(Currently Unavailable)
Note: The information contained in the Password Protected Area is not intended for general viewing and requires a password. In order to receive a password you must contact West River directly. In addition, you must attest that you meet minimum requirements as an "accredited investor" within the meaning of securities laws.
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF A PLANNED SPORTS FACILITY
DEVELOPMENT L.P
intended to be a complete dissertation on on West River's primary project.
The general partner of the limited partnership will be SFD, LLC, a limited liability company to be formed and owned jointly by Brailsford & Dunlavey, Inc. (“B&D”) and West River Holdings LLC (“WRH”). Brailsford & Dunlavey is a nationally recognized facility planning and program management firm with a specific focus on sports facilities at the college and professional levels, as more fully described using the following link:
Click here for further information about Brailsford and Dunlavey
PARTNERSHIP
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
The primary focus of the Sports Development Partnership will be the development, planning, financing, constructing and operating (or selling) of projects in which a stadium, ballpark, arena or other public gathering facility will be the anchor or thematic core. It is contemplated that such projects will include a mix of residential, shopping, entertainment, hotel, office and other such mixed use components as appropriate to create a comprehensive and synergistic program responding to the local market and demographics, referred to as “Stadium Neighborhood Projects.”
HISTORICAL
PERSPECTIVE
Contemporary economics of professional
sports at all levels has increased demand for modern new facilities.
Historically such stadiums, ballparks and arenas
were provided by local governments.
However, the current political climate and economic
realities have curtailed both the willingness and ability of local government
officials to meet this demand.
The Sports Development Partnership views this void
as a prime opportunity to apply its unique familiarity and expertise in the
development of sports venues complemented by ancillary mixed use facilities,
funded by investments enhanced by the partnership’s proprietary principal
preservation and independent growth opportunities.
Historically, local governments built
stadiums, ballparks and arenas as municipal assets and leased these structures
to professional teams.
Originally, these buildings were modest structures,
built relatively cheaply.
The economics of professional sports were such that
the teams could pay rent at a level that enabled the municipality to cover a
significant portion (if not all) of the bonded indebtedness incurred to cover
construction costs.
As the popularity of professional
sports grew, team owners capitalized by increasing ticket prices, creating new
types of premium seating, and enhancing sponsorship and advertising
opportunities.
New or substantially renovated facilities, designed
to accommodate new seating patterns and sponsorship displays, and offering
greater comfort and modern amenities to patrons, were required to maximize these
opportunities.
It might appear that these increased
revenue opportunities would provide the financial wherewithal to pay for such
new facilities.
Such might well have been the case but for the
introduction of yet another economic force – the demand by players and their
representatives for increasingly large slices of the financial pie.
Players fought for and gained the right
to shop their services on the open market (albeit subject to limitations) and
have successfully utilized market forces to increase player compensation
dramatically.
As a result, most of the enhanced revenues
generated by modern stadium design and amenities has been paid to the players.
Very little of the increased profit potential was
been left for team owners and virtually none of such revenues was available to
be devoted to stadium construction.
The player compensation market was set
by a few teams that succeeded in obtaining modern stadium facilities (and the
attendant revenue enhancement).
Other owners have been forced to pay these higher
player salaries but are without either the stadium economics to produce the
enhanced revenues or the resources needed to obtain modern stadium facilities in
their home markets.
To rectify this economic crunch, owners
turned to the same market forces that the players had used so successfully –
free agency.
Demands were made on local governments to provide modern
new facilities against the threat of moving the franchise to another city that
was willing to provide a new stadium.
After several franchises moved under this scenario,
local officials began to accede to such demands rather than endure the political
fallout of having “lost” the beloved local franchise.
These forces combined to result in a surge of new
stadium construction, leased to teams at rents well below that required to cover
the debt service on construction costs.
Team owners fortunate enough to obtain such
arrangements were able to meet player compensation demands and enjoy some level
of profitability.
This spate of new stadium construction
has gradually ground to a halt in the face of the dire economic conditions face
by most American cities.
Concurrently, the economics of professional sports
boomed as players sought and obtained higher and higher salaries and high demand
and scarcity of availability produced greater and greater franchise values.
Political sentiment began to galvanize against
local governments using tax dollars to provide “playgrounds for the rich”.
Consequently, it has become increasingly difficult
for team owners to remain competitive with their counterparts fortunate enough
to have derived the benefit of a heavily subsidized stadium arrangement.
