Alerus Center shows a Profit

[darell1976]

http://www.valleynewslive.com/story/17852140/al

It's the first time in half a dozen years the Grand Forks Alerus Center has showed a profit.

The City owned events center showed a profit of 340-thousand dollars for the first quarter of this year. Attendance was at 87-thousand for 199 events. That's up from the average attendance of 55-thousand

Commission members also expect Alerus Center attendance at UND football games to improve, as the school moves into Division One and the Big Sky Conference.

I see attendance increasing since we will be playoff eligible and in a real conference with DI teams (minus the SD SoM game). Plus you win and people will come!!

[Teeder11]

http://www.valleynew...ory/17852140/al

I see attendance increasing since we will be playoff eligible and in a real conference with DI teams (minus the SD SoM game). Plus you win and people will come!!

Looks like the stars are beginning to align for the "new" management of the Alerus Center. (1) It's a political year and it landed one of the two big conventions in the state, (2) it landed the grandaddy of them all in North Dakota -- The Class B Tourney, (3) like Darell said above, this will be the first year that we are playoff eligible, the Big Sky competition alone should put more butts in the seats, and if we string together some wins -- look out. (4) Alerus management is brought under the fold of the city, eliminating the management fee and creating certain economies of scale that couldn't exist under the former arrangment (although this may be more of a wash given that we now pay the full load of salaries and benefits for Alerus workers.)