actually the 3rd the first person sent me this "When I die I wish to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather not screaming and crying like the people in his car"
ya didn't Rockford itself have to pay $900,000 to the Chicago Blackhawks for the affiliation last year because the MetroCentre and IceHogs couldn't come up with that cash?!? I mean the affiliation with the Hawks is not worth that much $$$. IceHogs were never big time until they decided on this....they were just in the 3rd division of Hockey. And they still have one of the lowest attendances for any AHL team...which blows cause the team itself isn't bad and never was bad. But, do agree the City should be promoting its events at the MetroCentre more to try to get more money in return. duh
Rockford signed a 10 year contract with the Blackhawks, I don't know exactly how much they pay per year, but it has to be a lot. I didn't like that the city bought team to begin with, but then the Blackhawks insisted that the Metrocentre put in more sky boxes, that was a 23 million remodel. The Metrocentre/city of Rockford has no problem spending tax payer's money, but they will haggle with the Rampage over the price of Beer, hotdogs and water. Let put it this way, if wanted to get drunk and start a soccer riot at the Metrocentre, I would have take out an home equity loan to do it. I don't expect free food and beer, but what I do expect a little cooperation with the other tenants. If they can't , they might as well change the name from the Metrocentre to the Ice Hogs Arena. Maybe I'm exaggerating about the price of beer but, the Ice hogs fans enjoy half price beer nights on my dime. Bastards!!
The city has the ultimate financial albatross............the MetroCentre. It has to fill the arena. The attendance hasn't noticably changed from the UHL IceHog days. Problem is they are in too deep now. Its like a guy who buys 100 shares of stock and the share price keeps going down, he keeps dollar-cost-averaging to buy more and more shares at a lower and lower price, hoping that it will plateau and a small rise will mean a profit and he can get himself out of this mess.