Owners breathe new life at civic center
GLENSFALLS, N.Y. » Jeff Mead took over management of a building that was losing more than $600,000 annually, making the city of Glens Falls “susceptible to fiscal stress,” a state report said.
That’s no longer the case as Cool Insuring Arena, formerly Glens Falls Civic Center, achieved a major financial milestone by closing out 2017 in the black.
The turnaround started when a group of local business and community leaders, the Adirondack Civic Center Coalition, purchased the arena in January 2015. Mead, a former Glens Falls High School hockey star, was hired six months later.
“We continue to make progress,” he said. “Certainly we have a ways to go.”
The building, which has a $2.7 million operating budget, hosts about 85-90 events per year. The list runs the gamut, from country music concerts starring Brantley Gilbert and Kenny Rogers to WWEwrestling, high school athletics and the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters, which played there Monday.
The arena’s main tenant is the Adirondack Thunder, a mi-
nor league hockey franchise affiliated with the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. The team has a $2.3 million operating budget apart from the arena.
To secure hockey’s future in Glens Falls, the Coalition purchased the Thunder last year from the NHL’s Calgary Flames. Calgary lost $2 million running the ECHL club during its first two years in Glens Falls.
Like the arena, however, the
hockey team has made a significant financial turnaround under new Coalition ownership. Through December, the first six months of its fiscal year, the franchise realized a modest profit.
“Our forecast was to break even year one, so that’s an $800,000 swing,” Mead said.
The building has gotten on solid fiscal ground by hosting more events, boosting attendance and cutting costs. An es- timated 225,000 people visited the arena last year, about 20 percent from Saratoga County, versus 160,000 in 2015.
“We have a lot more people in general coming to the arena,” Mead said. “We specifically target the Saratoga County market digitally and with social media when we promote shows and hockey. Our relationship with the New Jersey Devils has allowed us to be able to contact all their former Albany Devils ticket holders, so we have reached out to this group for season tickets, groups, and certain ticket packages. We are seeing more people from Saratoga County and below attend Thunder games. This is an opportunity for us to continue to grow.”
One of the biggest business model changes was taking inhouse control of food and beverage concessions, which nets about $300,000 per year. Previously, concessions were handled by an outside firm, which received monthly payments even if there were no events.
Concerts and shows are a “riskreward” type venture, Mead said.
“Brantley Gilbert was a huge money maker,” he said. “We haven’t lost any money on concerts since I’ve been here. We’re
trying to bring in more. However, we’re a small market and can’t do 15 concerts a year. There’s only so much money in the Capital District.”
Another option is more bookings such as gun shows, and home and garden shows.
Also, negotiations are currently taking place for the arena to host an indoor football team, the Glens Falls Gladiators, beginning in late March or early April. Plans call for the team to play a five-game home schedule in the American Indoor Football League, a step below the Arena Football League, which has a new team in Albany.
The Coalition is also working hard to bring the boys’ state high school basketball tournament back to Glens Falls, which hosted it from the early 1980s until 2017 when it moved to Bing-
hamton. Cities seeking the next three-year contract (2020-22) must submit bids toward the end of this year.
The aging former Civic Center’s condition — it opened in 1979 — is one of the main reasons Glens Falls lost the tournament.
“The locker rooms, frankly, were run down,” Mead said. “We didn’t have enough showers and rest rooms.”
But such problems have been addressed as the entire building has been overhauled with $2.7 million in state grants for capital improvements. The most visible upgrade is a $1 million video-scoreboard. In addition, there’s a new digital marquee out front, dirty girders over the arena floor were given a fresh coat of paint, there’s a new sound system, new lights and the building is fully equipped for WiFi.
“I think we’ve sort of checked all those boxes off,” Mead said.
However, to wrest the state hoop tourney back,
Glens Falls might have to submit a zero- dollar bid, which helped Binghamton win the current contract. The tourney’s location is decided by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association.
“They’ve been back a few times,” Mead said. “They’ve certainly noticed all the improvements we’ve made. We’ve been talking about getting this back almost since the day we lost it.”
The Thunder, however, recently committed to a new three-year agreement to play in the ECHL.
Since last summer, Mead has also been the team’s general manager, in charge of daily business operations, in addition to running the arena. Wearing two hats, although similar, isn’t easy.
“It’s almost another full time job, but you kind of get into a flow once it gets going,” he said. “We have a really good staff. That’s been a key.”
The team, which is responsible for providing
player housing, has cut costs by securing less expensive accommodations without sacrificing quality or comfort. Also, this year’s schedule has reduced travel costs.
On the plus side, attendance is averaging just un-
der 3,000 fans per game, considerably more than last season.
“Group sales are already $8,000 ahead of last year’s finish, which is good, and corporate sales are up almost a quarter-million dol-
lars so the business community has been tremendous for us,” Mead said. “We’ve made a lot of progress. The fans have really embraced the team this year. Everyone knows the team is here, its team isn’t leaving.