This month, Harry Truman’s town gets its own pro sports palace, the Independence Events Center, which opens Saturday. The building’s anchor tenant, the Missouri Mavericks minor league hockey team, will play its first home games Nov. 13 and 14.
The 5,800-seat building includes amenities that the modern sports fan has come to expect: 25 private suites and VIP-level bars where patrons can watch the action or mingle next to picture windows that offer views of Interstate 70 and the Little Blue River. Yet in the town where Truman personified the common touch, Independence leaders didn’t want a venue that reeked of exclusivity. You’ll find no velvet rope at the President’s Club, a bar on the building’s ground-floor concourse. In similar facilities built around the country by Global Entertainment of Arizona, the same space has been devoted to restricted-access bars.“Independence officials wanted residents to feel that they could be comfortable here, like they were in their living rooms,” said Aaron Young, the building’s project manager. Whether enough paying patrons find that comfort level is what those same Independence leaders will be watching for.
The new center elevates Independence from a local to regional destination, said City Manager Robert Heacock. Also, patrons could stay and eat in the motels and restaurants that surround the center, boosting sluggish sales tax receipts. It also will represent a new venue for community events — ranging from high school basketball games to graduation ceremonies. “This building can be a memory-maker,” Heacock said. From the get-go, Independence leaders have talked family-friendly. Tickets to the Missouri Mavericks begin at $12 at the box office, and commercials on local radio emphasize the free parking.
Box office ticket prices for concert attractions such as Tech N9ne (Nov. 21), the Charlie Daniels Band (Dec. 18) and Kenny Rogers (Feb. 10) top out at $39, $54 and $71, respectively. Officials hope that such acts, as well as the traffic attracted by the building’s adjacent community ice rink, will generate enough revenue to trump concerns about Global’s troubled experience with similar facilities elsewhere or an economy that has left several dark storefronts not far from the building.
Ice time
Independence officials have learned that hockey generates a mojo all its own. This summer, Stephanie Roush, the city’s tourism director, went to Jefferson City to address state business association representatives. For the occasion, she borrowed a trade show booth backdrop from the Mavericks. “After the meeting, all these people came up to me talking about hockey,” she said. Now, print materials pitching Independence to both leisure travelers and event planners include the image of a hockey player. Events center personnel hope to book 100 events during the building’s first year. The Mavericks will play 32 home dates. One trade show, though unannounced, has been booked. But an even more promising market, Roush said, might be sports — and not pro sports.
This summer, events center officials announced an agreement with the Mid America High School Hockey League, which coordinates hockey for players of high school age in the Missouri/Kansas region. Teams will play perhaps 100 games in the building this season.
Those athletes often travel with parents and siblings, staying in motels and eating in restaurants. That’s what Independence leaders had in mind, Mayor Don Reimal said. He knows the youth sports market, once having spent 18 years as Pop Warner football league chairman in eastern Jackson County. “This is going to be a family-oriented place,” Reimal said of the events center. Public skate sessions will be held seven days a week.
Global worries
That isn’t to suggest there aren’t concerns. The project cost $68 million. To finance construction, the city issued $64.9 million in bonds and also used about $4 million in tax increment financing funds.To pay off the bonds, the city will use receipts from a half-cent sales tax that property owners imposed on themselves by forming a community improvement district. Tax revenue started flowing last summer from the district, which encompasses three of the four corners at Interstate 70 and Missouri 291. So far, sales tax receipts have been flat, said Heacock. That’s not a concern at this point, said Jim Harlow, Independence finance director. The city has included a level of capitalized interest in its debt, meaning the obligations can help the city pay the interest in the beginning. Other measures address Global specifically.
This summer, when leaders of Wenatchee, Wash., fired Global as operator of its events center, it became the third community to drop the firm. In all three communities, revenues were not meeting Global’s projections. In Independence, the company has agreed to set aside $500,000 as a temporary operating reserve. “If there is a shortfall, we will know there is cash on hand,” Heacock said. If Global does not have to dip into that $500,000 reserve for three years, the company will be entitled to start earning it back, Harlow said.
Global executives consider several factors about the Independence center especially promising, including the larger metro market it seeks to serve as well as its visibility from two major highways. Another priority: keeping the experience, from tickets to concessions, reasonably priced. “We are working hard to make sure this building presents an affordable opportunity for families,” said Barry Kohlus, senior vice president of Encore Facility Management, a Global subsidiary. “I don’t use this term very often, but we are excited about this project.”
The suite life
Independence officials hope to appeal to hockey fans who like the VIP suites as well as those who want to get close to the action.
For each game, a limited number of “glass” tickets will be available that allow fans to sit just on the other side of the boards. Those fans can visit the President’s Club. “Independence is a warm and inviting community, and we wanted people to feel welcome,” Reimal said.
The President’s Club will feature two 20-inch bronze renderings of the familiar Harry Truman silhouette used around Independence to designate historic sites. The bar’s countertop will be a green granite from Madagascar with the industry name Aphrodite. Even Harry Truman liked a little bourbon in his branch water.
Open house Saturday
An open house for the new Independence Events Center is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. It is free. The facility is immediately southeast of the Interstate 70 and Missouri 291 junction. |