Allen County War Memorial Coliseum
Achieves Increases In Every Major Category
Of 2017 Year-End Results
FORT WAYNE, Ind. – By all accounts, the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum had a “very good year” in 2017 according to Executive Vice President & General Manager, Randy L. Brown, CVE, at the organization’s Board of Trustees annual meeting held on Friday, February 16.
Total attendance, which exceeded one million guests for the 27th consecutive year, use days, economic impact and net income all saw increases over 2016 figures. The biggest increase was in net income, up 39.6% to $61,426.
“At a time when many municipally owned and operated arena and convention venues across the country are a financial drain on their communities, the Memorial Coliseum continues to perform better than most venues in our industry,” Brown said. “100% of the 6.1 million of revenue for 2017 was earned revenue from the operations of the facility.”
The estimated economic impact to the community from the Coliseum operations also saw a double digit increase over 2016, up 11.92% to reach $116,121,766. Total attendance was 1,100,007, up 6.66% and use days saw an increase of 3.3% to 1,728, which consists of one room used for one event day.
Brown also reported that 98.42% of all client evaluations rated the Coliseum as “Excellent” or “Good” in a variety of different categories such as cleanliness, responsiveness of staff, employee courtesy, quality of food, price of services, parking availability and price and overall quality of experience.
In other business, the board elected its 2018 slate of officers. Dennis Sutton takes over as President, Mac Parker will be First Vice President, Phil GiaQuinta will serve as Second Vice President, Maye Johnson as Treasurer and Laura Rhoades as Secretary. William Fishering was re-appointed as the Coliseum attorney by unanimous vote.
In the 67-year history of the facility, Parker has served the most number of years as president of the board. After the election, he took time to thank the county commissioners for appointing him, fellow board members for their dedication and the Coliseum staff collectively for their hard work in making it “more than just a building that we come to, but more of a community center for the entire region.”
In another report, Brown detailed the most significant summer project planned for 2018 – the replacement of the main arena scoreboard, as well as, the arena and lobby LED ribbon boards, for a total project cost of $1.6 million. The resolution quality of the video and LED displays in the Arena will be doubled with the upgrade. The project will be paid for by proceeds from the Professional Sports & Convention Development Area fund and is part of the Coliseum’s master capital plan.
