Opening Night—Did We Make any Money?

July 19, 2011 Having perverted the old saying to now read, "If we build it, they will pay for it," (Yes, that’s St. Lawrence and his board pointing to the Ramapo taxpayers), the big question becomes, "How are we going to pay for even the debt service on this $70 million monster?" A quick analysis of the money on opening night isn’t very reassuring.

The photo above is a screen capture from Peter Carr’s video that’s still available on the LoHud website. It has an ironic caption because this was not during warm-ups—it’s during the game--with a crack of the bat, the sequence ends with Blevins (the pitcher) running toward first to cover.

Statistics submitted to the league by Bottom 9 Baseball claimed there were 6,317 on opening night (June 16) at Provident Bank Park. This stat was posted despite the following, problematic claim, which is currently on the Boulder’s website—in the FAQ section:

"What is the seating capacity of the ballpark?"

"The Town will be constructing a quaint ballpark that has approximately 3,500 fixed seats and 750 berm seats. The size will be similar to Dutchess County Stadium home of the Hudson Valley Renegades."

So there are 4,250 seats and 6,317 showed up that first night? A lot of standees, I guess, but that sort of begs the question, where were they standing? And where did those holding the empty seats in the Carr video wander off to?

An Accounting
Well, for this analysis we will accept these claims and calculate from the lease agreement what sort of profits and losses relate just to opening night.

The lease that was hammered out on the heads of the Ramapo residents by Supervisor St. Lawrence and Bottom 9 has the taxpayers sharing about a dime on a dollar of profits from ticket sales. According to the printed schedule from Bottom 9, the tickets are: $8, $11, $13 (first and third baselines—the empty seats in Carr’s video), and $16 behind home plate. The taxpayers who shouldered the $70 million burden for the stadium for this group gets back a pathetic $1 for each ticket sold, whether it’s $8 or $16.

So we’ll make the obviously flawed assumption that everyone paid for their ticket opening night (unlikely because there were a lot of local politicians there) and that the reported 6,317 were there filling the seats. That’s $6,317 to help pay back the taxpayers.

And the arrangement for parking also brings in revenues to the Town (taxpayers, that is). Two dollars per car parked in the stadium lot. Now if you estimate three people per car, that’s 2,106 cars, but they wouldn’t all fit in the lot, so the Town hired buses to transfer people back and forth between three offsite parking lots. So we’ll estimate high at 2,000 paying the onsite parking, which will create a second line of revenue at $4,000.

So far, the Town (the taxpayers) have two account payables at $6,317 and $4,000 to run a nice profit of $10,317.

But wait, there were a few expenses. The first of which was the police presence, paid for by the Town (taxpayers) to the Ramapo Police personnel.

Here’s the bill for the police on opening night:

"Police Staffing Opening Night, June 16, 2011, at Provident Bank Park. All staffing done using overtime."

Name

Hours

Total

Sgt Colbath

9

$939.03

Sgt Bassett

9

$887.76

PO Youngman

10

$851.60

PO Quinn

8.5

$738.06

PO Rogers

8.5

$723.86

PO Cooperstein

7.5

$564.00

PO S. Lee

8.5

$752.25

PO Tighe

10

$951.90

Det Schwartz

10

$1,053.90

Det Byrnes

10

$1,056.00

PO Luba

10

$985.20

PO Proctor

10

$868.40

PO Kane

9

$781.56

PO Edwards

8.5

$823.31

PO Lieman

8.5

$639.20

$12,616.03

Well, it seems the cost of the police presence, at about $100 per hour/per officer/detective, has eaten up all the ticket sales and the parking for opening night.

But there’s another problem with both law enforcement and parking. Here’s the bill the Town (taxpayers) paid for six buses that transported attendees from three offsite lots to the ballpark:

Parks and Recreation Payments to Chestnut Ridge Transportation

Herb Reisman Complex

2 buses at $373.75

$747.50

Gene Levy Park

2 buses at $373.75

$747.50

JCC Parking Lot

2 buses at $373.75

$747.50

TOTAL

$2,245.50

　

　

　

　

　

　

The additional $2,245.50 creates an overall loss against our total for tickets sold and parking revenue. The two costs taken together ($14,861.53) eliminate the two main profit streams, tickets and parking $10,317, with a combined loss of $4,544.53.

But that’s not the only problem. The use of Town (taxpayer) funds to pay expenses for a private enterprise is illegal. There is nothing in the contract with Bottom 9 that requires the Town (taxpayers) to kick in for this kind of extra expense. Apparently, the Supervisor and/or Board just assume that the moneys (taxes) are there to be spent whenever and however they decide despite state law. It’s their "walking around money."

A complaint and request for an investigation over this particular expenditure has been sent to the Comptroller and the local District Attorney’s Office.

A Grim Bottom Line
So, if on the night with the largest crowd of the year, the Town is unable to cover incidental expenses, then the tens of millions in looming, long-term debt become even more disturbing.

But, what if the team makes the playoffs and extends the season and adds to the total revenues, you might ask. Well, that’s another problem. The first half of the season ended last week, and the team is in next to last place, 17 games out. The only team worse, the New York Federals, is really just a schedule-filler, they’re called a travelling team; they have no home park, and their record is a sad 10 Wins 39 Losses. The Boulders sit in 7th place at 20 Wins 28 Losses. And even if they were to mount a miracle second half, the Can-Am League has established a bizarre record with an average attendance in the playoffs that is less than the average attendance during the regular season.

For those who might hold out some hope for making up the difference in other revenues, like concession stand food and souvenir sales, there’s a problem there also. It appears the crack negotiators for the Town (St. Lawrence) kind of gave away the store on that also. The Town (taxpayers) are given a dime on a dollar for the food and twenty-cents on a dollar for the souvenirs. I don’t imagine there were $45,000 worth of hot dogs sold on opening night to absorb the losses to break even at zero. Although, maybe that’s where those empty seats were in the LoHud video, fighting over the mustard jars at the concession stand.

Michael Castelluccio
Preserve Ramapo
www.PreserveRamapo.org

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