Aug. 16--The final hurdle was cleared Tuesday night for a company that plans to bring an arenafootball2 franchise to Macon's Coliseum.
Macon City Council passed a resolution that signs off on a lease agreement between the company -- Georgia Sports Enterprises -- and the Middle Georgia Coliseum Authority, which runs the Coliseum. GSE is a newly formed sister company of Sports Towne. Councilman Willie Hill was the only dissenter.
Bryan Watson, who is president of GSE and will serve as director of the af2 franchise, said he is ready to move on to the next steps of naming the team, finding a coach and nailing down a home game schedule.
'It's been a long journey,' Watson said. 'We're very pleased to be where we are today and to get on with the business of football.'
The lease was scheduled for approval Monday from the city's Public Properties and Appropriations committees, but some sticking points sent the tentative agreement back into negotiations. The committee met again Tuesday and approved the lease just minutes before the City Council meeting.
'There were a couple of unclear items that we made one concession on,' Watson said.
In the original negotiations, the team would have to pay the city a 50-cent surcharge on every ticket it sells up to 3,000. After that point, the team would get the full ticket price.
'We conceded and made that 4,000,' Watson said.
Other changes in the agreement include allowing the team to provide catering in the end zone of items not normally sold in the Centreplex for a fee of $300. GSE also gained the right to sell digital overlays if there is a television broadcast of the game. Watson said these overlays generally show the score and can have some type of sponsorship.
'What you have before you is the final version of what the mayor and GSE have agreed to,' Nancy Terrill, the assistant city attorney, said as she presented the lease changes to the committee.
Other terms of the agreement that did not change for GSE include paying $1,800 per home game to rent the Coliseum; paying the city up to $1,500 per game for staffing costs; receiving 50 percent of the revenues from parking at every home game with more than 3,000 attendance; getting 40 percent of all non-alcoholic concession sales after expenses; and receiving a one-time payment of $45,000 from the city to the team for equipment costs.
The team also will be able to rent out three of the Centreplex's skyboxes with the team paying the city 50 percent of what it receives on one of the skyboxes. As part of the agreement, the city also receives 50 complimentary tickets for each game.
'I think all of us on the council and in the administration are just excited about having arena football,' said City Council President Anita Ponder. '... In this area, you already have a built-in market for football.'
Ponder said she believes the football team will be good financially for the Centreplex. The financial impact the team could have on the Centreplex was a subject of discussion in the committee meeting.
'(Arenafootball2) has the potential to help us out certainly filling up the dates and bringing people in,' Regina McDuffie, general manager of the Centreplex, told the committee. '... It's very much dependent on the support of the community.'
The team will likely play an eight-game home schedule. But, the league is open to potential franchise expansions through Sept. 30 and that could change the number of games the team plays.
'There is the possibility of three more teams,' Watson said. 'If that's the case I don't know how many home games we'll have.'
This year, Macon's new team will be joined by teams in Fort Meyers, Fla., Shreveport, La., Lafayette, La., Memphis, Tenn. and Louisville, Ky. These franchises increase the league from 15 to at least 20 teams.
'It's a great sport,' Watson said. 'In fact this year af2 was the most successful first-year sports league in the history of professional league sports.'
This distinction comes partly from the league's ability to maintain all 15 of its original teams.
Tickets are expected to start around $12 and Watson is hoping to average about 5,000 in attendance for each home game. It will probably cost the team about $165,000 for turf, padding and other equipment.
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(c) 2000, The Macon Telegraph, Ga. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
