Post by aggiejazz on Jan 27, 2008 20:47:19 GMT -5
NATIONAL NEWS
EXCLUSIVE: MEAC Torney Will Leave Raleigh
by Cash Michaels
Special to the NNPA from the Carolinian
RALEIGH, N.C. (NNPA) - Any hopes that the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Basketball Tournament will flourish in Raleigh have now been dashed.
The Carolinian has confirmed that the City of Raleigh will not renew its contract with the NCAA Division 1 historically Black university conference after it plays its next games at the RBC Center, scheduled for March 10-15, 2008.
That makes the third major Black collegiate sporting event to leave the Capitol City in the past three years. The CIAA Basketball Tournament left in 2005, the same year the Aggie-Eagle Labor Day Football Classic between North Carolina Central University and NC A&T University was stopped.
In his first public words, Mayor Meeker told The Carolinian Wednesday morning that Gale Force Sports & Entertainment, the group contracted with the RBC Center’s governing Centennial Authority, had indicated that the MEAC Tournament may be a hopeless economic case.
“Gale Force has indicated that they cannot keep the arena available unless there’s some additional payment of $300,000, which is really beyond what is reasonable for a tournament of this size,” Meeker said.
Not only was RBC Center losing money, but the city and Wake County, which jointly bankrolled efforts to promote the MEAC, were as well.
“The city and county together have put in about $400,000 in the past two years, and the tax revenue [generated from the games] to the city and county has been about $230,000, so there’s been a loss there,” Meeker said.
Even the prospect of NCCU and Winston-Salem State becoming active members of the MEAC in coming years didn’t promise any considerable revenue improvement to Raleigh, the mayor confirmed.
Meeker said he’s been trying to get in touch with MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas to tell him, and was in the process of sending him a letter detailing the city’s decision.
“He’s aware there’s an issue here,” Meeker said, later adding “ Really [the decision] is pretty final.”
“It has been a struggle; it’s definitely not where the CIAA was when it came here,” Mayor Pro-tem and District C City Councilman James West told The Carolinian. West said his heart tells him to fight for the tournament, but reality tells him otherwise.
“We really don’t see at any point in the near future of the [MEAC Tournament] even breaking even,” West admitted.
The Carolinian Newspaper obtained a copy of that Nov. 15 letter to Mayor Meeker from Davin P. Olsen, vice president and general manager of the RBC Center.
“In regards to your last meeting concerning negotiations for the next three-year term of the MEAC Tournament, I have the responsibility to inform you that Gale Force Sports & Entertainment can no longer support this event,” Olsen wrote.
“We have reviewed the financial statements from 2006, 2007, as well as the projected 2008 statement, and as an organization we feel that other events would offer more financially rewarding opportunities, including Carolina Hurricanes games and concerts.”
Olsen’s letter continued, “As I have stated in prior conversations, the net revenue that we receive from the MEAC Tournament does not outweigh other business opportunities that we miss as a result of the current contract. For example [Gale Force] recently lost a major concert tour on the Tuesday of this year’s MEAC, which would have provided greater net revenue than that of the entire MEAC week.”
“Therefore, I respectfully request that [Gale Force]/RBC Center not be included as a partner with the MEAC Tournament in future contract negotiations,” Olsen’s letter concludes.”
The Carolinian called Mr. Olsen’s Office at the RBC Center for comment Wednesday, and left word. He did not return the call by press time.
Bill Mullin, the immediate past chairman of the Centennial Authority, the RBC Center’s governing body, said the Authority was “never a party” to the final decision.
On the copy of the letter The Carolinian received from the mayor, he wrote in the corner, “We need to discuss this in the very near future. Charles.” and dated it “11-16-07,” an apparent note to either city staff or City Council members.
That’s significant because when Mayor Meeker met with local black leaders at the Raleigh Business and Technology Center on Monday, Nov. 19, he seemed to indicate that negotiations for a second three-year-contract for the MEAC to stay in Raleigh were underway.
