County to pay Intrust Bank Arena operator for COVID-19 losses; hockey returns
Sedgwick County will pay the operator of Intrust Bank Arena $200,000 next year to manage the county-owned facility, plus cover ongoing operating losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 loss is estimated to be $1.1 million, as the arena struggles to bring operations back to normal after being almost entirely shut down for nine months by coronavirus concerns, said county Chief Financial Officer Lindsay Poe Rousseau.
The county will also cover this year’s arena losses, which will be invoiced in January and are expected to be as much as $500,000, county spokeswoman Kate Flavin said.
Money to pay the losses will come from the arena’s reserve, a combination of the remnant from the sales tax that built the arena in 2010 and a $1.50 “facility fee” charged on arena tickets.
Also Wednesday, arena management announced that it will reopen to events on a limited basis with the Jan. 1 home opener for the Wichita Thunder minor-league hockey team.
Attendance will be limited to 11.5% of the arena’s seating capacity of about 12,000. Masks and social distancing will be mandatory for fans; tickets and concessions will be touchless.
The $200,000 management fee will be paid to the arena’s private-sector operating company, ASM Global, barring the unlikely event that the arena runs at a profit next year, Poe Rousseau said.
SMG, the original arena contractor, was absorbed by ASM in a 2019 merger and the county contract remains under the SMG name.
Under ordinary circumstances, ASM/SMG shares profits with the county, getting the first $400,000 and splitting anything above that 50-50 with the county. ASM/SMG would also be responsible for any operating losses.
However, the contract contains a “force majeure” clause that nullifies the usual arrangement when a disaster renders the building unusable, Poe Rousseau said.
“A pandemic counts as an act of God,” she said.
Since the pandemic started, the county has used the arena for two major activities related to the pandemic.
The arena concourse was the site of a “megacenter” for advanced voting before the November presidential election, which allowed voters and election workers a space where they could be much more spread out than at the cramped election office in the Historic Courthouse downtown.
Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman reported Wednesday that 12,443 voters cast their ballots at the arena.
Lehman also reported that the COVID-affected election marked the first time in county history that more people voted by mail, 87,382, and early ballots, 67,387, than voted in person on Election Day, 62,624.
The county also used Intrust arena as the primary site to assemble, store and distribute thousands of kits of personal protective equipment for local businesses and nonprofit groups. The kits included surgical masks, sanitizer, disposable plastic gloves and warning signs.
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 4:57 PM.
