Big A Renovation Will Leave Some Events Without a Home

Ken Hudgens, marketing director for PACE Motor Sports, found it difficult to believe the AMA Supercross will need a new home this winter.

For years, the motorcycle event has played to packed crowds at Anaheim Stadium. But stadium renovation will force the event to move.

“We were planning to produce our events in Anaheim again this year,” Hudgens said. “We’ve been there for several years, but I guess we will have to look at other venues.”

The stadium renovation will force several event coordinators to seek new homes for at least one year. Disney Sports Enterprise, which assumes control of the stadium in October, will not schedule events other than Angel games in the stadium until construction is completed.

The exhibition hall next to the stadium also will be unavailable because of construction, according to a Disney official.

“Basically, anything that involves using the stadium will be shut down,” said Kevin Uhlich, director of stadium operations for Disney. “There are still going to be smaller trade shows in the parking lot, but nothing inside.”

The renovation, which will reduce the capacity from 64,593 to about 40,000, will begin in October and might be completed as soon as 1998.

That will take away the two biggest moneymakers, the supercross and the U.S. Hot Rod Monster Jam. Both are run by PACE Motor Sports, which promoted 90 events last year.

The supercross drew 65,264 and the monster jam more than 58,000, according to Greg Smith, who has been the stadium’s general manager for the city of Anaheim. Even when completed, the stadium will bring in less revenue from such events because of its smaller capacity.

“The motocross alone brought in about $200,000 last year,” Smith said. “We felt those events were critical to our financial well-being. Generally, we needed these other events to break even, unless the Angels had a really good season.”

A good season, according to Smith, meant an average of about 30,000 fans. The Angels are averaging 23,971 this season.

“Disney will be missing out on some extra revenue,” Uhlich said.

While Disney might be able to absorb such losses, workers at the stadium might not. The ushers, ticket takers and maintenance crews will lose about 25 events.

“We felt we had to have a balance of events through the year to keep our employees busy and happy,” Smith said. “Some of the events didn’t require full staffing, but we could spread it around. That way we didn’t just say good-bye in October and not see them again until April.”

About a “half dozen” small events are scheduled for the stadium this winter, according to Uhlich. They will be run by the city of Anaheim and take place in the parking lot. Parking lot attendants are the only workers required at such events, Smith said.

Besides the motorsports, the stadium hosted three soccer games last season and there were several shows in the exhibition hall. There were also eight commercials filmed in the stadium and a movie company used the facility for 40 days.

Smith said the stadium generated a $2 million profit from those type of events during the 1994-95 fiscal year. Exact figures for this year are not available, but Smith said the profits were about the same in 1995-96--the first year without the Rams since 1979.

The construction will affect the Angels somewhat next season. The stadium capacity will be reduced to between 25,000 and 35,000 during construction, according to Uhlich. But that may have little financial impact. The Angels have had 19 crowds of 25,000 or more this season, but only five of more than 35,000.

“When the renovation is done, we hope to attract as many events as possible,” Uhlich said. “The whole idea is to make the facility productive as many days as we can.”