Meeker said nothing about Gale Force’s concerns about the MEAC at that meeting, though he did seem to indicate that there were issues that had to be contended with.
Former Raleigh City Councilman Brad Thompson, president of Brad Thompson & Associates, a public and government relations consulting firm, was disappointed to hear the MEAC news.
“It’s disappointing if we’re not able to sustain the MEAC here,” Thompson told The Carolinian Wednesday. “Obviously it’s an event that captures the spirit of many, but obviously attendance has been disappointing. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have the potential to be a good event...Its leaving Raleigh will be a loss.”
MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas was not available in his Virginia Beach, Va. office when The Carolinian called for comment Wednesday.
The MEAC now in its 38th year of operation and born in Durham in 1969, consists of twelve historically black institutions along the Atlantic Coast from Washington, D.C to Florida.
North Carolina A & T University in Greensboro and Winston-Salem State University are presently the only MEAC members in the state.
WSSU is not eligible for NCAA Division 1 play until 2010-11. North Carolina Central University was one of the original seven founding member institutions before it first left the CIAA over 30 years ago. The first two MEAC Basketball Tournaments were played in Durham in 1972 and 1973 at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Duke University’s campus.
The MEAC brought its basketball tournament to Raleigh in 2006 from Richmond, Va. in hopes that an18,500-seat arena like the RBC Center would attract more attendance, and put it in line to grow and prosper as the CIAA Basketball Tournament did in Raleigh from 1999-2005.
The men and women’s championship teams of the MEAC Tourney get automatic berths to the NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament.
According to the Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau, during the MEAC’s first weeklong tourney in Raleigh in 2006, 22,508 people attended, up substantially from the 15,015 that hit the turnstiles in Richmond in 2005.
Total visitor spending to Raleigh in 2006 was calculated at $3,372,999 yielding a total state and local tax revenue take of just $274,242 in hotel, meal and sales taxes.
When the MEAC returned to Raleigh in March 2007, the weeklong attendance increased by 35 percent to 30,452, a 103 percent increase over Richmond’s 2005 attendance.
Total visitor spending increased to $4,141,057, a 22 percent increase over 2006, and $343,884 in total state and local tax revenue was collected.
Raleigh officials had hoped MEAC attendance would at least reach 55,000 by now.
In comparison, the 2005 CIAA Division II Basketball Tournament, after six years of growth in Raleigh, attracted over 110,000 ticket holders and generated over $12 million for the local economy.
''We believe that by the end of [the] third year, because of enthusiasm, we'll see the turnstiles and financial impact [of the MEAC Tournament] be what the CIAA was in year six,'' Raleigh Assistant City Manager Lawrence Wray told The News and Observer in Feb. 2006, the first year of the MEAC ‘s now ending three-year contract.
But with both the city and the RBC Center losing money hand over fist, projections simply didn’t forecast those numbers dramatically improving in time for the MEAC to be profitable, city officials say.
The decision is ironic. Just last week the announcement was made that former CIAA champions North Carolina Central University in Durham and Winston-Salem State University would play a special bonus game in between the MEAC women and men’s championship games on Saturday, March 15.
The move was made to generate some local excitement for ticket sales, especially since NCCU is expected to be accepted as a member of the MEAC by 2009.
“We want to galvanize the Eagle and Ram fans base, alumni and students to experience what our tournament is all about,” MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas said then.
But according to sources, the unlikely prospect of MEAC returning to Raleigh after 2008 was pretty much a done deal by then, and Thomas had to at least be aware how slim the league’s chances for renewal were.
Kyle Serba, NCCU sports information director, said the school would have no comment since NCCU is not a MEAC member yet.
Councilman West says an “alternative African-American event” is being considered now to help build Raleigh’s image as a “destination city” for African-American tourists from across the state and nation.
“Right now we’re brainstorming ideas, and I’m of the opinion that if we get that kind of commitment that we can do some things that are world-class.”
