New screens for Petes video scoreboard to be in place next season
The financial relief the Peterborough Petes get from a new deal with the city will allow the OHL club to do a number of things they couldn’t afford to before, says president Dave Pogue.
City council voted unanimously Monday to approve concessions to their facility agreement requested by the Petes valued at $353,500 in year one and totalling $2.4 million over the remaining seven years of the deal. The deal has to be ratified at the next council meeting.
The Petes lost $658,000 over the past five years and requested in November the city allow them to keep a greater share of the about $1 million the city receives from revenues generated by Petes activities at the Memorial Centre annually.
Originally reported as $313,500, Pogue said, the city also gave the Petes an additional $40,000 that the team immediately returned to the city as its share of an $80,000 upgrade to the PMC’s video scoreboard to replace the video screens. The new screens will be in place for next season, he said.
The new deal is not an ending but a beginning, Pogue said.
“Now it’s time for us to go to work,” he said. “Now we can start to execute things that have been ideas in our heads but we couldn’t bring to fruition because we just didn’t have the money to do them. I don’t mean going out and spending frivolously. These are business plans where investment will create multiples of revenue that we will share in and that will go back to the city as well.”
The city and Petes were at odds for many years over rights to certain revenues within the facility agreement. Relations at times were contentious. City staff in its report to council said the working relationship has never been stronger and Pogue believes a lot of headway has been made in the past nine months.
“It’s been a long road, long before I came into the position I am in,” Pogue said. “Even since April it’s been a long road. It takes a while to build relationships and trust so the people across the table know the dynamics of the people they are dealing with. I really feel we’ve turned the corner and honestly think we have a very good relationship with staff.”
The Petes plan to use some of the money to upgrade their facilities. They are exploring options within the arena to expand their footprint to create greater space for office staff and their hockey operations department.
“The office space is extremely tight,” Pogue said. “We are still in need of a lounge area for our players. The video area the coaches use with the players is very cramped. They’re in there shoulder-to-shoulder and it makes it difficult for them all to see.”
Funds will also be spent on new technology that will make the game experience more interactive particularly using the video scoreclock.
“It’s just going to make for a more fun, entertaining evening for our fans they haven’t been able to experience in the past,” Pogue said.
He said the work began a while ago to change the way the team operates on and off the ice. The new funds will allow even further improvements.
“I truly believe the success we’re seeing off and on the ice right now is an accumulative effect of everybody’s improvements,” Pogue said.
He’s happy to see the Lakers get similar concessions in areas like food and beverage sales and ticket premiums.
“That’s really important for the city,” Pogue said. “The Lakers are a great organization and I know they’ve struggled as we have over the years to live on the revenues they are generating.”