The Pulaski County Quorum Court passed a resolution Tuesday night urging the Arkansas CARES Act Steering Committee to grant $1.9 million to Simmons Bank Arena to help with mounting costs of upkeep for the arena while it has no events during the pandemic.
Justice of the Peace Paul Elliot, who is the primary sponsor of the resolution, explained that the hard times that have fallen on the arena since March have drained emergency funds and forced employees to seek government relief.
"The general manager has done a great job with the arena," Elliot said in the meeting. "He's just asking for the CARES Act funding."
The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act offers relief funds to be allocated meeting the economic needs of the states. A 15-member steering committee was appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson to make recommendations on how the state can best use the funds.
Calls to Hutchinson's spokesman Katie Beck were not returned Tuesday.
Arkansas received $1.25 billion from the act and has $70.7 million remaining after the steering committee's last meeting on Oct. 21.
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On March 13, the arena's management canceled Christian hip-hop artist TobyMac's show while the artist was in the building after President Donald Trump issued a national emergency over the coronavirus pandemic. According to General Manager Michael Marion, the arena was "not ready for a monsoon," and its rainy-day fund has dried up.
"Since then we have not been able to do events, and, with that being the case, we had 25 full-time employees. We have 20 now," Marion said. "During the months of April, May, June, July, we furloughed 13 of them, and then we brought them back on partial furlough between now and the end of the year."
The arena was built with a one-year 1% tax and was completely paid for when it was completed in 1999.
Marion has run the venue since then hosting concerts, sporting events, monster truck rallies and more to draw people to Central Arkansas.
The arena has been doing whatever it can to save money, even shutting off power during the summer, but with no additional source of revenue, money had to be used from the $1 million emergency fund.
"Our monthly [cost] when we are going and doing shows is about $300,000 per month," Marion said. "We knocked that number down to about $190,000 per month, and, of course no one knew, we still had Elton John on for July 1 and thought it was going to play."
Even with uncertainty over whether future scheduled events will happen, the arena must keep many of the positions on to prepare for reopening. Many of the full-time spots are "pretty specialized," according to Marion, and cannot be replaced quickly.
"I can't fire everybody, and then suddenly we crank back up and re-staff the whole place," Marion said. "The folks that are in these positions are pretty specialized. How many arena marketing directors do you have in one state? How many box office people do you have?"
The quasi-governmental board appointed by County Judge Barry Hyde and approved by the Pulaski County Quorum Court that runs the arena provides another challenge to the financial situation. Since it is partially governmental, the arena does not qualify for many federal or state funds, according to Marion.
"We're just in a tough position," Marion said. "We're not open, but we have to maintain a staff so that, when we do open, we can kick back up and get going."
Justice of the Peace Phil Stowers, cosponsor of the resolution, thinks the arena is not only an important venue for the county but also is a building that heralded the development of the downtown areas of Little Rock and North Little Rock.
"What started with the arena and the expansion of the statehouse convention center led to the Clinton library which ultimately led to the whole downtown renaissance on both sides of the river and has been a wheelhouse of economic development and community development," Stowers said. "And, frankly, sales tax receipts for Pulaski County."
Stowers said the shows put on at Simmons Bank Arena can rival any venue in the region, including FedEx Forum in Memphis and brings people from out of the country and state to Central Arkansas for entertainment.
"People come from all over not just Arkansas, but Oklahoma and it's been said we get better concerts than Memphis gets at the FedEx Forum," Stowers said. "They come here. They spend the night in our hotel rooms. They eat at our restaurants. They use our transportation."
If the federal money does not help carry the deficit of the arena, according to Stowers, the county will be forced to fork over the money to keep things running.
"What's going to happen is they're going to have to come to this body to the county, and we're going to have to out of our general fund potentially bail them out," Stowers said. "And that's what the CARES act money is for. It is meant to help in situations like this."
The arena also has minimal revenue from events outside the venue like "Food Truck Friday," but Marion said these are primarily to keep their name and sponsors' names out in the community.
"We're selling beer at them," Marion said. "We're selling funnel cakes. It's more about keeping our name out there trying to do something for the community. Trying to do something for our sponsors."
There are upcoming tours on the books for the arena, like Jojo Siwa and Maroon 5 next fall and Elton John in 2022.
"I think we all feel comfortable that once a [covid-19] vaccine is going and distributed that people are going to want to come to shows," Marion said. "We've certainly seen that in the surveys we've done, but I think, until that point, we're in a tough position."