Can you please check my math? In a Sept. 20 article in The Herald, titled “Everett Gets WHL Franchise,” Ron Robison, of the WHL, presented the city with a figure of 6,000 to 7,000 fans in attendance at the proposed events arena per hockey game.
I’ve done some homework lately on the attendance at existing WHL events, namely the Tacoma Sabercats, Everett’s potential rivals. I learned that the team draws approximately 3,800 people per event. Tacoma’s present population sits at 215,000 people. Everett’s population is currently 96,000. If you take the 1.7 percent of Tacoma’s population that attends Sabercats games and translate that to Everett’s population, you get 1,700 people on average attending each game.
Within a 15-mile radius of downtown Tacoma there are over three-quarter of a million people who could potentially attend a hockey game.
As noted in a Central Business District survey completed in May of 1993, it is noted: “The Trust study compared $1,000,000 spent for new construction with $1,000,000 spent for historic rehabilitation. Among other findings, the study showed that rehabilitation kept $120,000 more in the community, created 5-9 more construction jobs, created 4.7 more new jobs elsewhere in the community, and increased retail sales by $34,000 more than new construction. Historic preservation aside from its cultural and aesthetic benefits makes good economic sense for cities like Everett.”
My question to the people of Everett is this – Do you want to spend $40 to $50 million dollars to build a sports arena using money that the city hopes to gain from a state sales tax rebate that has yet to be committed? The state tax rebate, if it comes through, would only be for $20 to $25 million. Who is covering the difference? Build it and they might come, tear it down and we’ll never forget.
Everett
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