The Greeley City Council will vote on the city’s lease with the Colorado Eagles next week, after reviewing the contract in further detail on Tuesday.
The lease is critical to the Catalyst entertainment district project that was the subject of the prior week’s heated discussion.
Originally scheduled for approval on Sept. 2, the principal and primary terms between the city and the Colorado Eagles minor league hockey team received special attention on Tuesday. Chief Operating Officer Blair Snow, attorney Brian Wildstein and Ashley Stiles, a member of the city’s owner representation team, highlighted recent changes to the contract as well as some hard numbers regarding anticipated revenue.
Under the proposed lease agreement, the Eagles will pay between $20,000 and $22,000 per game held at the arena, resulting in at least $792,000 to be paid to the city for a season of hockey. This is significantly more than the Eagles are paying at the Blue Arena, which is $13,750 per game, Stiles said.
As part of this agreement, the usage cost will increase by 10% every five years, reaching a total of $47,210 for every game with fewer than 5,000 tickets sold. Additionally, the city will also receive 70% of parking fees, 90% of revenue for youth hockey games and 50% of revenue for college hockey games, only needing to share revenue if youth and college games are held in the main arena.
According to Snow, when all revenue sources are added up across the Catalyst entertainment district and expenses are paid across the city, Catalyst will have generated $126 million in revenue by 2038.
“I think a really important point for me is the negotiators, the third-party consultants that we have hired to negotiate this lease for us, are known as the leaders in the industry,” Mayor John Gates said. “I haven’t seen anything that would make me suggest that we’ve been taken out behind the woodshed and beaten out of our wallets.”
Despite such assurances from city officials, the project continues to generate tension and division among Greeley residents and even council members.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Councilman Tommy Butler questioned whether a 50/50 split on concessions and beverages was fair and if any true negotiating was performed. Butler, along with Councilwoman Deb Deboutez, have voted against the project’s advancement.
“I don’t think that there was ever a term in here where we just accepted what was asked,” Stiles said. “I believe that where we are right now is the best that we could get on both sides.”
Councilman Johnny Olson proceeded to criticize Butler. Regardless of the answers they would receive, Olson said, Butler would still vote against the project and continue to delay it.
Olson then asked city staff about how often tickets for Eagles games have sold out at the Blue Arena. Stiles answered that 90% of all the Eagles’ games over the past 25 years have been sold out and emphasized that it’s crucial for the city to secure this contract.
At the Sept. 2 meeting, several people provided public comments primarily about the Catalyst project for nearly an hour, despite Gates restricting individual speakers’ times to two minutes in the interest of time. Though most speakers expressing support or opposition to the project kept their comments civil at the podium, council members and speakers complained of heckling from people in the back of the council chambers.
“I understand that the topic at hand is deeply personal and emotional for many. Passionate dialogue is a cornerstone of democracy, and I fully support every citizen’s right to voice their opinions,” Olson said in an opinion submission to the Tribune. “However, what occurred at the meeting went far beyond passionate discourse. The interruptions, name-calling, and heckling — especially toward a grieving mother sharing the story of her late son — were not only inappropriate but deeply hurtful.”
After that same meeting, a 71-year-old resident who has opposed the project was accused of starting a physical altercation with another woman and cited for harassment by police, though others have accused the woman who was not cited of starting the altercation. Body-camera footage of the woman’s detainment acquired by Tanner Schwindt of Good Morning NOCO shows at-large city council candidate Antonio Molina-Haro calling Chief of Police Adam Turk several vulgar names during the incident.
The city council is scheduled to vote on the principal and primary terms of the contract at its next public meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Council Chambers at 1100 10th St. The final agreement will be reviewed and signed by the council at a later date before construction on the arena begins.
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