Des Moines Register
08-30-06
High-level, high-dollar, high ol' times
By RANDY PETERSON
Register Staff Writer
Look up with envy from the cheap seats Thursday night at Iowa State’s Jack
Trice Stadium, or Saturday afternoon at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.
Focus your binoculars on the glass-enclosed areas on the side of the field where
the building rises above the stadium.
Look, there’s Iowa State basketball legend Gary Thompson rehashing the 1971
Sun Bowl with Dave McCurry, who starred for the Cyclones during the early
1970s, while Iowa State and Toledo do their pregame routine.
And look up there in Iowa City. It’s Mr. Kum & Go, Bill Krause, hobnobbing with a
big-shot competitor from Hy-Vee as the Hawkeyes and Montana duke it out.
High rollers. Million-dollar contributors to the colleges.
They sit in 23 suites at Iowa State that will generate more than $600,000 a year.
They will sit in 46 suites at Iowa that will generate $2.6 million this year. They sit
in all-weather comfort while providing a $3.2 million-a-year lifeline to college
athletics at the state’s two largest universities.
The boxes are a “financial shot in the arm” for the athletic departments, said Des
Moines businessman Richard Jacobson, who has luxury suites in Ames and
Iowa City. “It’s their way of keeping up with what’s going on throughout college
football.”
The average cost of a suite that was part of a 1997 renovation project at Iowa
State is about $26,500 a year. The average price for the new suites in Iowa City
that will debut Saturday is more than $57,000 yearly. The suites are priced by
size and by location.
By comparison, the cheapest luxury suite at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb.,
leases for $75,000 a year. The cheapest at Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium
is $49,000.
“Suites are absolutely a necessity at the I-A level,” Iowa State athletic director
Jamie Pollard said. “You’re trying to get as much money per seat out of the
space you have to sell.
“The revenue generated from premium seating — it’s a large part of how we
survive. It’s how we keep up.”
Money generated from the just-built suites in Iowa City will go toward paying for
the $87 million renovation of Kinnick Stadium.
“Without that kind of seating, it wouldn’t have been possible,” said athletic
director Gary Barta. “It’s a great revenue source, but at the same time, some of
our best contributors have a chance to watch games in great comfort.”
Who are these rich and famous?
Jacobson leases suites at both stadiums for a combined $90,000 a year —
$30,000 at Iowa State and $60,000 at Iowa. He even pays for this rock-star
seating despite investing so much money in the future of athletics at both schools
that athletic department buildings on each campus carry his name.
“I’ve got seats in the stands on the 50-yard line at both places, too,” said
Jacobson, a trucking and warehousing magnate from Des Moines. “I give them to
employees and friends.”
Jacobson prefers to sit in the suite.
“Last year, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to a San Diego Chargers
game with him,” said Jacobson, who also owns a home near San Diego. “He was
a season-ticket holder and had seats on the 45-yard line, four rows up.
“I left at the end of the first quarter to get a beer, and within 30 feet I ran into four
fights. I said I’m never going to another pro football game.”
Jacobson’s Jack Trice Stadium neighbors include former Cyclone football player
Dave McCurry, Thompson and representatives of the Ruan Cos.
Jacobson’s Kinnick neighborhood includes Gary Kirke, a founder of Wild Rose
Entertainment, which built the Wild Rose Casino and Resort in Emmetsburg, and
Bill Krause, co-founder and CEO of Krause Gentle Corp. of West Des Moines,
which owns Kum & Go convenience stores throughout the Midwest.
“What happens in the suite for us is that it’s one of the few times when all of our
family comes together, and that’s impossible to do out in the stands,” Krause
said.
Spending money to make money
Iowa State’s College of Engineering is one of the suite holders at Jack Trice
Stadium.
“We raise the money from donors to pay for the (suite),” said Keith Fortmann,
executive director of development for the engineering school. “It’s not state
taxpayer money.”
Fortmann said a typical gathering in the $25,000-a-year suite includes
prospective donors, faculty members and alumni. The cost of the suite is a
piddling amount, considering that the College of Engineering received financial
gifts and commitments worth $34 million the past two years, he said.
“The fundraising business is about building relationships and getting people to
campus,” Fortmann said. “One of the uses of the suite is to cultivate future
donors.”
Engineering students and faculty also have watched games from the suite.
“Sometimes we reward a faculty member or a student who has won a big award,”
Fortmann said. “Sometimes there may be a prospective employer of one of our
students in the suite.”
University presidents also entertain on football game days — at Iowa in a 71-seat
suite that is rent free, and at Iowa State in a suite that holds 26.
The Iowa State presidential suite also is rent free to current university President
Gregory Geoffroy — because of a private donation of more than $350,000 to
the 1997 renovation of Jack Trice Stadium by then-President Martin Jischke. In
return, the university agreed to provide the president a rent-free suite for 10
years.
“It serves as a magnet to bring people back to campus,” Geoffroy said. “We host
people who may be strong donors, and people we identify as potential
benefactors.
