As I have mentioned before, I am a huge fan of the Field of Schemes blog, where there are many stories of rich sports team owners extorting stadiums and revenues from cities because they claim to be poor or threaten to leave town. Inspired by this post on the FoS blog, I came up with a solution that will help them in their time of need.

That solution? Upgrading their Stadiums and Arenas to double as movie theaters for nights when there are no sporting events or concerts.

Think about it; there is already an excellent seating layout (and even luxury boxes to boot), box office kiosks, a multitude of concession stands and amenities. There is even an industrial-grade sound system on standby. All you need are retractable screens and as many projectors as your venue can allow. The only thing to decide is: standard screen or IMAX?

The one drawback I can see so far is you can only play one film at a time between all the screens, unless you want to go the extra mile and partition the screens/sound.

I personally like this idea if it was an outdoor stadium in the summertime months. It would almost be like the Drive-In theaters of old. If the weather permits, it would be a great atmosphere for all attendants.

Economically, this would be a complimentary source is revenue, if approached correctly. There will probably be a revolt from Theater owners should this proceed, so a likely compromise will be using second-run films (films that have already been released in theaters or home video). Offering tickets on the cheap, families and students will come out in droves seeking entertainment value.

As a “case study”, I chose the United Center in Chicago, a facility that is home to the NHL’s Blackhawks and NBA’s Bulls. If both went to the finals, you are looking at 136 days when the Stadium is used between the 2 teams (20 Exhibition events, 84 home dates, 32 playoff dates max). According to what I can find online, the venue hosts approximately 200 events (including sports) every year. So adding a generous 100 days earmarked for concerts and family events, that brings the total to 236 days where United Center is booked. That leaves 129 days free to operate as a movie complex.

The stadium can seat 23,500 patrons. If I was to slash that down to 10,000 seats made available for film-going, and charged $2 a head to get in the door, and only averaged 50% capacity for those 129 days, that adds up to $1.2M in revenue for tickets alone. The majority of revenue, like movie theaters, will be the concession stand. So if the operation averaged $5 a head, that will mean $3M in food. So an additional $4.2M a year from playing films. That might seem like a pittance, however I already discounted the available dates, venue seating allotment, average attendance, and pricing a great deal. There is still money to be made from merchandise outlets, parking, luxury box rentals for groups, and so on. All this based on the investment of a few hundred thousand for projectors and screens.

I believe if we made this stadiums and arenas capable of operating year-round they’d be more likely to turn a profit to help with operation costs, and more municipalities can stomach having to pay for these venues with tax dollars. What do you think?

Addendum: just thought I’d elaborate on the economics some more. Second-run films are very inexpensive to lease. Even a film that’s already been out 4-5 weeks, will cost 20% of ticket sales to lease. Waiting until the film has run it’s course (3+ months) or been released onto DVD makes leasing the film dirt-cheap. You would need staff to operate the box office and concessions, so that would be the priciest operating expense. However they’d be getting regular shifts in a year-round operation, and that makes staffing more stable. The million-dollar question: how much does it cost a venue operator to let a building go dark for one day? Would it not be beneficial to have some modest revenues to help offset yearly operating costs?

I’d also like to point out you could probably fire up the cinema screens even after a sporting event, for a late night or midnight screening.