Business as usual

Even though the Spokane Shock ended their season in bitter disappointment this year, it’s been nothing but good news for the franchise since its inception three years ago. As an expansion team, they won the ArenaCup in 2006 and have led the league in attendance all three seasons of their existence.

“We’re doing better financially than any other team in the league,” said General Manager Adam Nebeker.
Nebeker said that was based on their tickets and sponsorship sales. The team has averaged 10,000 fans a game in the last three seasons at the Spokane Arena. And generally, Nebeker said the team really bases its success on wins and losses.

“We don’t measure it in economic terms, people would be surprised to see it’s not making anyone rich,” he said, “but it’s certainly been profitable.”

However, with just eight home games, there’s less margin of error for the Shock when it comes to bringing in fans and making the money necessary to run a franchise.

“We certainly wouldn’t survive on 2,500 fans a game,” said Nebeker.

And playoff games help, since that means more fans come through the gates and buy tickets. With this year’s team playing all their playoff games at home, it was certainly a better situation for the Shock.

While the af2 has a travel pool that every team pays into for travel, it is capped, so a trip that went over a certain amount would cost the franchise some money.

“We like having home playoff games,” said Nebeker. “That’s 50 percent more games that we have.”

However, more financial success doesn’t necessarily bring a competitive edge.

“I don’t think that it gives us a competitive advantage,” said Nebeker. “Everyone is on the same playing field. We can’t pay our players more.”

Since there is a set cap on players’ paychecks, all the Shock can provide is the experience and they’ve certainly done that. Spokane has an indoor training facility and the allure of the Arena on game day to dangle in front of players.

“[The training facility] has been a separate business venture,” said Nebeker.

The Shock facility is also used to host various youth sports as well.

And one thing to keep in mind is that the wins don’t stop the expenses.

“There’s about a million of them,” said Nebeker.

Travel to the various af2 cities across the country adds up and so does the insurance and worker’s compensation for the football players since it’s a high-risk contact sport.

“It’s not cheap to run a professional football team,” said Nebeker. “But it’s been profitable all three years.”

Story by Brandon Hansen, editor-in-chief. Brandon ca be reached by e-mail at brandon@htsports.org.