More than a month ago, the Democrat and Chronicle filed what seemed like a simple records request with the city of Rochester. The newspaper asked for records of ticket sales, concessions and team contracts (read: leases) that would spell out revenue sharing and use terms for Blue Cross Arena at the Community War Memorial.
We had written about these matters before, and getting the records never had been an issue. There were reports on how the Amerks, in the years before being sold, had begun giving away tickets to prop up falling attendance – ultimately giving away 50,000 more tickets than they sold during the losing 2007-08 season. During lease negotiations, we detailed how concessions revenue is divided as the teams argued for more.
The city budget annually reports the city's cut in aggregate. Getting the detail behind those numbers is important, particularly given that the city-owned facility relied on $1.7 million in hotel/motel and property tax subsidies this year. Continue>>>
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