BROOMFIELD — Citing dwindling numbers of fans and other financial problems at the Broomfield Event Center, the city will seek a replacement for the current management of the complex.
Broomfield Sports and Entertainment, which is headed by Tim Wiens and John Frew and manages the center, couldn’t pay the utility bill in November and December, leaving the city to pick up the center’s upcoming $43,000 insurance payment.
The group wants out of its contract.
Tonight, the Broomfield City Council will discuss issuing a request for proposals for a new management team to take over the center.
There is no guarantee that whoever takes over the 6,000-seat, $45 million venue will keep the two semi-pro teams now using the facility — the Rocky Mountain Rage of the Central Hockey League and the Colorado 14ers of the NBA Development League.
“I think we’ll let the free marketplace decide,” said Broomfield Mayor Patrick Quinn.
Die-hard hockey mom Shellie Gilmore would miss the Rage if the team left town because of the arena’s management woes.
Gilmore even would lament never laying eyes again on the Rage’s opponents: the Boossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, the Mississippi RiverKings and the Rio Valley Killer Bees.
“Anybody I’ve brought with me to the games all say it’s an awesome night out for the family,” said Gilmore, a Rage season-ticket holder since the facility opened in 2006.
“But too few people know about it,” she said. “I tell them about the hockey team in Broomfield, and they really don’t know what I’m talking about.”
City Manager George Di Ciero said he got wind that Wiens’ group was having financial trouble in December.
Then the city got a letter from Wiens on Jan. 13 that said, in part: “Even though we have put the event center clearly on the right path and have invested very significant dollars to date in doing so, at this point, our resources are limited.”
He said he would work with the Broomfield Urban Renewal Authority to “change our operating commitment to another entity of your choosing.”
Broomfield financed construction of the center through the Urban Renewal Authority by issuing $60 million in bonds. They are to be paid off using tax revenue from the venue and the nearby Arista mixed-use development — also a Wiens project, said Di Ciero.
“We’re not liable for those payments,” Di Ciero said. “So there will be no bailout from the city.”
The center already has attracted interest from national management groups, said Di Ciero. “It’s definitely a great facility,” he added.
But critics say there were problems with the venue as soon as it opened, and it was never a consistent draw for concerts or sporting events.
“It certainly has not been up to our expectations,” Quinn said.
Gilmore — who bought two $800 season tickets for herself and her 13-year-old son — said there is a lack of effective marketing for the Rage.
“Even on a good night, the arena was only about a third full,” Gilmore said. “It’s just that nobody knows about them.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
