Cloud of uncertainty hangs over new Saginaw Sting

[UnoBomber]

Well this is interesting....

www.mlive.com/sports/saginaw/index.ssf/2010/12/cloud_hangs_over_new_saginaw_s.html

[Free Agent Fan]

Someone did some extensive research on that article.

[js380]

Lets hope the sting get things worked out.
I am a EKY drillers fan and don't wanna see
this kind of thing happen to any team before the
season even kicks off. But that is the life of a indoor
football fan in these economic times.

[scooter]

I found this at the bottom of the article Mitch posted.....

Deal requires Saginaw Sting to lessen financial risk for Dow Event Center, county
Published: Sunday, December 12, 2010, 5:15 AM Updated: Sunday, December 12, 2010, 7:27 AM


SAGINAW — Officials from The Dow Event Center and Saginaw County say they are aware of the tenuous nature of indoor football as a business.

That’s the reason, said The Dow General Manager Matt Blasy, that leaders have adopted safeguards to ensure local sponsors, patrons and taxpayers aren’t financially liable for the new Saginaw Sting.

Blasy said the Sting will pay about 80 percent of its season costs with a preseason deposit before it starts its seven-game home schedule Feb. 18.

“Any time you bring minor league indoor football, there’s some risk tied to it,” said Blasy, who works for the professional management company SMG in running the Event Center.

“We knew that going into it, so we offset that by working out the deal to where the deposit would have pretty much all of our costs up front.”

In addition, any sponsors would pay their fees in full to SMG, not to the Saginaw Sting, before the season. SMG would hold the money in escrow and dole out the appropriate amount to the team after each home game played.

Gate receipts also are controlled by SMG, not the team, and ticket-holders would be refunded for any home games that are not played.

“They don’t control any of the dollars that are coming in,” Blasy said of the team, owned by Andrew Haines of Canton, Ohio. “We do.”

The Sting is Saginaw’s second attempt at indoor football. A separate team by the same name operated from 2008-09. Blasy said the same financial management system was used with the previous Saginaw Sting.

The arena is owned by Saginaw County. County Controller Marc McGill said The Dow seeks its own events with little input from the county and is instructed to minimize financial risk however possible.

“We do tell them one thing, which is that we don’t want to go at risk with these sporting events,” McGill said.

“When you have the second- or third-tier of sports like we do with arena football, then you have these leagues that get created, grow, shrink and close. You’re going to run the risk of having that.”

Blasy declined to make the terms of the Sting’s lease available. Since the agreement is between the tenant and SMG, it is not a public document.

Blasy and McGill say they hope this version of the Sting will succeed but have protected themselves in the event that it does not.

“We’d like to have somebody with some stability and run a few seasons and make a go at it and create some sort of a fan base and some excitement,” McGill said.

“But you run the risk of that not happening because of the type of leagues they are.”

Former Saginaw Mayor Paul Wendler — for whom the Event Center arena is named — has watched organizations come and go. He said many of the short-lived ownership groups failed because they didn’t put enough money into the teams.

“They all tried to nickel-and-dime the operation,” Wendler said, “and don’t have the money behind them.

“They thought they were going to turn a profit. When they didn’t do it, they started losing money, they wanted to get out.”

Wendler said he enjo.iyed going to Sting games in 2008 and 2009, and hopes indoor football can make it in Saginaw.

“I hope they do well,” Wendler said. “But we all know the economic times are bad right now.”