EXCLUSIVE: MEAC Torney Will Leave Raleigh
by Cash Michaels
Special to the NNPA from the Carolinian
RALEIGH, N.C. (NNPA) - Any hopes that the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Basketball Tournament will flourish in Raleigh have now been dashed.
The Carolinian has confirmed that the City of Raleigh will not renew its contract with the NCAA Division 1 historically Black university conference after it plays its next games at the RBC Center, scheduled for March 10-15, 2008.
That makes the third major Black collegiate sporting event to leave the Capitol City in the past three years. The CIAA Basketball Tournament left in 2005, the same year the Aggie-Eagle Labor Day Football Classic between North Carolina Central University and NC A&T University was stopped.
In his first public words, Mayor Meeker told The Carolinian Wednesday morning that Gale Force Sports & Entertainment, the group contracted with the RBC Center’s governing Centennial Authority, had indicated that the MEAC Tournament may be a hopeless economic case.
“Gale Force has indicated that they cannot keep the arena available unless there’s some additional payment of $300,000, which is really beyond what is reasonable for a tournament of this size,” Meeker said.
Not only was RBC Center losing money, but the city and Wake County, which jointly bankrolled efforts to promote the MEAC, were as well.
“The city and county together have put in about $400,000 in the past two years, and the tax revenue [generated from the games] to the city and county has been about $230,000, so there’s been a loss there,” Meeker said.
Even the prospect of NCCU and Winston-Salem State becoming active members of the MEAC in coming years didn’t promise any considerable revenue improvement to Raleigh, the mayor confirmed.
Meeker said he’s been trying to get in touch with MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas to tell him, and was in the process of sending him a letter detailing the city’s decision.
“He’s aware there’s an issue here,” Meeker said, later adding “ Really [the decision] is pretty final.”
“It has been a struggle; it’s definitely not where the CIAA was when it came here,” Mayor Pro-tem and District C City Councilman James West told The Carolinian. West said his heart tells him to fight for the tournament, but reality tells him otherwise.
“We really don’t see at any point in the near future of the [MEAC Tournament] even breaking even,” West admitted.
The Carolinian Newspaper obtained a copy of that Nov. 15 letter to Mayor Meeker from Davin P. Olsen, vice president and general manager of the RBC Center.
“In regards to your last meeting concerning negotiations for the next three-year term of the MEAC Tournament, I have the responsibility to inform you that Gale Force Sports & Entertainment can no longer support this event,” Olsen wrote.
“We have reviewed the financial statements from 2006, 2007, as well as the projected 2008 statement, and as an organization we feel that other events would offer more financially rewarding opportunities, including Carolina Hurricanes games and concerts.”
Olsen’s letter continued, “As I have stated in prior conversations, the net revenue that we receive from the MEAC Tournament does not outweigh other business opportunities that we miss as a result of the current contract. For example [Gale Force] recently lost a major concert tour on the Tuesday of this year’s MEAC, which would have provided greater net revenue than that of the entire MEAC week.”
“Therefore, I respectfully request that [Gale Force]/RBC Center not be included as a partner with the MEAC Tournament in future contract negotiations,” Olsen’s letter concludes.”
The Carolinian called Mr. Olsen’s Office at the RBC Center for comment Wednesday, and left word. He did not return the call by press time.
Bill Mullin, the immediate past chairman of the Centennial Authority, the RBC Center’s governing body, said the Authority was “never a party” to the final decision.
On the copy of the letter The Carolinian received from the mayor, he wrote in the corner, “We need to discuss this in the very near future. Charles.” and dated it “11-16-07,” an apparent note to either city staff or City Council members.
That’s significant because when Mayor Meeker met with local black leaders at the Raleigh Business and Technology Center on Monday, Nov. 19, he seemed to indicate that negotiations for a second three-year-contract for the MEAC to stay in Raleigh were underway.
Meeker said nothing about Gale Force’s concerns about the MEAC at that meeting, though he did seem to indicate that there were issues that had to be contended with.
