Commentary by Louis J. Launer
As everyone knows by now, I am now covering the Missouri River Otters for the First Capitol News. I have been following the River Otters and I have covered the team for a national hockey publication as well as three web sites over the last six seasons. I am pleased to have returned to the
First Capitol News to cover minor league sports. There is one matter, which I feel I need to address because it not only affects minor league sports, but it affects residents of St. Charles City and County.
I continue following the operations of the Family Arena since it opened in 1999. It is an attractive place and I would not want to see it neglected, especially with all of the public and private money that has been invested since the middle 1990s.
Over the past two weeks, I read about the City Council’s action to withhold the $300,000 annual payment to St. Charles County due on September 1 concerning Family Arena. This is a concern that I take
seriously. I applaud the St. Charles City Council’s action and I am also pleased that the Mayor is in agreement with the Council on this issue. This action should be a wake-up call to St. Charles County because residents hold a number of concerns regarding Family Arena, along with the amount of ticketed events. I would not consider a graduation by a high school or a college to be a “ticketed” event because the tickets given were free and no money was exchanged. Those tickets existed only for security reasons. The same holds true for every time President George W. Bush has been in town or there has been some sort of political, religious or other type of meeting that requires the size of Family Arena.
If any money is exchanged for a ticket and the event is a profit-making venture, then it is a real “ticketed” event subjected to the agreement made between St. Charles City and County (and the other municipalities who have joined in the venture). That ticket is the patron’s receipt for entertainment that was paid for by that patron. I agree with the City Council that I would like to see a facility that is operated successfully and is available to hold a wide range of events. Since 2000, I have been
critical at the county administration for being very restrictive as to what events are to be held at Family Arena. It surprises me that events such as professional wrestling have been prohibited from the facility because of the “principles” of Family Arena. In the last 25 years, I can
say that ice hockey contains the potential to be much more violent than professional wrestling. I have also read in the past that several events that were to be held at Family Arena were turned away because it didn’t meet the strict criteria of Family Arena’s intentions according to the county administration. It’s those special restrictions that keep St. Charles from getting first-class events.
Another issue concerning many hockey fans and me has been the parking situation. I realize that an outside firm has a contract to manage the Family Arena parking lots, yet the majority of that revenue goes to St.
Charles County, not necessarily to maintain the Family Arena. After Rory Riddler’s column in the February 12, 2005 edition of the First Capitol News, I e-mailed him to inform him that the number-one deterrent of potential fans to attend hockey, indoor football, basketball and other real “ticketed” events there is the $5 to park. The parking fee has been in place since the facility opened in 1999. It is also the highest amount to pay for parking of all of the minor league facilities in the Midwest that I have attended.
After talking with many fans, especially those who attend hockey games, they do not understand why there are more parking spaces in the lots than there are seats, yet someone has to pay $5 just to enter and park their cars. That’s in addition to the $24 (the amount of one ticket to a prime seat for a hockey game) a patron pays for admission. With our economy not in the greatest of shape, that is a lot of money that people will spend for a hockey game—and St. Charles has the highest admission rates and parking fees of any other “member” of the United Hockey League. The UHL is a =minor= league. It is not competing with St. Louis, the NHL and Savvis Center.
The closest in terms of rates to Family Arena is Fort Wayne, Indiana (a UHL city), who charges $4 for parking and their prime hockey seats are $21. Fort Wayne has also made capital improvements to their arena (Allen County Coliseum) in the last three years, including increases in seating (to 10,000) and a new roof for the facility. Currently, a new floor and improved ice-making equipment is being installed. It was what existed at Family Arena today that prompted Fort Wayne officials to renovate and improve their 60-year-old building. Our facility has served as a standard bearer for arenas throughout the United Hockey League. Unfortunate-ly, our county administration treats Family Arena as an afterthought.
There are some fans who have been upset at the Missouri River Otter management, including past and present owners over a wide number of issues that really should have been at the fault of Family Arena management. The River Otters have always been the primary tenant of the Family Arena. From my interviews with past and present players, noted loyal fans and some who have worked for the River Otters franchise that since the county administration has taken over operation of the facility, there have been times when the team couldn’t use their own place for a practice or even a team meeting. This past spring, fans, many of them long-time season ticket holders, were very upset when the River Otters had to move all of their playoff games over to Savvis Center in St. Louis because the Family Arena wasn’t “available.” Some insiders told me that there could have been some arrangements made and two out of the three dates for playoff games were actually available.
What would help keep our sports tenants and also book some great events at Family Arena would be some proper management at the top-a management group who knows how to operate sports/entertainment facilities. I have never believed that a county administration directly should be involved in the day-to-day operations of the facility. Our county has enough matters to be concerned with than the operation of a sports/entertainment facility. When Family Arena was built it should never have been the intent of the county government to directly operate the facility. The City of St. Louis operated the St. Louis Arena for a few years until Savvis Center was built. The City of St. Louis was very happy to get out of the arena management business after 1994. I could also name other arenas in similar places like St. Charles that have failed because they had become very restrictive in events or the municipality/county didn’t really want to be in that business. One of those facilities that failed allowed St. Charles County to purchase their scoreboard that now is displayed inside Family Arena.
Family Arena should not fail or lose any of our sports tenants. The recent action taken by the City of St. Charles is for the preservation and continuation of the facility. The city and the Trulaske family who funded the private half of the facility wants to see 117 legitimate first-class ticketed events at Family Arena. The place has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, St. Charles County treats the facility as a place for a few people, not the majority. The new county parks system is treated better compared to Family Arena.
Family Arena brings in people from not just St. Charles and the greater St. Louis metropolitan area. People from the Midwest, upper South and the Great Lakes enjoy arriving in St. Charles, utilizing St. Charles-based businesses such as restaurants and hotels and attending their favorite sport or other event held in what should be a first-class facility.
The United Hockey League will be holding their all-star game at Family Arena in January. This game will bring in fans from 13 other cities from the Quad Cities to Connecticut as well as our own fans here in Missouri. It would be truly representative of both the St. Charles County administration and officials from the City of St. Charles and other municipalities to be a proper host for an event that is only held here once in a while.
St. Charles has the potential to be a success in anything they do. Unfortunately, there are those in power who believe that the public needs to be protected from items that are assumed to be harmful. Yet those in power can do more harm by being overprotective.
