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The Brooks brothers held a media gathering on Tuesday at the Queensbury hotel to formally announce that the Phantoms are returning for a second season in Glens Falls. Though that’s been their intent all along, they correctly felt that rumors persisted that the team was one-and-done.

I talked one-on-one Tuesday with co-owner Rob Brooks for a story to run on A1 of Tuesday’s Post-Star. Below is a transcript of the bulk of the conversation, which touches on Allentown, video boards, ticket prices and more. It’s very long and you can read the condensed version in the story, but I thought some of you would be interested to see the whole thing in the owner’s words. The Allentown portion is toward the end. What do you think of his remarks?

TM: How well is the team doing financially to this point?

RB:  We wanted to have 2,500 season tickets and we got 2,000, but the walkup in the community has been really good. We’re probably on budget for a break even this year and that was our goal. We think with a full year of selling, and really, we just broke into it so late last year, that we hope we can get it up to that same point and keep going. We love the community up here and it’s not our goal to make a ton of money, it really isn’t. We just want to break even, because that’s what’s going to bring another team. If you can do better than losing money, we’ll have AHL hockey for a long time.

TM: Is the attendance average of around 4,000 the benchmark number to make this work?

RB: We really need paid tickets to be anywhere around 3,600. That’s probably your break even model. That’s about right where we are if you look at paid tickets. We’re really close to that. So halfway through, we’re doing OK. We’re doing well enough —  we’re saying we can do a lot better.

TM: How is the income from other revenue streams — corporate sponsorships, concessions, merchandise, etc.?

RB: The biggest two things in hockey are your tickets and your corporate sponsorships. We’re right about where we thought we’d be (with corporate support), but it’s still a lot less than the average in the league. We’re a smaller town. We have to rely a little bit more on tickets than we do sponsorships. As you noticed, we’re probably a little higher than the average on tickets, but we’re lower than the average on corporate sponsorships. Those are your two major revenue streams. As far as concessions, the arena brought in Ovations, and I think they’re doing fine. We’ve got a lot of new choices for the fans and I think they’re priced right.

TM: We throw around the word corporate sponsorship, what does that really mean?

RB: It’s a way that (businesses) can get their word out throw us : dasher boards, in-ice (ads), all those boards you see up in the arena. Those are sponsorships. The ads you hear on our radio broadcast. Anybody that’s on any of our giveaways, those are corporate sponsorships. And it ranges from anywhere from $500 up.

(Brooks went on to explain that other places charge a lot more).

TM: With tickets being such an important part of the revenue stream — you’re averaging about 1,100 tickets more for the games against Albany —  if hockey were to leave Albany, where does that leave you?

RB: We don’t want them to go. And we hope they don’t. That’s not our call. When they’re in the building, it’s electric. There’s a lot of people, it’s packed. We’ve also scheduled those nights as our big nights to sell groups for, too. So actually, I don’t know if it’s that big of a difference because we’vesold a lot of groups. Maybe it’s about five, 600 extra on those nights walkup from Albany.

TM: Can you make up that 500, 600 over the course of the season?

RB: Yeah, I mean we can make it up, but we’d rather not. We’ll be OK.

TM: It’s not the linchpin this is all hanging on?

RB: No. I wouldn’t say it’s the linchpin. It’s an added bonus.

TM: What do you want to see happen as far as in-game entertainment next year?

RB: (Co-owner Jim Brooks) and I have been talking it about it the last couple of days and we can’t think of one other AHL team that doesn’t have a video board. Everybody’s so visual these days. You see a goal, everyone looks up to the replay, at a timeout, whatever. It’s a really important thing. Especially because our sponsorships are low, that’s a means to help that, too.

TM: Because people can buy advertisements, spots on the board?

RB: Exactly. That’s a way to help us with our revenue. And I think to keep an AHL team here long term, you have to have one. That’s kind of what we’ve been talking to the city about is it has to be done sometime so why don’t we do it now so we can all enjoy it?

