Kent’s city-owned ShoWare Center went from worst to first in one year with its operating budget.
The arena lost $254,530 in 2015, its lowest loss since opening in 2009, according to the ShoWare Center income statement. The arena had expenses of $2.64 million and income of $2.38 million. The lowest loss comes just one year after a record-setting high loss of $752,324 in 2014.
ShoWare and city officials pointed out that if the city’s admission tax (5 percent on each ticket sold) of $375,049 in 2015 is added to the revenue loss, the city came out ahead.
“This is the first year that operations at ShoWare generated essentially a net profit for the city,” said Ben Wolters, city economic and community development director, at a Jan. 28 meeting of the Public Facilities District board, which helps oversee the $84.5 million arena.
The admissions tax money goes to the city’s general fund rather than the arena’s income statement. The city then moves that admissions tax money to its arena operating budget to help cover operating losses and capital improvement projects at the ShoWare.
“The $375,000 is well in excess of the projection for the admissions tax,” Wolters said. “It speaks to the number of ticketed events that we had. More ticketed events generate a much stronger income statement and a direct feed into the city’s admissions tax.”
Ryan Hart, ShoWare director of marketing, shared the record numbers of what he called “a banner year” with the facilities district board.
The arena hosted more than 220 events, sold 295,701 tickets and had more than 414,000 people enter the building in 2015, Hart said. The sellout shows included The Rock and Worship Roadshow in March, Theresa Caputo live show in June, a Scorpions concert (6,257 fans) in October and 12 Disney on Ice “Frozen” shows in November that drew nearly 50,000 people.
“We continue to knock it out of the park with family shows,” Wolters said about Disney on Ice. “Feld Entertainment, which is the big producer of those shows, really likes coming to Kent. The good news for us is families from Kent and throughout the region like going to the ShoWare Center for those shows. That’s exactly what we wanted to see with this building.”
The Seattle Thunderbirds junior hockey team, the anchor tenant of the ShoWare, boosted the attendance numbers with six sellouts (6,000-plus fans) in 2015.
In 2014, the arena took a maintenance hit of about $200,000 because of problems with the ice plant. Those problems have since been resolved and helped cut the financial losses.
City Councilman Jim Berrios said he attended the facilities district meeting to thank everyone for their hard work to get the arena more financially stable.
“It’s been a rough ride,” Berrios said. “This is the beginning of some real positive things to happen. We can say here it is, it’s doing what it needed to do. But to say it’s going to be rosy this next year, we have some challenges. Frozen was a huge hit. The circus won’t be in town this year, so some challenges are there. But in light of that, we are finding other things we can bring in.”
The council sets aside $500,000 each year in the city’s general fund to help cover operating losses at the arena. The council also agreed in 2014 to pay $2.7 million toward the ShoWare Center operating debt with extra reserve money the city had in its general fund because of higher sales tax and other revenues.
Despite the smaller losses, Tim Higgins, ShoWare general manager, projects an operating deficit of $470,000 in 2016. He projected a deficit of $466,000 in 2015.
“How we budget for the year is conservative,” Higgins said. “It’s not so much the what ifs, but what we do know. We budget very conservatively on the revenue side.”
So when the arena books more concerts as the year goes on, the revenues go up. It also helps when the T-Birds make the Western Hockey League playoffs since playoff games are not part of the projected budget.
Wolters said the ShoWare Center continues to attract more promoters.
“It’s not as much about shows but the relationships and the positive experiences of the building with promoters because promoters determine the shows we get,” Wolters said. “Every time we have a successful concert or other ticketed event, it puts us that much more on the map.”
ShoWare Center operating losses
2015: $254,530
2014: $752,324
2013: $370,874
2012: $707,541
2011: $487,855
2010: $427,119
2009: $480,851
Total: $3.4 million
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