Ryan Center resorting to reserve fund to cover deficit

02/19/09 - The Ryan Center at the University of Rhode Island is also feeling the effect of the worsening economy, as the $54 million arena has failed to meet the expected total revenue projected by the school's administration since its opening in 2002.Right now, the Ryan Center has a $1.1 million operational deficit, which will be partly covered this year by a dwindling reserve fund.

While Vice President of Administration Robert Weygand said the venue would never go under, he admitted there are going to be some changes in the university's business plan to turn a reasonable profit. He added these changes have to happen, as the reserve fund's balance will be negligible after this year.

He said there has been considerably less turnout than expected for most events, the only exceptions being a few like Jay Leno or Kanye West, put on by the Student Entertainment Committee.

"There has been a general decline in almost all events in terms of attendance," Weygand said. "The fact is this, whether they're students or adults, they're finding other places to get their entertainment."

Terry Butler, the general manager for the Ryan Center, said the country's current financial situation has also negatively affected the frequency of events at the Ryan Center, "as many artists currently are not touring, which obviously affects the amount of shows available."

Butler added that the Ryan Center administration is always on the lookout for more efficient and effective ways to advertise the events they are putting on. While they do use an independent promoter, it does not mean the promoter does all the work.

"The promoter sets the advertising budget, but our marketing department works with the local media to place spots," he said. "For a show like Sesame Street Live, for next year we discussed the time period and will move the show to another month, as we think right after the Christmas holiday is not a good time for a show."

He said the two biggest problems for the center are utility costs and lower than expected turnout for events. The Ryan Center works as a rentable venue. The company producing the show, Global Spectrum, rents the space and is responsible for promoting and organizing the event. URI's responsibilities are to ensure the building is kept clean, up to code, and to sell tickets for URI events.

Butler also said the Ryan Center is reaching out to garner more advertising and sponsorships for more events.

"To increase revenue, we recently partnered with the athletic department to hire a business development director," he said. "[This is] to secure increased advertising and sponsorships for both the Ryan Center and department of athletics."

Gregory Burke, the deputy director of the athletic department at URI, said while times are tough, URI will not start charging students for admission to URI basketball games.

"We reserve 1,500 free tickets to every home basketball game for the exclusive use of students," Burke said. "Over the past five years, we have allowed as many as 2,500 students in without a charge. There have been three times in the past five years that we have charged interested students for tickets, when we've gone over 2,000 free tickets."

Meg Couture, president of URI's Student Entertainment Committee, said there has been little to no noticeable drop in attendance for their events at the Ryan Center.

But senior wildlife conservation major Case Santos said that some of the concerts she has been to don't take advantage of the entire arena, and that could be the problem. "They put the stage in the middle of the venue to make it seem fuller, but it's just not," she said.

"We pretty much sold out Jason Mraz and we're doing really well with Brand New," she said. "This allows us to bring a few more concerts to the Ryan Center before the end of the semester. I really haven't seen a drop in [attendance,] because I think it's the bands that we bring instead of the economy [that draws students in]."

When asked for the dollar amount the SEC rents out the center for, Couture said the SEC contract does not allow her to reveal it.

The Ryan Center was intended to become a central venue for the Eastern Connecticut and Southern Rhode Island regions, akin to the Dunkin Donuts Civic Center in Providence.

"It's going to cover the same range of events as the Providence Civic Center, everything from wrestling to monster truck rallies," Kara Russo, former director of sales and marketing at the Ryan Center, said in a May 17, 2002 Good Five Cent Cigar article.

Weygand said the contract between URI and Global Spectrum has recently been restructured to reduce the management fees and increase profit incentives. The new contract will motivate Global Spectrum to increase its marketing performance.

He said utility expenses would be reduced as well, because seemingly ever-increasing utility costs are a big detriment to university profits from the Ryan Center.

"We're subject to whatever the Public Utilities Commission puts out there in terms of utilities rates," Weygand said. "About 37 percent of our operating costs at Boss arena is electricity alone. That's extremely high."

He also pointed out that the utility costs do not go down if there are less people using the venue. If very few people show up at a basketball game, they would still have to pay the same lighting costs if the arena were sold out.

Butler said the Ryan Center has been behind energy audits this year, and the administration has had concerns about the inflexibility of the arena lights for several years. The lighting system does not allow the Ryan Center staff to dim lights or select certain lights to be on while others are off. But they have hired an energy consultant contractor called Noresco to help maximize energy efficiency.