TM:Who pays for it: the city, Global-Spectrum, or the team? Is the cost divided?

RB: It’s not just for hockey. Video boards – there’s not an arena built today that doesn’t have them. That’s because it’s not just for one (tenant). It’s for everyone that’s there. Imagine high school graduations with  video boards. Small concerts that are there will use the video boards. You can ask (Civic Center director Jason Blumenfeld), everything is elevated by the video boards. The basketball tournaments, it’s probably easier to keep some of those basketball tournaments if you have (video boards). And it’s not just for hockey, it’s for everything there. I think it’s an asset of the arena, so I think it has to be put in through the arena.

TM: Would the team be willing to help with the cost at all?

RB: That’s something we’re working with them now and how we can do it. We’re working to help raise money, we can do that. It’s all a partnership in here right now. We’ve teamed up with the arena to help them with things, they’ve helped us with things. A project like this we want to spread the word too on how important it is and help get us to come to a plan on it.

TM: Would the video boards be on the center console or somewhere else?

RB: That would be cool, wouldn’t it? That would be the best, but there’s all different ways of doing it. I’ve seen it on the two corners, I’ve seen it one on end, I’ve seen it in the middle. But I think the middle, that’s No. 1. That’s where you want to see it.

TM: Are there still plans to go ahead with luxury boxes?

RB: I think everything is kind of staggered. Those are things in the mix, something that would get it up to AHL standards, but we don’t want to ask for too much. We want to be partners in this and ask for some things as we go along. Our goal is to make this an AHL market.

TM: So video boards are the more pressing priority?

RB: That’s our priority.

TM: Will ticket prices be raised next season?

RB: We’re looking at that and kind of looking at the league on whole. We came in so late that we priced the arena the way we thought it should be priced. But we didn’t know the area, so we’re probably going to go back and lower prices in some areas and maybe raise in some areas. Now we know the area and we know what people like so we’re probably going to adjust up and back. Any increase is going to be very, very minimal. Costs always go up. But it’s not going to be anything substantial at all.

TM: Is the plan still to play a game in Philadelphia next year?

RB: If the Flyers ask. We want to be partners with the Flyers, too. Last year it was Peter Luukko calling us and saying, ‘Hey, we’d really like you to have a game here.’ If he does that again we’d look at it. I think it was fun for people here. They took a bus down… It’s good for the partnership. We’d also in exchange like them to come up here and do a preseason exhibition or something like that.

TM: Is an NHL exhibition for here in the works?

RB: We requested it, so we’ll see. Last year it was just too late. I think it’d be great. We’re working on it, for sure.

TM: Can you give an update on when construction is set to begin on an arena in Allentown? I heard the spring?

RB: There’s no written plans on when construction is going to start. We continue to work on things down there but things aren’t moving as fast – you know how things are – it’s steady moving forward, but we’re not at a point to start yet.

TM: There’s no date for first shovel in the ground?

RB: No.

TM: Do you have a sense or hope when construction will start?

RB: There’s always a hope, but right now it doesn’t seem as critical to us because  (Glens Falls) is a nice fit for us right now. There’s a good feeling and we have work to do. We were going to go dark and just wait (for Allentown). We definitely didn’t want to come to a place and pull out. That’s not us. That’s not what we want to do. But when we were approached to say, ‘Hey, help us try and get a team back.’ Then it seemed OK to us. We’re like, ‘OK, we’re going to try and do everything we can, so we can feel good about it, about setting the stage and make it work long-term. That’s what we’re doing today, it’s what we did this year, it’s what we’ll do tomorrow, the year after. That’s our goal –- so if the day ever came where we had to go, the table is set. I think that’s what’s going to make us feel good – making sure the AHL is here for a long time.

TM: How long will this process take to play out in Allentown?

RB: I don’t know. You can look at how long it takes for arenas to be built and financed and everything. It’s not an overnight process.

TM: Is it fair to say things are moving slower that you anticipated?

RB: Slower than we had hoped.

– Tim