Oct. 31—HIGH POINT — Despite a challenging baseball season, the High Point Rockers organization has met its financial obligations to the city for the year.
The city received its full $400,000 lease payment from the team for its use of Truist Point stadium, as well as $500,000 for naming rights, as of Wednesday.
Both are due each Oct. 31 under the use and operating agreement between the city and the team.
"We made it a priority to include in our budget throughout the year making sure that we're meeting our obligations with the city," Rockers President Pete Fisch said. "It's been a collaborative effort between the city, our board of directors and our team management to make sure this happened."
The city, which owns the stadium, forgave the Rockers' 2020 lease payment after the coronavirus pandemic forced cancellation of the season that year. It also removed the ticket fees that the team pays the city.
In return, the team agreed to have its annual lease payment increased from $300,000 to $400,000.
The city uses the revenue from the lease and the naming-rights donations from Truist Bank, as well as new property tax revenue in the downtown area, to pay off the stadium bonds.
"I think all of the changes were the result of a collaborative effort to make sure we have something sustainable that would work and meet the needs and expectations of both sides," Fisch said. "So we accomplished that."
Unlike most professional sports teams, the Rockers, who compete in the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, do not have for-profit ownership. The team is operated by a volunteer nonprofit board of local business and civic leaders.
Its revenue streams include ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, stadium rentals for other sports and outside events, as well as concessions and apparel sales.
This year, the pandemic put a damper on attendance, with the stadium hosting 60 home games instead of the usual 70.
"We've gone from playing a full season (in 2019) to not playing at all. We survived that and now we're on track to get back to a full season with 2022," Fisch said. "I certainly think we've made tremendous strides during a time where we could have gone in the other direction."
pkimbrough@hpenews.com — 336-888-3531
"payment" - Google News
November 01, 2021 at 08:17AM
https://ift.tt/3wbs5ZV
Rockers make payments to city - Yahoo News
"payment" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bV4HFe
https://ift.tt/2VYfp89
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Rockers make payments to city - Yahoo News"
Post a Comment