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2. ICESR AGENDA - SPECIAL 08-03-2011CITY OF ELK RIVER SPECIAL MEETING OF THE ELK RIVER ICE ARENA COMMISSION There was no quorum for the July 26, 2011 Special Ice Arena Commission Meeting. The agenda is held over to the August 3, 2011 Special Ice Arena Comnussion Meeting. City of Elk River Records Ice Arena Commission Meeting A ends Tuesday July 26, 2011 Elk River City Aall /Utility Conference Room 6:OOpm 1. Call meeting to order 2. Consider 7/26/11 Ice Arena Commission Agenda 3. Approve 4/12/11 Ice Arena Commission Minutes 4. Approve 5/4/11 Ice Arena Commission Minutes ~. Approve 6/27/11 Ice Arena Commission Minutes 6. Open Mike 7. 2011 Financial update 8. Arena Renovation 9. Varsity Game Passes /Recognition Nights 10. Outside Banners 11. Summer Tournament 12. Staff Updates A. Ice Plants /Vessels, Condenser 13. Other Business 14. Adjournment MEMORANDUM TO: Ice Arena Commission, Members FROM: Rich Czech, Arena Manager DATE: July 20, 2011 SUBJECT: Agenda Memo -June 27, 201 I 5. 2010 Financial update Attached for your review is the budget information for the yeazs 2008 - 2010 as well as current information for the 2011 budget. The City Council will not review the 2012 budget until their meeting on August 8~', therefore it is not included in the spreadsheet. 6. Arena Renovation As you are aware, the Arena Commission is scheduled to meet with the City Council on August 8`h to discuss the progress of the Arena Renovation. Chairman Dale Martin has sent out a memo (see Attachments) to the user groups of the Arena outlining the project and giving them a deadline to provide the commission with a written financial commitment for the project. Without their commitment, I believe the Council will be hesitant to move forward with the project until agreements can be made. I met with Randy Anderson, Executive Director of Business Services for the School District. When asked about the School District's contribution to the project he noted that he does not see any funding for the project in the near future being available. He said that in the next few years there will be expansions throughout the district that will need to be addressed including building repairs to existing buildings, and other small projects. He also noted that ultimately it's the School Board's decision on whether they would like to participate in the funding of the project 7. Varsity passes We have recently received a request by the Girl's Booster Club to establish passes for the Girls regular season home games at a reduced cost of $2.00 per ticket for adults and $1.50 per student /senior. In the mid 90's the Arena sold passes to the boy's Blue Line Club for the high school games due to the fact that there were large crowds for their games and limited seating because the games were in the Barn. The passes were sold at face value based on the number of home games per year multiplied by the adult ticket price. This guaranteed admission to the game that may have been sold out prior to the pass holders arrival. The Blue Line sold them, with a slight increase in cost to the public as part of their package of becoming a Blue Line member. The passes were numbered, when the passholder came to a game they presented their pass to the ticket seller so that we could account for their attendance on a game report. Any revenue from a pass that was not used for a game remained with the Arena, it was not accounted for in the game report but was deposited at the beginning of the season when the passes were sold. If a pass is created for the Girl's games it would be appropriate to have one for the boy's as well If each parent from the Girl's and Boys' teams would purchase a pass we could possibly sell over 160 Adult passes. I'm not sure how many students /senior passes would sell but I would assume it would be considerably less. If a $2.00 discount was applied it could possibly generate a revenue loss of $320.00 from admissions. (This is assuming each adult would have attended each game and purchased a full price ticket). However in past years when we have had passes, there were typically 2 - 5 passes per game that were not used, which off sets the $320.00 loss by about $60.00. Since the games are a High School event, it's ultimately up to the Activity Director and/ or the School Board to make the final decision to have discounted passes. The Arena Commission could give a recommendation either way-however it is not necessary. 8. Varsity Game Contract Last year during budget talks there was discussion about the discrepancies between the Rogers Arena contract with the school District for practice hours and High School games versus our own. This yeaz the discussion continued and we found a considerable discrepancy between the two agreements. Over the last 4-6 years the contract for hosting the High School Hockey games, both girls and Boy's has been: $1.00 from each ticket sold goes into a "Bleacher Fund". This agreement was put in place when the east side of the bleachers in the Olympic were installed and has continued since. The money in the fund helped pay for some capital items and was the funding source for hiring the Architect for the renovation project. The Arena then receives the first $900.00 for the boys and $750.00 for the girls from each game, the remaining balance is then split 50% / 50% with the School District. If a game does not meet the minimum balance due it is indicated on the game report. At the end of each season, the gate reports are tallied, and depending on the balance, either a check is issued to the School District or an invoice is sent for the short fall. The cost to host a Girl's doubleheader (Junior Varsity / Vazsity) is roughly $925.00. This includes ice time and extra staff for handling tickets and resurfacing. The Arena's cost to host a boy's doubleheader is about $965.00, typically there is an added staff person scheduled due to the larger crowd. Over the last few years the Rogers Arena's contract allows them to keep all game receipts