Rent Free Arena for Panthers??

[Heanor Lair]

Interesting reading Mick Hollands comments in the Football Post last night stating how Amiens play rent free over in France, and indeed recieve payment to play their.

The comments made agree with what a number of Amiens fans said during conversations over there last wekend.

Represententative of the NIC are always at pains to tell us how committed the NIC to ice hockey in Nottingham (hmm.. tried to stop us using the Arena before last season, and cancels high profile matches in favour of other events that comes the NICs way, but never the less committed were led to believe).

Prehaps in showing a commitment to top flight ice hockey in Nottingham, maybe the NIC will offer to renegotiate its contract with the Panthers to play rent free or pay a token rent.

Finance should not be an issue to the NIC. Lower rent, lower ticket prices, more punters coming spending money on refreshments, in the ice shop, etc., all money in the pockets of the NIC.

Seems everyone would be a winner then.

Am are being too unrealistic about the commitment of the NIC to our sport, and in reality the NIC sees Nottingham Panthers as nothing other as cash cow??

Regards

HL

[Mark]

Very unrealistic I'd say.

Firstly, look at the two venues. The NIC is much larger than The Coliseum, obviously costs much more to run and it's size means it has much wider usage than The Coliseum. How many top concerts, Disney on ice events etc would Amiens attract in relation to Nottinghams NIC?

The NIC realistically doesn't need The Panthers to survive while in my opinion The Coliseum certainly needs The Gothiques.

The profits, from again my opinion, poor quality fast food and lousy beer would in no way cover the rental that The Panthers pay for use of the facilities and The NIC is a business and as such must strive to make a profit.

Finally, The NIC say they are committed to hockey in Nottingham but this does not infer that they are committed to Nottingham Panthers. At the inception of the Elite league they appeared to bend over backwards to be rid of us while wanting to set up their own team in the arena.

Maybe that's what they are really committed about?

[heja]

well actully the NIC does need the panthers to survive as if they are shown to not encourage ice sports then there backing could get pulled. (eg lottery money (sport england))

[Mark]

Read the post Tim, they might, and I stress might need a hockey team but do they need The Panthers?

The NIC is also a centre for figure skating and ice dance, it is they who recieve lottery grants etc.

The Panthers are a professional organization and as such recieve no funding. How much money do The Lions get from the lottery? Not a bean and they are essentially an amateur organization who could use the backing.

I doubt very much any funding would be withdrawn if The Panthers ceased to play in The NIC.

[Shaggy]

IIRC, as long as a certain percentage of the time is given to ice sports (not necessarily ice hockey, and certainly NOT necessarily the Panthers) then the NIC will be working within the rules for the lottery funding.

I suppose we could debate how much they get/need from this, that or the other.... but it's pretty obvious that they would be a lot worse off without a major ice hockey team based there...... and whilst they could conceivably set up a team to replace the Panthers..... they wouldn't have the fanbase, loyalty and existing organisation that the Panthers have. So basically - the two need each other, IMHO.

Oh - and the Lions get sod all from anything unless they go out and ask/demand/plead for it....... and not always then!

[Mythosman]

No Arena, at least no publicly owned one in Britain, can afford to take a hit of approximately £225,000 (estimated £9,000 per game x 25 games) on its balance sheet.

Yes, the NIC need top class hockey to help them meet their income targets because, under the conditions imposed by Sport England on their £22.5 million Lottery grant, they are only allowed to stage a limited number of concerts each year, and Elite League hockey is, for the moment at least, the only sport popular enough to attract good crowds on a regular basis.

One of the cornerstones of injecting National Lottery money into any project is that no individual should make a personal profit from it. Therefore, to hand a windfall over to Mr Black would be in breach of that principle.

Given that the Arena hire charge equates to approximately £2 per ticket for the average crowd, I'm sure the Panthers organisation (Aladdin Promotions) already have enough cash in the bank without giving them an added bonus to the detriment of the operation of the NIC as a whole?

However, just supposing that your ideal world came to pass, and the NIC said "OK Mr Black, from now on you can have free use of the facilities". Could we improve our squad with the extra money? Not under current wage cap regulations. Do you think that the ticket prices would fall by £2 per head? I don't think so! So where would the extra money go? Do I need to answer that?

The Gothiques are very lucky indeed with the apparent deal they have at the Coliseum, but the French have a very different take on sport to the British. Having spent 3 nights in Amiens last weekend, I have to say that a Gothiques match must be one of the social highlights in an otherwise very quiet town, so perhaps their investment is justified?

My only other comment (apologies Red and Black) is that if I had to watch the French type of hockey week, week out, where checking and fighting were judged to be suitable for punishment by the guillotine, I would probably change my favourite spectator sport to ladies beach volleyball - now there's an idea! - Mr Huckstep, Mr Huckstep ....