Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - [News] UPD: City of Glendale to vote on new arena agreement with Coyotes

troutman · 06-03-2015, 10:03 AM

I believe CasualFan on HF Boards is a lawyer in the US, and he always seems to have a good grip on the situation:

Here’s a more genuine Q&A about Y2 of Ice Arizona

Q: Are revenues up this year?
A: Yes. Approximately 17% higher than last year

Q: Are expenses also up this year?
A: Yes. Approximately 10% higher than last year because the AMF was pro-rata last year and full $15MM this year

Q: Are hockey revenues up?
A: No. They are not. Ticket and Parking are down from last year

Q: So where did the revenue increase come from?
A: Non-hockey event revenue is up.

Q: That’s great but couldn’t any arena manager program the arena for those types of events?
A: Yes. Of course they could

Q: And wouldn’t a legitimate arena manager share more non-hockey revenue than the surcharge and parking that IA sends to the city?
A: Yes. You can look up the RFPs to see exactly how much better those management offers were

Q: So when LeBlanc says revenues are up it has nothing to do with the Coyotes?
A: Not really, unless you believe that Taylor Swift will only perform at GRA if the team is a tenant of the building. The naming rights are worth about 3x more with a pro sports team in the building though.

Q: Anthony is bragging about money going to the city but in reality the city would far better off financially with one of the RFP vendors programming NHE instead of the $15MM AMF?
A: Yes. That is a fact

Q: The team is losing money, the city is losing money and this is all very positive?
A: According to Tony, yes.

Q: Well that’s pretty disingenuous?
A: Yes, it is.

It does seem that Anthony is trying to get out in front of the story. He likely knows what the political talking points are going to be already so it makes sense for him to do a media tour to promote his framing of the data sets. It sure is sad that he will not have his local hack Morgan to parrot his talking points any more.

The Arena Finance Reports for FY15 are all public documents. In reviewing them, it seems like IA is kiting assets and liabilities across the various LLCs. From Glendale's perspective, this might be problematic - not that "Team Owners claimed operating income or loss" from Lease Sec 3.3 has any GAAP definition to audit against to begin with. It's almost like the contact was intentionally drafted to provide maximum ambiguity...

Regardless, it is pretty easy to see how someone like Tavares might end up saying the team lost more than they reported because the team offloaded multiple liabilities to the Arena LLC. Among the curious items on the arena balance sheet is a $22M asset that is amortized. Part of the FIG loan (or other debt mechanism) was apparently booked against the Arena LLC. There's some fairly wacky accounting going on between Hockey LLC, Arena LLC, and Holdings LLC. If Hugh(es) has a majority, and that majority directs staff to unwind this, it will not likely be a breach but it will almost certainly be as entertaining as any Enron-type corporate mischief.

http://hfboards.hockeysfuture.com/sh...896079&page=25

06-03-2015, 10:03 AM	#148
troutman Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Crowsnest Pass Exp:	I believe CasualFan on HF Boards is a lawyer in the US, and he always seems to have a good grip on the situation: Here’s a more genuine Q&A about Y2 of Ice Arizona Q: Are revenues up this year? A: Yes. Approximately 17% higher than last year Q: Are expenses also up this year? A: Yes. Approximately 10% higher than last year because the AMF was pro-rata last year and full $15MM this year Q: Are hockey revenues up? A: No. They are not. Ticket and Parking are down from last year Q: So where did the revenue increase come from? A: Non-hockey event revenue is up. Q: That’s great but couldn’t any arena manager program the arena for those types of events? A: Yes. Of course they could Q: And wouldn’t a legitimate arena manager share more non-hockey revenue than the surcharge and parking that IA sends to the city? A: Yes. You can look up the RFPs to see exactly how much better those management offers were Q: So when LeBlanc says revenues are up it has nothing to do with the Coyotes? A: Not really, unless you believe that Taylor Swift will only perform at GRA if the team is a tenant of the building. The naming rights are worth about 3x more with a pro sports team in the building though. Q: Anthony is bragging about money going to the city but in reality the city would far better off financially with one of the RFP vendors programming NHE instead of the $15MM AMF? A: Yes. That is a fact Q: The team is losing money, the city is losing money and this is all very positive? A: According to Tony, yes. Q: Well that’s pretty disingenuous? A: Yes, it is. It does seem that Anthony is trying to get out in front of the story. He likely knows what the political talking points are going to be already so it makes sense for him to do a media tour to promote his framing of the data sets. It sure is sad that he will not have his local hack Morgan to parrot his talking points any more. The Arena Finance Reports for FY15 are all public documents. In reviewing them, it seems like IA is kiting assets and liabilities across the various LLCs. From Glendale's perspective, this might be problematic - not that "Team Owners claimed operating income or loss" from Lease Sec 3.3 has any GAAP definition to audit against to begin with. It's almost like the contact was intentionally drafted to provide maximum ambiguity... Regardless, it is pretty easy to see how someone like Tavares might end up saying the team lost more than they reported because the team offloaded multiple liabilities to the Arena LLC. Among the curious items on the arena balance sheet is a $22M asset that is amortized. Part of the FIG loan (or other debt mechanism) was apparently booked against the Arena LLC. There's some fairly wacky accounting going on between Hockey LLC, Arena LLC, and Holdings LLC. If Hugh(es) has a majority, and that majority directs staff to unwind this, it will not likely be a breach but it will almost certainly be as entertaining as any Enron-type corporate mischief. http://hfboards.hockeysfuture.com/sh...896079&page=25 Last edited by troutman; 06-03-2015 at 10:06 AM.