The Business of HockeyDiscuss the financial and business aspects of the NHL. Franchise sales, valuations, TV contracts, ratings, expansion, relocation, the CBA and work stoppage discussion goes here.
I'll just provide the link to the ECHL forum thread rather than repeat everything.
Nutshell - county foreclosing for non-payment of property tax. Lease with team has them responsible for paying, not the arena ownership (a development organization). 3 years in arrears. City paying off federal loan on arena.
That is just so weird. Leaving the responsibility of paying taxes to the person who leases the property. Then letting the place go to foreclosure because the guy renting didn't pay the taxes. What the heck could the owners of the property be thinking?
I live in Elmira, and can tell you, our town doesn't have a lot to offer, in the winter all there is to do is go to hockey at arena, the mall, or a bar..... so this happens.
If the arena ends up empty, then what does Elmira have, a huge empty building.... come on AFR's get your heads out of your butts!!! O' that's right your not from here, so why do you care.
I blame the city a lot though. They actually already own the building. Yet Afr makes the payments. So in a way Afr owns it to I guess you could say. If the city forecloses it, they are basicallu foreclosing on themselves. I have a hunch Afr will pay it at the last minute. If not it goes to an auction, which could be fun. The county and city could end up with it. But they don't want to get in the arena business
We have been told via emails that the league is getting involved. There is a lot to this story that didn't even make the paper article:
But I can assure Afr has the money. How the agreement became he makes the tax payments I don't know.
I should also ,mention there was a hot rumor of the Sabres coming into town and trying to buy the whole thing. Then it was just the arena. But Afr doesn't own it so he can't sell it. Makes that interesting. That arena will not stay open without a tenant. Youth Hockey will NOT pay the bills.
I blame the city a lot though. They actually already own the building. Yet Afr makes the payments. So in a way Afr owns it to I guess you could say. If the city forecloses it, they are basicallu foreclosing on themselves. I have a hunch Afr will pay it at the last minute. If not it goes to an auction, which could be fun. The county and city could end up with it. But they don't want to get in the arena business
We have been told via emails that the league is getting involved. There is a lot to this story that didn't even make the paper article:
But I can assure Afr has the money. How the agreement became he makes the tax payments I don't know.
I should also ,mention there was a hot rumor of the Sabres coming into town and trying to buy the whole thing. Then it was just the arena. But Afr doesn't own it so he can't sell it. Makes that interesting. That arena will not stay open without a tenant. Youth Hockey will NOT pay the bills.
No. The arena is being foreclosed on by the county (Chemung County), while the arena is owned by the City of Elmira through it's STED development agency (Southern Tier Economic Development Inc).
I would assume that the city will pay the $136K in back taxes and sue Afr for the money - rather than allow the arena to remain foreclosed and seized by the County - since they are still on the hook for the $8M HUD loan.
I have heard that several times and at one point have even heard a date. I don't know if its true or not but it is a little interesting that 3 weeks later this was announced. I don't know ECHL rules on ownership changes and if they can be announced like that publicly or occur in a season. But our owner doesn't even own our arena. If he doesn't pay the bill it's all up to STED. If they pay it, Afr will live on to the end of the year. What happens going forward I don't know. I think his future in the long term is non existent. If STED re-purchases it I think he is going to be out. The county definitely wants him out. The county executive said that he doesn't want to go through this again and that the next owners need to be stable. I'm sure if STED had another buyer not named Mostafa Afr they would be all for it. With a foreclosure pending and if it does happen then that is the time to buy. I have also heard an auction is a possibility. This will be ineresting maybe.
I should make it clear the arena and team are a seperate identity. STED has no obligation to lease it to Afr after this season(unless an agreement is already in place, though I don't know if such athing like this allows for a contract termination or not)
Southern Tier Economic Development owns the home of the Jackals, but the team owner, Mostafa Afr, signed a lease in which he agreed to pay property taxes and utilities. For the past three years, no taxes have been paid and the building is now in foreclosure. A judge will soon sign the building over to the county, and then by law, STED, the owner of the arena, will have until February 29th to pay more than $123,000, along with a 10 percent penalty or lose the facility altogether.
The league has apparently gotten involved as this is the response I and several others have recieved:
Quote:
We have been in contact with both the Afrs and county officials, and share their goal to keep hockey alive in Elmira. While we are still trying to learn more about the situation, we will be working toward that goal over the upcoming weeks.
ECHL has no qualms about announcing ownership changes mid-season. (Usually would happen after BOG meeting, such as ASG, which I believe they aren't doing. But guess there is a BOG meeting soon.)
IIRC, Stockton's recent ownership change was announced mid-season.
Besides, it's not unheard of to "fold" a franchise and "expand" a new one in the same market. (Although I don't have a copy of any ECHL bylaws/constitution to know what the league/BOG can do to an owner such as Afr. But I'm betting that not fulfilling contractual obligations such as paying property tax might be a good cause to oust him.)
Surprise surprise....they STILL CAN'T get ahold of Afr.
Quote:
This is not the first time that Elmira Downtown Arena has defaulted on its taxes, Santulli said. It entered into an installment agreement to pay taxes on Oct. 31, 2007, and defaulted March 31, 2008. The default was paid off on Jan. 20, 2009, the last day possible, he said.
Elmira Downtown Arena entered into another installment agreement on Jan. 14, 2011, and defaulted March 31, 2011, he said.
I admit I have no idea what happens here after this seasons over if afr does make the payment.
Nice arena. I played Juniors there. We split the facilities with the ECHL team and, since it was during the lockout season, the ECHL was stacked with AHL guys. Great memories.
Hope this gets squared away. The Jackals mean a lot to the town of Elmira. Both the ECHL team and the college team draw very well (at least they did back when I was there).
Taxes haven't been paid, a week from tomorrow is the due date.
I've heard rumblings that our GM is leaving at seasons end and that the owner owes him a lot of money.
A somewhat telling sign of where things might go is playoff ticket info was sent out to season ticket holders last week and season ticket renewals weren't included. Have always come together here.
I know because of the attendance the E would like to keep a team here. The problem isn't support it is the Egyptian who is supposed to pay the bills.
Nice arena. I played Juniors there. We split the facilities with the ECHL team and, since it was during the lockout season, the ECHL was stacked with AHL guys. Great memories.
Hope this gets squared away. The Jackals mean a lot to the town of Elmira. Both the ECHL team and the college team draw very well (at least they did back when I was there).
We had Juniors here?
Unfortunatly we weren't an ECHL team that season, we were a UHL team. The ECHL came 2 years later.
Yes they mean a lot and we still average over 3K a season in our little barn(about to be 11 out of 12 seasons averaging 3K or more for attendance, the year under 3K was quite a few years ago and the economy is worse sense then)
The college team doesn't get great support anymore because they play out in the sticks. Plus the domes are freezing. The seats are purple in the arena here cause they were supposed to come play in it. But the owner wanted to charge them an arm and a leg so they turned it down plus the college's little arena is owned by the state.