and to chazge and additional $12.00 to the practice hours of the Boy's and Girl's teams to cover security expenses for the varsity games. If we were to have the same agreement as Roger's we could expect about an additional revenue of about $4,000.00 from admissions and an additional $3,100.00 from the added $12.00 added to the practice hours. The agreements between the two cities and the Arena are somewhat complicated and should be reviewed. I met with Randy Anderson, the School District's Executive Director of Business, to review our agreements for practice ice and games. Randy noted that according to the student population, the Elk River schools should have three liaison officers, which they have. Rogers's student population merits them to have two, however they only have one. The School District pays each city $25,000 per liaison to offset the cost of the officer. Since Roger's only has one liaison officer the added $12.00 an hour is to pay for the Officer (s) that provide security for the High School games. According to Captain Bob Kluntz, from Elk River P.D., the agreement that the police department has with the school district regarding the liaison officers is that the payment of $25,000 not only provides for the liaison officers but includes officers for athletic events such as Football, and Hockey. Security for hockey games are unique from the other sporting events, because the games are held in a city owned facility where other events such as football are held in school district owned building or stadium. With the Arena having it's own budget and contracts with the school district for practices and games and the Police department having the agreement with the district for security for all athletic events it's hard for the Arena to track the true cost of security for games. I was not provided with an explanation from Randy of how the agreement came about with the Roger's Arena keeping all the receipts from their games. As noted above, the Arena has a set amount then a percentage split with the district. I believe there should equality between the two rinks. 9. Outside Banners Mugs Prosser has made a request to add her son, Nate, to the outside wall of the Arena. Nate played on the Elk River Varsity team as well as with the youth association. Currently, Nate is on the MN Wild's farm club, and has been called up to play at the Pro level. Before proceeding, I want to make sure the policy in the minutes are correct. Attached for your review are the minutes for the vote regarding the banners in November of 2010. There was a lot of discussion about what constitutes playing in the N.H.L. (National Hockey League). The discussion ranged from being called up to play for an N.H.L team to being totally vested in the League. There is also a question of who is to pay for the making of the banner and the placement of the banner on the wall. The last banners were paid for by youth hockey, however the request to place outside banners came from a youth hockey person so there may have been a feeling of obligation to pay for the set. The cost of making and installing the banners is about $1,000 each. In the past, the Arena has paid for the installation of the light fixtures for the banners, which I believe we can continue to do. The existing banners on the outside wall need to be taken down. They are weathered to the point where they look tattered and tacky. 10. Summer Tournament Sebastien Fortier, President of One Hockey, sent me an e -mail regarding hosting one of the many tournaments they put on across the country. From the information that I have reviewed and the people I have talked to, the tournament is a very large event that can require up to 10 sheets of ice between Thursday and the following Sunday. There aze a few rinks in the area that may be interested in participating as well, including Rogers, Princeton, St. Michael, Monticello, and possibly Maple Grove or Anoka. Initially, the Group wanted free ice time for their girl's tournament in May. Since then the group has requested a quote for ice time for their Boy's tournament that will be held in late April. Their approach is that the tournament is going to bring in thousands of people into the community and the local businesses would benefit from the tournament. However, since there are a limited number of hotels in Elk River, the benefits to the City could be limited. The Holiday Hotel in Otsego would keep the people close to the area so local restaurants would get some benefits, but most of the people would have to find a hotel out of the Elk River area. Both dates would require some re -scheduling on our part. With approval from the Arena Commission, I would like to see if the other rinks in the area would be interested in the event and to see if we could get a common price from everyone for the cost of the ice so that we can make a proposal to the group. 11. Vessels /Barn Condenser The change -out of the three vessels that were not stamped with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (A.S.M.E.) stamp are now in place. There are three relief valves v that will be replaced shortly that will bring both ice plants up to code. The new Condenser for the Barn's ice plant has been installed and is ready for operation. The new condenser has a V.F.I. startup system that ramps ups the motor saving in demand charges on for the electricity. 12. Night Supervisor At the City Council meeting on August 8th I will be proposing making the night supervisor position year round. Over the yeazs, the position has been split with the Pazks department. However the two positions aze totally different and require different skill sets. The position at the Parks Department is low key and does not require supervising a facility including personnel and interacting with the public. Working with Rodney Schreifels, the Pazks Superintendent, we were able to stay budget neutral between the two divisions while still providing and even exceeding the same service between the two divisions. 13. Other Business 14. Adjournment