WOW....^^^^That's creepy!^^^ By the way I just clicked on that Malort Star shirt...If only! I would wear one of those in my casket! So cool...
At the time there were several suburbs wanting the Fire so AEG had leverage. This was right before the real estate collapse so the fire was very lucky to get a deal done before the economy went south.
Yes Peter worked on it as he was employed by AEG at the time. How much it was Peter's deal and how much the lawyers of AEG only Peter can answer.
When did Peter get FIRED? I thought it was just before the stadium opener. He was at the game, somehow he had tickets next to me with a bottle of champagne.
11 April 2005, over a year before. I believe the initial contract between the Fire and the village has been rewritten a number of times.
The deal initially I heard was more a partnership with AEG putting in some money but having some say in what was put in the stadium. Bridgeview decided to fund the entire thing but have total control on how it was built. I know one of the things the fire regretted was that the stadium club didn't have a view of the field like most other stadium clubs. We were still in soldier field when it was announced that peter was fired. It was one of the proudest moments of section 8 when they lifted that banner supporting Peter.
I apologize in advance for the long post. I have the entire 80 page Operating Agreement from my FOIA request in August, along with the 2010 and 2011 Annual Reports. It is dated September 1, 2005. It was signed by the COO of AEG. No mention of Peter Wilt. That is not to say that he was not part of the negotiations, but this was an AEG-Bridgeview deal. Fanaddict is right about the costs being borne solely by Bridgeview. The original bond sold were $135,000,000.00 to finance the stadium. As of 2011, Bridgeview begin paying the bonds back, at $8,160,000.00 per year. All told, the bonds will cost Bridgeview $204,000,000.00 by 2035. By 2011, Bridgeview had lost over $18,000,000.00 on the deal, with Bridgeview losing over $6,400,000.00 in 2011 (largely because they had to start paying the bonds back). Total revenue for 2011: $4,615,830 Total expenses for 2011: $11 ,263,926 As for "luxury seating," the original Operating Agreement states that the Village has the exclusive right to sell the luxury seating and event suites and set the price of the premium and luxury seating. The Village owns marketing rights, but delegates to the Team the stadium naming rights (which seems a bit backwards). RadioGonzo's quotes about revenue are spot on. Of course, all of this is subject to the agreement between the Team and MLS. The Team gets 92% of the ticket revenue. The Team gets 50% of the Net Parking and Net Concessions. The Team gets 30% of Net License Revenue, Suite Rent and Sponsorship Revenue. The Team gets 22.5% of Gross Merchandise Revenue. The Village gets all other revenue, including (without limitation), membership or admission fees charged for admission to the Stadium's private club(s) or restaurant(s), including the Stadium Club. There is, of course, no mention of the Second Star Club, since it did not exist when the Agreement was signed. However, reading the revenue provisions, it certainly seems like that was paid for by Bridgeview, since apparently they receive the revenue from it. It really seems like the Village of Bridgeview needs to sell the hell out of the Stadium Club and rent the place out as much as possible in order to make any money back on the deal. Second, they could open a stadium/sports bar and restaurant, open before and after the games. The problems with doing that would be large (cost, upkeep, potential conflicts about a village selling alcohol directly and potential problems with drunk driving being at the top of the list), plus they might have a problem drawing people to the restaurant on non-game days, since we all bitch about there on game days. Simply relying on the percentages above will simply not cut it. Especially as Bridgeview is now paying back the bonds. All in all, this stadium, like virtually every "publicly funded" stadium ever built (I have done a fair amount of study on the topic) is a bad deal for the municipality. Add into this the fact that Bridgeview is so small has such a small tax base to begin with, it is a bad deal all around.
It is time for new and innovative streams of revenue. Maybe they should host Xbox/wii/PS3 parties so people can play on the jumbotron. I heard a theater in Buffalo Grove is doing that for extra cash flow. I would be tempted to play FIFA and PES on such a huge screen.
Chicago Fire’s Arena Losses Have Village Taking on More Debt Bridgeview, Illinois, is saddling taxpayers with more debt as the arena it built almost a decade ago to host Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire fails to hit the economic goal promised by its proponents. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...village-back-to-bond-market-amid-arena-losses
Standard & Poor’s this month cut the municipality’s grade one step to BBB, two levels above junk . . . So, the Village is still ranked two levels above the Fire. That's good.
Dan Denys, the financial adviser quoted in that Bloomberg story, has $ ties to Bridgeview officials. From 2012: Key contracts for Bridgeview soccer stadium emerged without competitive bidding h/t S8C Chairman Dan
Don't blame soccer for this: "Austin Meade. The firm and president Daniel Denys gave nearly $5,000 to political funds tied to village officials while being paid $1.1 million for financial advice and through fees tied to the town's big borrowing. Another firm listed in the same Loop suite as Denys — George K. Baum & Co. — also got at least $700,000 for consulting and borrowing work."
Hey, what do ya know? Having a team named the Chicago Fire with a stadium in Bridgeview is a bad deal for EVERYONE. Get inside or very near the city, or stay irrelevant.
The worst part is that is, at most, a temporary solution. The $16 million bond sale only covers the debt service payment ($8.16 million per year) for two years, not taking the revenue into account. Since the revenue is $4-5 million per year, this bond sale simply will help out for four years, at most. Just kicking the can down the road a little bit. “Each resident’s share of the village’s total debt burden is about $18,000, deal documents show. The home of the Fire, which is in last place in its conference this season after finishing second-to-last in 2014, is “not yet self-sustaining,” according to the documents.” Saying that the Fire's tenancy is “not yet self-sustaining” is a pretty damning comment. As much as I am a fan of the Chicago Fire, I am not sure I would have personally ponied up $18,000 to keep the Fire around.
We have discussed this before but the recession basically stopped investors from building waterparks etc on the Harlem ave side they were counting on to make a profit. Also the concert thing never panned out as there are so many other venues.
As soon as you write the 300 million check they can break ground on a stadium in downtown Chicago. Actually Bridgeview is very near the city.
$18,000 per person? According to wikipedia that's the per capita income of the city. Geeze I'd be pissed if I had to pay a years salary for something I couldn't care less about which I'm pretty sure constitutes a big portion of the city