Proposed Coliseum managers look to operate with a profit

Posted on March 24, 2016

Tim Sullivan (center) is the Chief Financial Officer for VenueWorks. (Adam Studzinski/WJBC)

By Adam Studzinski

BLOOMINGTON – How will VenuWorks, the proposed new managers of the U.S. Cellular Coliseum, begin to get the venue to operate in the black?

VenuWorks Chief Financial Officer Tim Sullivan said it starts with booking more events, but it goes beyond that.

“Booking more profitable events,” said Sullivan. “Making sure that every penny of food and beverage sales that we can make drop to the bottom line get there.”

VenuWorks was recommended on Wednesday to take over the Coliseum. The contract the City Council will consider on Monday calls for VenuWorks to take 5 percent of the proceeds from concessions. The contract with the previous managers, Central Illinois Arena Management, called for them to keep 68 percent.

“I would say that the industry standard is probably somewhere around between 10 and 15 percent,” said Sullivan. “The reason that we’re able to do it at such a low percentage is because we’re grouping that with our base management fee and our advertising and sales commission fee to pay for our overhead.”

Sullivan added there is no limit to the kind of shows they can bring into the city, as long as the market supports it.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].

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