By:  Diane Benjamin

From the Management contract between CIAM and the City of Bloomington:  Management Agreement CIAM

Page 20

(b) CIA shall assign to the Coliseum a competent, full-lime general manager who
shall have no duties other than the day-to-day operation and management of the
Coliseum, and a full-time marketing executive to direct, among other things, all sales
of sponsorships, premium scaling and the resale of naming rights. Prior to CIA’s
appointment of such general manager and marketing executive, CIA shall consult
with the City with respect to the qualifications of each of the general manager and
marketing executive proposed by CIA.

Who is the full-time general manager who only manages the Coliseum?  They don’t have one.  Maybe the Coliseum wouldn’t lose as much money of it had a full-time General Manager!

They frequently call Bart Rogers the General Manager, but under the terms of the contract he doesn’t qualify.  He is a co-owner of the Peoria Rivermen and is frequently quoted in the Peoria media:

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150923/SPORTS/150929701/11130/SPORTS

“We’re excited to welcome Brad to the Rivermen family,” said Rivermen co-owner Bart Rogers . . .

John Butler doesn’t qualify either, he is the other owner:

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20130523/News/305239885

“There’s been 31 years of pro hockey in this community,” said Butler, one of the co-owners of the new Peoria Rivermen ownership introduced Wednesday.

I keep hearing that CIAM has first right of refusal on a 5 year contract extension.

What does the contract say?  Page 10-11:

If CIA fully complies with the terms and conditions contained herein, then it shall have the first right of refusal and option to exercise one 5 year renewal of the Agreement for the term of April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2021, on terms and conditions negotiated at the time;”

Without a full-time General Manager with no other duties . . . CIAM has not complied with the contract.

Is CIAM paying the City the required concession commission AND paying it within 3 days, as the contract requires?

Since the City doesn’t check, they don’t know.

Meanwhile, the City still claims they have first right of refusal on a new contract.

More Hales incompetence?

Not this time – it’s the Council – if they don’t stand up to Hales and Renner when asked to approve a new contract!

CIAM pays themselves commissions, management fees, and concession revenue.

Since CIAM decides how much themselves, and since I’ve proven they aren’t correct, how is that “complying with the contract”?  John and Bart pay themselves salaries – nobody knows how much.  CIAM shows huge losses.  How many tax dollars are heading to Peoria to fund the Rivermen?

Does the City care?  Council?

Maybe they would rather lose your money to avoid being sued by CIAM.  That’s how they’ve lost at least $1.2 million because they refused to change the Sick Leave Buy Back policy.

Why go to court when taxes can be raised?

Does any other arena in the country allow their managers to do whatever they want at taxpayer expense?

I think we finally found “Uniquely Bloomington”.