Quote:
Originally Posted by calgarygeologist
The Stampede easily brings in tens of millions from parking every year. Not only do they have Flames, Hitmen and Roughnecks as regular events in the winter but they also have weekly events at the BMO Centre and other buildings and they have a few dozen concerts a year. They also get some daily revenue from casino parking.
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You missed the 10-day event, where even though most of the parking spaces are occupied by the actual festival, they proably turnover any remaining lots 2-3 times each day.
Those other events are immaterial to the conversation, though. Flames, Hitmen and Roughnecks and concerts are all that matters to this. Also, the lack of parking revenue would certainly have been considered in the deal when the Flames bought operating rights and in whatever annual fees they pay. If they got the parking revenue, then they'd be paying more for the rights to it...just as it factored in to the Stampede's contracts with the city.
I have the Stampede's rough revenue breakdown jotted down from years ago, so I'll see if I can dig it up (but again, that will be their total revenue, not Flames related revenue). At a quick glance on google, I see about 3000 spots that would be paid for on a busy night (not including Flames parkade and surrounding surface lots..I assume Flames operates those and gets the revenue, can anyone confirm?)...there's probably another 500-1000 spots mixed in there, but it's important to remember that there would be a few hundred non-paid vehicles, and it's possible that some spots are already occupied for other events at Stampede, and therefore unavailable to be sold as 'Flames related revenue'.
Anyways, let's throw out a generous 3500 number for 50 busiest nights (Flames, big concerts) and 2500 for Hitmen, Roughnecks and non-sell out shows..say 70 nights. I'll save showing my work, but that works out to $5.25M assuming $15 per vehicle. I think we could probably agree that 'Flames related parking revenue' falls somewhere between 3-6M per year...the middle point of $4.5M seems like a reasonable estimate.
And remember, this is just revenue. The expenses involved in running a giant parking lot are pretty low considering the revenue, but there are still staff costs, maintenance costs (short term, ie. snow removal, etc. and long-term, paving, painting), the electricity bill for street lights, etc. The Stampede has a park patrol/security dept. too...they certainly staff more on nights when 15000 people (many of which are drunk) spill out than dark nights...and some of those drunks inevitably lead to some vandalism/destruction of property (obviously not every night, but the 'wear and tear' costs of having that many people through your property every year are going to add up to 5-6 figures in the end). Lots of little costs that do add up... and that's not including the costs associated with the land itself (which are largely irrelevant here).
Also, let's remember the CNext plan currently has 2600? parking spots...and those wouldn't all be paid spots every night either, and the Flames would then be paying for all of the aforementioned expenses.