City council authorizes arena negotiations

The Yuma City Council voted 4-3 Wednesday to authorize staff to negotiate with a Phoenix firm for a management agreement for a proposed city arena.

Whether or not that arena itself will ever come to be is still a question. That will not be decided until the November election, when city residents will vote on the project.

Deputy City Administrator Bob Stull said the point of starting negotiations now is to give voters a clear picture of what they would be getting in November.

He said there was no way to tell the public exactly what kind of facility would be built, how much it would cost and how any revenues would be split unless those details were worked out before the vote.

"The citizens have put it on the ballot. Now they should know what they're voting on," Stull said.

If voters reject the arena, all agreements would be moot.

The firm the city selected, Global Entertainment Corp., has been in talks with Yuma officials about the possibility of a 6,000-seat events center for more than two years. However, no agreements with Global Entertainment have been signed yet.

Stull said contracts would likely come back to the council for approval in July.

There were three main factors in the city's selection of Global Entertainment: familiarity with the area, familiarity with managing
this size of facility and the package of services Global Entertainment provides.

In addition to management, the company also owns the Central Hockey League, which could provide a team as an anchor tenant.

Global Entertainment staff would manage the arena, but the city would have to pay the estimated $53-million cost to build it.

It would be paid for through bonds, financed by sales taxes and fees collected from businesses that surrounded the arena, which could be built on vacant land north of the Yuma Palms Regional Center.

The council approved, in another 4-3 decision, the plan to go ahead with arena development in January. A citizens referendum petition forced the issue onto the ballot.

Mayor Larry Nelson, Deputy Mayor Ross Hieb, Councilman Raul Mendoza and Councilwoman Ema Lea Shoop supported the plan then. They also voted to authorize Wednesday's negotiations.

Councilmen Paul Johnson and Cody Beeson and Councilwoman Leslie McClendon opposed January's measure and Wednesday's vote.

"I'm concerned that this might create the perception in the community with some of the voters that we're trying to bypass the referendum process," Johnson said Wednesday night.

But other council members disagreed.

"It is very essential that this process go forward," Hieb said. "Without it, there isn't any way for anyone to make an informed decision come November."

Global Entertainment President Steve Bielewicz drove down from Phoenix to attend the meeting. He said he was gratified the firm had been selected after two years of work and remained excited about the Yuma market.

"We still like Yuma a great deal. For us, Yuma is one of the best markets that we've ever had a chance to work in," he said.

Global Entertainment is developing similar arenas in Wenachtee, Wash., Independence, Mo., Allen, Texas and Dodge City, Kan.

Bielewicz said they are also working with Bullhead City to put a similar facility there but those talks are in their infancy.

He added that the company's fortunes appeared to be improving despite set-backs over the past year.

Global Entertainment had suffered internal difficulties, stemming from the cancellation of a management contract with Chevrolet Center in Youngstown, Ohio, last year. The company reported a decline of revenue in the last quarter of 2007: $6.5 million, down from $16.5 million in the same period in 2006.

The city was considering a second management firm. Global Spectrum is a Philadelphia company that manages dozens of arenas, stadiums, convention centers and theaters across the nation and in Canada.

If the city is unable to negotiate a satisfactory contact, staff would seek an agreement with Global Spectrum.

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Sarah Reynolds can be reached at sreynolds@yumasun.com or 539-6847.