Courtesy Adirondack Civic Center Coalition
By R.J. DeLuke
The Glens Falls Civic Center had been a big part of the community over the years and the area was proud of its hockey team—and supportive.
But the center itself was losing money, about $600,000 a year, according to Jeff Mead, general manager of the facility, which in 2017 became Cool Insuring Arena.
The facility has other uses besides hockey, including being a concert and event venue, hosting high school sports tournaments and more.
The Adirondack Civic Center Coalition, a group of local business and community leaders, bought the facility in January 2015 and soon after, hired Mead, who had ties to the community, having played hockey at Glens Falls High School. He was serving as general manager/director of operations for the Blue Sky Sports Center in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in Texas.
The hockey team and the Cool Insuring Arena are two separate businesses. Mead is overseeing both. Both are doing better now. The end of 2017 saw the arena finishing in the black, a large turnaround.
Several factors are involved.
“We get $250,000 a year from [Warren} county. Without that money, we’re not in the black,” said Mead.
He indicated that without that influx of money, it is unlikely the Coalition would have purchased the arena.
One big change for 2017 was taking over the food and beverage concessions. That brought in about $300,000, after expenses, Meads said. Previously, they had a third-party entity handing the concession that was getting paid about $150,000 per year.
“That’s a lot of cash the arena did not see,” said Mead.
Shows and concerts at the arena have been doing well. Mead said bringing in shows is a “risk-reward” venture—some can lose money. But since Mead has been on board, the shows have been successful, becoming a revenue source. “None have lost money,” he said.
For the Adirondack thunder hockey team, a member of the ECHL, things are also going well.
The Coalition purchased the Thunder last year from the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League. Calgary lost $2 million running the ECHL club during its first two years in Glens Falls.
Mead said sales of season tickets are up from the previous year; corporate sales are up; group sales are up. He anticipated the team could see an increase of some $40,000 in those categories by the time the season is over.
Mead said the business community has shown “tremendous support” with sponsorships and advertising in the arena around hockey rink, on the video board and with signs in the lobby. All that brings in revenue.
“The hockey team has made a lot of progress off the ice,” he said.
Mead said the Coalition is still involved in fundraising it started to purchase the team. It is some $400,000 short of its goal needed to establish a line of credit with the league and to make a final payment to the Calgary Flames.
So fundraising continues. Interested parties can find options for donating at the facility’s website, www.coolinsuringarena.com.
The center has a $2.7 million operating budget. It opened in 1979, but has gone through numerous upgrades thanks, in part, to state grants in recent years. A $1 million video-scoreboard and a digital marquee outside are the most visible, perhaps, but there have been other facelift improvements.
Things have improved, said Mead, “but we’ve got a ways to go.”