Former Raleigh City Councilman Brad Thompson, president of Brad Thompson & Associates, a public and government relations consulting firm, was disappointed to hear the MEAC news.
“It’s disappointing if we’re not able to sustain the MEAC here,” Thompson told The Carolinian Wednesday. “Obviously it’s an event that captures the spirit of many, but obviously attendance has been disappointing. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have the potential to be a good event...Its leaving Raleigh will be a loss.”
MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas was not available in his Virginia Beach, Va. office when The Carolinian called for comment Wednesday.
The MEAC now in its 38th year of operation and born in Durham in 1969, consists of twelve historically black institutions along the Atlantic Coast from Washington, D.C to Florida.
North Carolina A & T University in Greensboro and Winston-Salem State University are presently the only MEAC members in the state.
WSSU is not eligible for NCAA Division 1 play until 2010-11. North Carolina Central University was one of the original seven founding member institutions before it first left the CIAA over 30 years ago. The first two MEAC Basketball Tournaments were played in Durham in 1972 and 1973 at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Duke University’s campus.
The MEAC brought its basketball tournament to Raleigh in 2006 from Richmond, Va. in hopes that an18,500-seat arena like the RBC Center would attract more attendance, and put it in line to grow and prosper as the CIAA Basketball Tournament did in Raleigh from 1999-2005.
The men and women’s championship teams of the MEAC Tourney get automatic berths to the NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament.
According to the Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau, during the MEAC’s first weeklong tourney in Raleigh in 2006, 22,508 people attended, up substantially from the 15,015 that hit the turnstiles in Richmond in 2005.
Total visitor spending to Raleigh in 2006 was calculated at $3,372,999 yielding a total state and local tax revenue take of just $274,242 in hotel, meal and sales taxes.
When the MEAC returned to Raleigh in March 2007, the weeklong attendance increased by 35 percent to 30,452, a 103 percent increase over Richmond’s 2005 attendance.
Total visitor spending increased to $4,141,057, a 22 percent increase over 2006, and $343,884 in total state and local tax revenue was collected.
Raleigh officials had hoped MEAC attendance would at least reach 55,000 by now.
In comparison, the 2005 CIAA Division II Basketball Tournament, after six years of growth in Raleigh, attracted over 110,000 ticket holders and generated over $12 million for the local economy.
''We believe that by the end of [the] third year, because of enthusiasm, we'll see the turnstiles and financial impact [of the MEAC Tournament] be what the CIAA was in year six,'' Raleigh Assistant City Manager Lawrence Wray told The News and Observer in Feb. 2006, the first year of the MEAC ‘s now ending three-year contract.
But with both the city and the RBC Center losing money hand over fist, projections simply didn’t forecast those numbers dramatically improving in time for the MEAC to be profitable, city officials say.
The decision is ironic. Just last week the announcement was made that former CIAA champions North Carolina Central University in Durham and Winston-Salem State University would play a special bonus game in between the MEAC women and men’s championship games on Saturday, March 15.
The move was made to generate some local excitement for ticket sales, especially since NCCU is expected to be accepted as a member of the MEAC by 2009.
“We want to galvanize the Eagle and Ram fans base, alumni and students to experience what our tournament is all about,” MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas said then.
But according to sources, the unlikely prospect of MEAC returning to Raleigh after 2008 was pretty much a done deal by then, and Thomas had to at least be aware how slim the league’s chances for renewal were.
Kyle Serba, NCCU sports information director, said the school would have no comment since NCCU is not a MEAC member yet.
Councilman West says an “alternative African-American event” is being considered now to help build Raleigh’s image as a “destination city” for African-American tourists from across the state and nation.
“Right now we’re brainstorming ideas, and I’m of the opinion that if we get that kind of commitment that we can do some things that are world-class.”
... is norfolk.. va.beach ready for a springbreak type environment... greeknick at the harbor.... concerts... step shows... meac idol... etc... etc... 