As a result, the prospect of moving the team is no longer a potent political force. The more recent trend has been to tout the economic benefits that can be derived by a community from the development of property adjacent to or nearby the stadium site. Such development can take many different forms such as residential, commercial, entertainment, retail, hospitality, etc. Optimally such development will be comprised of a complementary mix of elements to create a “neighborhood” or “town center” responding to community and local market needs.
The business
objective of the
Sports Development Partnership is to provide more than the
mere hope that such ancillary development will occur.
Instead, the partnership will undertake to
plan, finance, construct and
operate (or sell) the complete Stadium Neighborhood Project, including all
ancillary components, without the need of local government financing.
In fact, by utilizing the principal protection
techniques available to the partnership, the projects may be built out
completely without the need for any debt financing.
Minor
League Ballparks.
Minor League Baseball is a widespread and generally
successful operation.
All of the Minor Leagues are operated as independent
businesses, and many are members of Minor League Baseball, an umbrella
organization for leagues that have agreements to operate as affiliates of Major
League Baseball.
At
present,
16 leagues, broken into five different levels ranging from
AAA to Rookie, enjoy such affiliation.
The affiliated leagues are comprised of
approximately 188 member teams, located in
cities and towns throughout the
Many Minor League teams play in antiquated ballparks that
lack the ability to provide premium seating, modern advertising displays and
other amenities to attract fans to the ballpark.
Many are located in older communities in which
urban in-fill development would be welcomed and present the opportunity for
commercial success for both the ballpark and ancillary development.
A few teams and cities have seized such
opportunities with a highly successful result.
The
Sports Development Partnership anticipates that Minor League ballpark
neighborhood projects will present a prime opportunity for development.
Minor League Arenas.
Minor league hockey and basketball operations have
experienced increasing popularity.
While such operations typically do not enjoy formal
affiliations with Major League teams and are not as well organized as Minor
League Baseball, they do attract interest in certain markets and some have been
financially successful.
Smaller communities often view the presence of a
minor league hockey or basketball tenant as sufficient basis to provide a new
arena that can host other events (such as concerts, the circus, etc.) for
general benefit of the community.
As
a stand alone proposition, such an arena would not be a particularly attractive
investment.
But, if combined with profitable and needed ancillary
development, a project could present opportunities well suited to the objectives of the
Sports Development Partnership.
MLB Spring Training Facilities.
With the increasing popularity of Major League
Baseball and increasingly higher costs of attending regular season games, many
fans are attracted to the opportunity to travel to
Recognizing the draw of spring training, communities in
NEIGHBORHOOD
BUILDOUT
The following is
a description of the types of mixed use components that will be analyzed in each
case to identify the mix that will achieve the development objectives:
Residential
– Both condominiums and apartment housing have proven successful in such
applications, especially adjacent to minor league ballparks
Restaurants – Optimally food service
facilities both inside and outside the sports venue will be designed to serve
both uses
Shopping – Commercial activity should be
designed to cater to the other uses within the development; parking should be
designed to accommodate both shopping and sports events
Entertainment – The
sports venue should establish a pattern for fans visiting the development that
will extend to other entertainment venues, such as cinema, concert venues, etc.
Utilization of the seating bowl in the sports venue
should be optimized
Hotel – The opportunity to utilize
designated spaces in the sports venue (such as club lounges and suites) for
public gathering uses of the hotel, and joint use of food preparation
facilities, should be explored
Convention Center – Elements supporting
sports venue operations, such as parking, food service, utilities, etc., may be
utilized equally well for public gathering facilities such as convention and
conference centers
Business Parks – Many small businesses,
especially those featuring non-traditional décor (such as small architectural
firms) find adjacency to a sports venue to be attractive
Amusement/Water Parks – An adjunct to
entertainment facilities and an efficient utilization of parking
Recreational Facilities – Many communities
desire to provide recreational facilities, such as tennis courts, ice sheets,
courts for basketball, handball and squash
Sports Medicine Facilities – A natural
adjunct to a sports venue which can also serve the sports team
Educational Institutions – Many universities
and colleges are seeking satellite campuses; for profit educational
Municipal Centers – Many communities need
new and consolidated municipal facilities, city halls, civic centers, libraries,
etc.
Industrial Parks – A possible adjunct,
especially in outlying areas
Transportation Centers – The development
will be designed to accommodate the flow of traffic to and from sports events,
creating the potential to accommodate a public transportation hub at other times
Ancillary Public Infrastructure