With agreement in hand that will allow construction to resume on the long-stalled downtown stadium, officials with the Winston-Salem Dash yesterday expressed optimism about ticket sales and other revenue sources that will make the $48.7 million project work.
Kevin Terry, the president of the Dash, said that the 4,100 ticket packages that have been sold for the 2010 season translate into about 1,500 full-season tickets. Add to that tickets for luxury suites and sponsors and the figure is closer to 2,000 season tickets, he said.
"We're real excited about the start we're off to," Terry said.
In addition, Terry said that the Dash has a solid commitment on naming rights to the stadium, though he declined to name the company. He said that would likely be announced next year.
It has been projected that the Dash would have to draw about 4,000 people a game to honor its financial commitments under the complex financing deal for the stadium. The stadium will seat 5,500 people. In years past, the Warthogs on good nights drew 1,000 to 2,000 at Ernie Shore Field. Minor-league baseball, however, has boomed in other cities, including Durham and, starting in 2005, in Greensboro's new stadium, drawing thousands a night.
The city of Winston-Salem put up $12 million to get the project here going, with half of that money to be repaid from a ticket surcharge. Then, in June, after Dash owner Billy Prim said he would not be able to finish the stadium on his own, the city agreed to spend another $15.7 million on the stadium.
Some $12 million of the new money came in the form of a loan to Prim, who will lease the stadium back from the city over 25 years. Prim persuaded private investors to kick in $3.7 million and contributed another $2 million himself, on top of the original money he put in. The total cost of the stadium, including land, is now projected at $48.7 million.
The delays were in large part the result of two things -- the breakup of the business partnership between Prim and his brother-in-law, Andrew "Flip" Filipowski, and the divorce of Filipowski and his wife. Those issues created monetary and legal problems that weren't untangled until Monday afternoon.
The stadium is part of what is hoped to be a larger retail and commercial development in the area bounded by Business 40, Peters Creek Parkway, and First and Broad streets.
Terry said that the team's main push to sell blocks of tickets will begin in January and end in April, although the sales effort will start next week. In the past two weeks, about 50 new people have come forward to buy tickets, Terry said. There are also commitments for 12 out of 14 luxury box suites.
"We're not looking to sell the park out in season-ticket packages," he said. "We're looking to sell about two-thirds of the stadium in packages."
A few months ago, Terry said that people in the marketing and ticket-sales department checked back with the 4,000 people who had bought tickets for the 2009 season. Only about 12 of those people asked for refunds, Terry said.
Monday night's signing of the final legal documents represented an end to 10 months of negotiations between Prim, the city, banks and investors.
Only a few workers were milling around the stadium yesterday afternoon as Prim conducted several interviews. Prim said that a full-scale work force should be in place by next week.
"We're pretty excited," he said, "to put 300 people back to work in this economy."
mgiunca@wsjournal.com
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