“Our main objective is helping overall university fundraising, not just the athletic
department.”
What do they eat in a stadium suite?
Randy Ward ordered food last week for what simply is called Skybox 315 at
Kinnick Stadium.
Chips and salsa. Peanuts. Meatballs. Chicken tenders. Veggie trays. Soft drinks.
Beer.
“I think we’re ready to go,” said Ward, owner of Randy’s Carpet in Coralville.
Ward’s suite costs $105,000 a year. It’s a double suite that seats 36. The
seasonal cost is more than some houses.
“A bunch of us have sat in the stadium at games for years,” Ward said. “Then
one day we got to talking about how maybe we could pool our money and rent a
suite.”
Jackpot.
Twelve friends. Thirty-six tickets.
“It was very easy to get a group together,” Ward said. “We’ve even had a few
people say that if someone falls out, that they want in. We’ll have a lot of fun.”
The cost of a suite at both stadiums includes tickets, a refrigerator and a
television. Suite holders pay extra for food and beverages, which are catered by
dining services departments at both schools. Nothing can be brought in.
“We e-mail them what we want to eat and drink,” Ward said. “They take care of
the rest.”
The gameday special at Iowa State consists of chili, hot dogs, breaded
tenderloins, a vegetable tray, macaroni salad, corn chips, pumpkin bars and
buttermilk brownies.
“And you get all that for $9 per person,” said Karen Larson, assistant director
of catering for ISU dining services. “It’s at worst a break-even financial
situation for us.”
Larson said a small percentage of the food money goes to the athletic
department. The rest goes to the dining services department.
“It’s a win-win for everyone,” Larson said. “The food is very good, and we have
students who act as servers for each suite.
“If, for example, we have an engineering student working for us on game days,
we’ll make sure that person is the server in the College of Engineering’s suite,
because it’s a way for that student server to maybe make some professional
contacts that will be beneficial after graduation.”
Jack Trice Stadium in Ames
HISTORY: The stadium is named after the first African-American athlete at Iowa
State. He died from injuries suffered during a football game in 1923.
TICKETS: The home of ISU football holds 50,000 people. Tickets range from $10
for the Hillside Youth area to $35 for nonconference games, $65 for Nebraska
and $40 for others.
SUITES: The stadium has 23 luxury suites. Prices range from $25,000 per year
for 16 seats to $40,000 per year for 32 seats.
Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City
HISTORY: The stadium is named after Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick, who
died during a Navy training mission in 1943.
TICKETS: The home of Iowa football holds 70,000 fans. Single-game tickets are
$48 each, except for the Iowa State and Ohio State games, which are $60 each.
SUITES: The stadium has 46 recently renovated suites on two levels. Prices
range from $45,000 per year for 12 seats to $110,000 per year for 24 seats.
Casino's football skybox is OK with U of I
University of Iowa athletic director Gary Barta said Tuesday that the university
would not place restrictions on a Riverside casino that has rented a Kinnick
Stadium skybox with plans to bring big gamblers to Hawkeye football games.
“We have never placed any restrictions on a company which owns tickets, how
they use them secondarily,” Barta said. “Once they are sold to a company, it is
that individual’s or that company’s discretion how they use them.”
The new $140 million casino at Riverside is placing a special marketing
emphasis on Hawkeye football games. The casino, located 12 miles south of
Iowa City, has spent $165,000 for a three-year lease on a skybox at Kinnick
Stadium. The casino has also purchased dozens of Hawkeye football tickets for
its preferred guests.
Iowa has 19 casinos, but the opening of the Riverside complex Thursday at 9
p.m. marks the first time a casino has been so close to one of Iowa’s three state
universities.
Barta said the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the UofI are “very
concerned about possible ill effects as they relate to gambling and intercollegiate
athletics.”
He added, “On the other hand, the various casinos in this state, they are legal
businesses. So you walk that fine line between your concern about gambling and
its association with intercollegiate athletics and what you know has been
understood as a legal entity in this state.”
All U of I athletes are reminded annually that they are prohibited from any betting
on college sports, Barta said. “In fact, we go a step further and encourage
student-athletes that because of their position, gambling of any kind is something
that they should just absolutely stay away from.”
Dan Kehl, chief executive of Riverside Casino and Golf Resort, said that while he
is interested in attracting Hawkeye football fans as customers, he is not trying to
lure U of I students. Iowa law prohibits persons younger than age 21 from
gambling.
The Riverside casino is interested in hiring U of I students as employees, Kehl
said. He also said he is interested in having their parents stay at the casino’s
201-room hotel when they visit their sons or daughters in Iowa City.
Jack Ketterer, administrator of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, said
Tuesday that the commission approved the Kinnick Stadium skybox lease last
year. He said the commission views Riverside’s marketing focus on Hawkeye
football games as a way to relate to fans who are casino customers.
“I don’t think they are encouraging students or players to come,” Ketterer said.
“They are trying to attract people to their facility .”
— William Petroski