River Dragons take significant financial hit due to COVID-19. How will team bounce back?
For the Columbus River Dragons hockey team, it’s a long road back to normalcy due to the financial impact of COVID-19.
But the River Dragons have committed to playing hockey when allowed and continue to operate as normal amid abnormal times.
The River Dragons had six home games, one-quarter of their home schedule, canceled when the league suspended operations March 13. Attendance at the Columbus Civic Center during the team’s inaugural season was trending upwards.
But that was brought to a sudden halt when the virus shut down the sports world.
The team plans to allow fans at games when it opens play in 2020-2021, though that will only soften the larger financial blow. The start date for the upcoming season remains unknown.
“Our operating budget is a lot different than others; it’s a lot higher,” River Dragons owner Jeff Croop told the Ledger-Enquirer. “... we fill different roles that other teams try to multitask and scheme by. So, it’s pretty important. Our attendance is pretty important to us.”
The effects of capped attendance
The River Dragons said that “significant social distancing” will be implemented for the upcoming season, which will result in decreased maximum capacity for all home games. This was decided on by the Columbus Consolidated Government, Croop said, since the Civic Center is owned by the city.
With reduced capacity, ticket prices temporarily will increase.
The Civic Center holds 10,000 fans; the extent to which capacity will be limited has not been released.
General Manager Scott Brand said if the River Dragons averaged an attendance of 3,800 over the final six games, they would have reached an overall attendance of 100,000 this season. The team averaged more than 3,000 in attendance each game.
Take an average of 3,800 over the team’s final six home games, and multiply it by, for instance, $12 per ticket (single game tickets sold for $8-$25), and that’s $273,600 in ticket revenue gone.
“(The pandemic) was the difference between breaking even in year one and losing money,” Brand said. “Losing significant money. ... You’re talking $300,000 to $400,000 lost ticket revenue. Plus playoffs.”
Brand anticipated crowds of 4,000 or more for at least two of the team’s remaining home games, four of which were against Carolina, which appeared to be a blossoming rivalry.
Brand said the only time he’s experienced something similar was 9/11, while he was with USA Hockey’s Officiating Development Program and the USHL.
But that only shut things down for three days.
“I could lie to you and say everything was fine,” Brand said. “We didn’t break even. We lost significant money because of it. Now, we’re fortunate enough that we have an owner who is passionate about the city and about hockey.”
The road ahead
Croop’s actions back up Brand’s comments. The former recently entered into an agreement with the city to refurbish Golden Park and bring a wooden-bat baseball team to Columbus.
Jay Croop, player-coach and son of Jeff Croop, never has been part of anything like the COVID-19 shutdown, aside from when past injuries forced him to sit out games. But even those came nowhere near the scope of the virus.
However, the team’s actions in the free agent market point to a dedicated commitment to the city and the sport.
The River Dragons announced four re-signings since the season ended and retained the rights to their roster from last year.
The team also has signed nine players from outside the organization.
“The word’s starting to get out that we take care of our players, and we want to win here,” Jay said. “And that we have a great city behind us. We’ve been able to reach out to players at a higher level and say, ‘Hey, let’s do something special in Columbus.’”
The future remains uncertain. COVID-19 protocols for the Civic Center likely will make breaking even difficult yet again.
But team officials are confident what the future holds, virus or not. Hopefully, they said, it holds a title run.
“We’ve got a good team that wants to win it all,” Jay said, “and build a dynasty here.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 6:50 AM.
