The New Arena Kurfuffle

The introduction to the new arena seems as confusing as the initial talks to actually build the new building.


News Article
http://medicinehatnews.com/news/local-news/2015/05/16/lease-talk-involvement-would-be-contract-breach-city/

I've bolded 3 key parts of that article

City hall cannot get involved in lease negotiations between the Medicine Hat Tigers and SMG-Canada without breaking its contract with the Event Centre’s private operator, according to the head of the public service committee

Further, she said, a key factor in choosing SMG was its North American network and ability to attract major concerts and other events to bolster profits.

“They have a wealth of experience in running buildings such as these,” said Friesen.

Senior team officials also said that in years past, negotiating with council had led to deals that accounted for the team’s financial position.
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I'm not exactly sure what the role of the operator entitles, but I believe how the business is handled on a day to day business will be very different compared to their old lease with the city of medicine hat.  

From what I've been told ticket prices, concessions, parking, hiring, security plus a lot more will be handled by the 3rd party SMG group. The Tigers will want to make a profit, as well as the SMG group who operates the Arena. I wouldn't be surprised if the Tigers largely controlled a lot of these aspects when the city was the operator. Now new building's operator SMG in contract with the city will be potentially handling large parts of that.  I'm largely speculating here but I would guess the Tigers are uncomfortable with giving up this control, and want the city involved to re-negotiate some of this control from the contract they signed with SMG.

With the New arena also comes more possible ticket sales. Last season the Tigers had "sellouts" every game, however I think we would both agree that their were only about 3200 in the seats.
SMG saw sellouts and the Tigers still made money with lots of tickets being dumped in the fans hands. I think that could also play a big part of the discrepancy of the negotiation process.



Investigating the SMG Group
With So Many Questions being un-answered heading into a new season, I decided to do a bit of research. SMG operates 3 other Arena's within canada, the OHL Niagra Icedogs. Mississauga Steelheads, and the Kingston Frontenacs.

Season Ticket Prices
Niagra (NEW in 2014) (399,499,569)    (pay, and free parking, downtown)
Mississauga (399 ends) (459 middle) (609 middle+lounge)    (free parking)
Kingston  (496,544,612,685)  (paid and free parking)

Note: Those teams have 2 less home games than the WHL. (add $20-$30 to each numbers for whl)

All 3 teams have a pricing that is different compared to where you are sitting in the Arena. So I guess we can expect the same thing at the New Arena. Niagra's building is brand new in 2014, and they also had the Tragically Hip  for the first concert.  Niagra has glowing reviews of their building with amazing sight lines, comfortable seats, restaurants, an enjoyable atmosphere, with the exception of concession pricing.

Concessions and Parking
Cost for parking? It is unknown at this point. In all 3 places above their are free parking spots, and paid lots but I'm unsure if these spots or 3rd party or not.

Looking at reviews for concessions, Medicine Hat is likely looking at an increase. $8.50/9.50 beer for playoff game in Niagra. It was noted that food was comparable to an NHL game, as well as "pricey" in Kingston.  In Mississauga,1998 built, and low attended, food/drink was a little lower $6 a beer. either way expect the price of food/drink to increase.

Intangibles
SMG will probably bring in a bunch of other events to the Arena. The Tragically Hip also opened up in Niagra's new building for this season. My opinion is I would  pay more money for concession prices if it means this group will bring in high quality entertainment to the hat.

Thoughts
Their are many different factors into this type of lease situation so speculating without knowing is hard to do.  I've speculated above but i could be dead wrong so please do not take that info as fact.

Regardless a deal should have been done at this time. I wonder if the Tigers currently have years remaining on the current Arena's Lease? If they do I wonder if they could choose to stay at the Current Arena?

My guess is that this would not be the case as their have been no mention of this in the news articles, and business wise it would make sense for SMG to have in their contract with the city that the city wouldn't be allowed to compete with them @ the old arena.

 I wonder if a 3rd party operator could take over the cities role as operator of the current Arena?, but that is likely a venture that wouldn't be profitable with an old building, so I highly doubt that happens, and the Tigers will need to find an agreement at the new centre.

Season Ticket Holders
The last few seasons the end of June has been the deadline to purchase season tickets, but I have not received a notice yet.  The lease negotiation have a Huge effect on the prices of season Tickets. So looking at the other 3 Arena's SMG controls, One would expect a similar price structure, in the 420-640 range as mentioned above but taking into consideration a 36 game schedule.