Alerus Center and UND
The City Beat covered UND way too much today.
Besides the story about the reaction to the university going to Division I, I ended up at an Alerus Center meeting where UND came up a couple times in the discussion.
The biggest issue for the center is trying to get UND to commit to a long-term lease. Right now, it's just three years at a time. That's too short a timeframe for the center to commit to major improvements, such as that graphics package we talked about last month.
UND is also urging the center to change the turf. That "magic carpet" system was way cool six years ago but now its considered outdated. Alerus Center executive director Charlie Jeske says new turf simulates grass better and reduces injuries.
Athletic director Tom Buning recently gave Alerus Center officials a wish list. Besides the graphics and the turf, he'd like to have a coach's office out there for football staff and renaming of the field to Red Jarrett Field.
The other discussion about UND has to do with the parking situation. Canad Inns is supposed to replace some of the parking taken up by construction of its hotel complex but there's been some miscommunication. Alerus Center staff and UND is getting real worried that there will be even less parking for football fans than before. The fewer parking spaces available the more fans will have to take the shuttle bus.
I can't see how people can tailgate if that happens. You could always ask the bus drivers to hitch your BBQ trailer in the back, but I'm guessing they'll say "no."
Besides the story about the reaction to the university going to Division I, I ended up at an Alerus Center meeting where UND came up a couple times in the discussion.
The biggest issue for the center is trying to get UND to commit to a long-term lease. Right now, it's just three years at a time. That's too short a timeframe for the center to commit to major improvements, such as that graphics package we talked about last month.
UND is also urging the center to change the turf. That "magic carpet" system was way cool six years ago but now its considered outdated. Alerus Center executive director Charlie Jeske says new turf simulates grass better and reduces injuries.
Athletic director Tom Buning recently gave Alerus Center officials a wish list. Besides the graphics and the turf, he'd like to have a coach's office out there for football staff and renaming of the field to Red Jarrett Field.
The other discussion about UND has to do with the parking situation. Canad Inns is supposed to replace some of the parking taken up by construction of its hotel complex but there's been some miscommunication. Alerus Center staff and UND is getting real worried that there will be even less parking for football fans than before. The fewer parking spaces available the more fans will have to take the shuttle bus.
I can't see how people can tailgate if that happens. You could always ask the bus drivers to hitch your BBQ trailer in the back, but I'm guessing they'll say "no."
posted by Tu-Uyen at 11:09 PM
10 Comments:
Hy Tu-uyen, great blog. I'll apologize in advance for hijacking this entry to make an off topic comment...Sorry.
Any thoughts on the City Historical Preservation Commission? I would be interested to see a blog entry or newspaper article about what exactly their contribution has been to the progress or lack of progress by the city. It seems that the commission is holding back a number of business and residential property owners from making changes to their properties, which has the effect of increasing the cost of making changes or preventing the changes from being made. An example showed up in their most recent meeting. During discussion about a proposed teardown of the Transport, Inc. building, one of the commission members became concerned that the teardown of the building might make way for something "new and hideous". As opposed to the crap pile that is already Gateway?
Anyway, my colors are showing. Just a thought. Thanks for your writing. I always enjoy it.
Mr. Green,
I recall at the time that a UND official said that the survey wouldn't necessarily stop D-I plans. That's because, he said, people don't yet know enough about the D-I plan to support it. Hmmm. I don't want to sound out of line here but maybe they ought to have waited on that survey until they have the plans in place?
I'm too lazy to research the Grand Forks city website archives. I'm curious to know how long the naming rights contract for the Alerus was. When is the contact up? What was the dollar amount? I assume Alerus Financial has the first right to renew.
Anyone?
Thanks?
The Herald reported in May 2000 that Alerus Financial is paying $150k a year over 20 years for the naming rights. That's a total of $3m. So I'm guessing the naming rights expire 2021. The center opened in 2001.
Thanks for the info. I'm also wondering this, does the naming rights assure that they have a hand in the day to day operation? I would think not. The reason I ask is, they've been involved since day one and, in my opinion, it's not working. In the private sector, they would go away.
I know this won't be a popular opinion but, just because someone has success as a banker, why should we assume that they can successfully run an events center? Especially when hard data shows that they aren't successful.
Food for thought.
I am still seething over the way the city council snookered the people of Grand Forks. After a minority of supporters succeeded in forcing the place down the throat of the people, they tried to mollify them by having a naming contest. "Aurora" was chosen the winner. Without so much as a by your leave, the council then sold the name to a bank, which, btw, has nothing to do with running the place.
Hi ec99,
Just a quick piece of information regarding your prior post. You say that Alerus Financial has no hand in running the complex. Do you know what the president of the Alerus commission does for a living? Yes, he's a banker AND an Alerus commission dude.
I'll give one guess which bank.
I would call that a direct connection. (I'll stop now).
Oh, I am aware of that. I was referring to the bank itself having a role in the administration of the place.
Alerus Financial doesn't really have a role in the governance of the Alerus Center.
Here's how it works. In day-to-day operations, Compass Facility Management out of Ames, Iowa, runs the show. It has a contract with the city.
Compass answers to the Alerus Center commission, which represents the city.
Membership is as follows: four members from the public at large, one council member (that was Gerald Hamerlik), one member from the hotel/restaurant/on-sale liquor industry, and one member from UND.
Randy Newman, who is chief executive of Alerus Financial, is one of the members from the public. He happens to be chairman this year but has been just a regular member in other years.
I haven't seen Newman representing Alerus' interests on the board and, even if he did, he'd be easily overruled by the other members. (Anyway, any borrowing the center does is going to be from the city not a bank.)
I can imagine, though, that Newman would want the Alerus Center to do well because his company's name is on it.
By the way, it's either naming rights or the city shell out an extra $150k in subsidies a year. I don't know, I'd think most taxpayers would just want the money.
It's not the money, although I thing Alerus got an incredible deal: huge advertising everyday for next to nothing. It's the fact that the city council acted without once informing the public of its intention. Much like the Amazon snafu, the council soloed on the whole thing, after purposefully fooling the public into thinking the Aurora would be the name.
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