fans to enjoy basketball?
Since the hockey team’s is folding, has the county administration and the United Hockey League taken every approach possible to find a buyer for this now abandoned franchise. If no buyer of the UHL franchise is found by July 1, there will probably be no sports tenant occupying the Family Arena. There are several concerts booked for the summer. But there probably won’t be 40 hockey games, 32 basketball games, 20 indoor soccer games and 12 indoor football games playing at Family Arena in 2006-07. Concerts, circuses, rodeos and ice motorcycle races cannot make up for the loss of minor league sports, considered to be anchor tenants at a multi-purpose facility such as Family Arena.
Has St. Charles County witnessed the success that T.R. Hughes Ballpark is having after being opened in O’Fallon for eight years? They still have the same minor league franchise and attendance figures have remained consistent. There have been slight changes in the baseball team’s organization and the City of O’Fallon has had some turbulent times in their administration. The city owns and operates the ballpark and the place is like new and well maintained since it opened in 1999. Only one sport plays at the ballpark. There are also other limitations that keep most other events from the ballpark, mainly due to the field make up and the sightlines geared specifically for baseball. There is free parking at the facility and generally patrons have a great time.
The teams at Family Arena might have failed or left for other locations, but at times when it was critical, there was no help at all from the county, who is supposed to not only oversee the operation of the arena, but to also oversee the interests of its residents. Family Arena has become a white elephant. The taxpayers aren’t to blame, although they will be seeing the burden of its debt. Family Arena’s problems arose because of a difference of philosophies among those who the taxpayers/registered voters placed in office. St. Charles County could have had quite a showplace and what could still be a prime location. Now, it is a hollow cavern next door to a quarry longing to be developed
