Winders' plans to leave offer an upside

But baseball's loss could be a boon to Pima County's bottom line — or at least a bump.

County officials said the team's paid attendance numbers — used to determine its rent at Tucson Electric Park — are far worse than the already dismal publicly reported total attendance figures.

That makes concerts, which bring in $10,000 to $12,000 each, and other special events an increasingly attractive use for the stadium, which has struggled to break even.

With the Sidewinders in residence, the requirement to keep the field in condition for Triple A play limits the number of events that can be held during the team's five-month season.

In recent years, the team has paid the county a net of just $30,000 a year to use TEP, less than a third of what was projected in 1997, when the county signed its contract with the minor-league team.

Already this year, the county turned down two concerts that would have brought in $25,000 because they conflicted with the baseball schedule.

Stadium District Manager Kate O'Rielly said she's sad to see the Sidewinders go, but their leaving would open up opportunities for other, more lucrative, events.

"It's certainly possible if we're smart about it" to earn more money, she said.

Without baseball to work around, TEP could host high school and Mexican baseball tournaments, college championships, concerts and special events.

In contrast to the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the Chicago White Sox said they were bolting to a new stadium in Glendale, County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said the Sidewinders are "immaterial" to the stadium's $2.5 million annual budget.

"We want to wish them well," Huckelberry said.

The Arizona Daily Star reported Tuesday that Jay Zucker, who bought the team in 1999, sold it to SK Baseball LLC., which will likely move the team to Reno.

At a press conference Tuesday, Zucker blamed low attendance, despite a wide variety of promotions, for the sale.

The team's publicly reported 2006 attendance of 271,698 was the second-worst in the Pacific Coast League, but even those numbers appear to be inflated.

O'Rielly could not provide exact paid attendance for the last several years but said paid attendance generally trailed the publicly reported numbers by 90,000 to 100,000 people a year.

Complimentary tickets and charity games account for most of the difference.

The Sidewinders' contract calls for the team to pay $30,000 a year in rent if paid attendance remains below 200,000 and $60,000 if paid attendance is between 200,000 and 400,000.

The county has wrangled with the team several times over its attendance figures, but O'Rielly said that based on her observation, she believes the lower numbers are correct.

The team pays an additional $9,500 for parking and also pays for any additional maintenance it requires during the season.

That's a far cry from the $103,000 a year predicted by Huckelberry when he urged the supervisors to approve the Sidewinders' contract in 1997.

While the spring training contracts with the Chicago White Sox and the Arizona Diamondbacks passed unanimously, then-Supervisor Dan Eckstrom and Supervisor Sharon Bronson voted no on the Sidewinders' contract, calling it "corporate welfare."

"In retrospect, it was probably overly optimistic," Huckelberry said of the projections.

Huckelberry said the county used to hold more events at TEP during the baseball season, but the team complained about wear and tear on the field.

Concessions are another loser for the county, which gets nothing from Sidewinder sales but gets a cut of concessions for concerts and special events.

There were three concerts at the stadium last year, only one during the minor-league season.

O'Rielly could not provide exact revenue numbers Tuesday but said they earned between $10,000 and $12,000 each.

The Tucson Electric Park Gem & Mineral Show, staged in the parking lot, brought in $28,150 earlier this year.

Given numbers like that, Huckelberry said the county would not take any steps to talk the Sidewinders into staying.

"We have the agreement with them and that's all we're going to do," he said. "If they want any other concessions, they're not going to get them. They're tying up a valuable facility that could be put to community uses. If they want to stay, they're welcome."