Hoss,
I stopped going to Blazers games on a regular basis; the quality of play was poor. I attended about 10 games in the last five years of the franchise's existence.
I don't truly think the team was losing money, here is what I heard--or whatever it is worth; high administrative salary costs was cited as one of the reasons for departing with Brad Lund and several overpaid staffers in the Blazers front office and Ford Center arena rent!
I don't know what the Tulsa Oilers are paying to play in the BOK Center (It's probably higher than in the Tulsa Convention Center); however, I predict that the team won't survive there long and will move to a smaller arena or to the surburbs. Their biggest draws were Oklahoma City and Wichita.
The AHL will survive along with the NBA in OKC!
I know exactly what they pay and they will survive there as long as they are there, which is a 10-year contract.
Yes, they are paying more then when at the CC. They currently pay $10,000 in rent per weekday night (including Fridays) and $15,000 for Saturdays. They did pay $1500 and $2000 respectively at the old building.
The difference...and here's where it's important you read this...is that the Oilers now get two things they didn't at the CC:
1. A percentage of the concessions. I believe they started getting them once Fine Foods got out of the CC, but it wasn't as much as they are getting now.
2. Guaranteed revenue from the luxury suites of $22,000 per game.
Do the math. That MORE than offsets the difference in rent price. Here's the source:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=071122_1_A29_hTheh47740&archive=yesTry again.