LEWISTON – Eight months ago, the city bought itself a civic center.

Reluctantly.

The relationship between a brand-new hockey team and the local arena owner who helped woo the team here had fizzled over missed deadlines, shaky financing and a box office that sold tickets for phantom seats.

For its money, the city got millions in debt, an unfinished venue and no keys to the building.

Lewiston’s investment in the Colisee will top $6 million by the end of the year.

So far, the debt’s only on paper.

Taxpayers haven’t paid a thing. Yet.

Early indications of whether that’ll hold true when the bills come due are mixed.

The Maineiacs have sold 1,000 more season tickets compared to this time last year and sponsorship revenue is up 30 to 35 percent, according to the team.

City and team officials alike say they aren’t worried about hitting the minimum attendance requirement that, by contract, keeps the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League franchise here. If Friday night’s sellout crowd is any indication, filling the seats for games will not be a problem.

But event bookings, whose profits offset the Colisee’s $1.5 million annual operating budget, are well below expectation.

City Administrator Jim Bennett said the facility needs 24 to 36 events a year – like concerts and home shows – to break even.

It’s got a handful, including a Jehovah’s Witnesses convention and a spring rodeo, “nowhere near the kind of booking activity that I would want or hope to see,” he said.

Last year, it was tough to sell a team that didn’t exist.

This year, it’s been tough to sell an arena that isn’t ready.

Twelve days ago – 10 days before the season opener – workers hustled to pour cement for a long, sweeping staircase that will lead to a new, roomier lobby, concession stands, beer taverns and a members-only club.

Construction is months behind schedule after changing plans for a simple addition in favor of a new three-story entrance that won’t be finished until January.

Maineiacs officials, the ticket box office and arena management still share a double-wide trailer parked in a back lot. The team agreed to the prolonged inconvenience early on, according to Vice President Matt McKnight.

“Jim (Bennett) approached the team and said, Here’s the plan, are you on board or not?'” he said. “In the end, we’re all going to be better off…. We’re tied at the hip. If the team doesn’t do well, the facility doesn’t do well. If the facility doesn’t do well, the team doesn’t do well.”

The ultimate night out’

The former Sherbrooke Castors set their sights here in late 2002. The team wanted out of its old arena in Quebec. The local advantage: Lewiston was the only suitor that could promise they wouldn’t miss a season of play.

According to officials at the time, the deal was struck in less than 90 days. The contract promised huge improvements to the aging arena. But when the team and the city accused Central Maine Civic Center owner Roger Theriault of default, his financing fell through and the drama played out in public.

Under new terms with the city, the team has a longer contract – until 2018 – and pays less for the ice.

Attendance last year for the Maineiacs, who finished 9th out of 16 teams, averaged 2,081, nearly half of those season ticket holders.

This season, attendance must average 2,500 or better for 17 consecutive games or the team can break its arena contract.

“I think that’s guaranteed,” said Bennett, adding that he expects even higher attendance thanks to a current player lockout by National Hockey League owners.

Only half of last season’s roster will return to the Lewiston ice. McKnight said to look for the new team to be fast and young. The organization is spending more than $300,000 on marketing this year, also part of its contract with the city.

Most of the original season ticket holders came back, and came back early. Sales passed 1,600 on Sept. 10, weeks ahead of Friday’s first home game.

Capacity is 3,691.

Prices have held: $420 for a season ticket, $13 for an adult, $3 for parking.

Game-day sales have changed this season, said newly hired Colisee General Manager Wayne Thornton. People buying after noon won’t pick their own seats; the system will pick best available.

And for the first few weeks, fans will have to park in the front, head up those sweeping stairs and hoof it around the side of the Colisee to the double-wide to nab tickets. When it’s finished in November or December, a new box office will be housed on the first floor of the addition.

Changes inside the arena this season:

• A flashing message board.

• A second beer tavern, located in the rear.

• A smokers’ patio, accessible in the back, with covered tables.

• A Power Play Premium Club. The third-floor club will have 28 tables, sold for the season at $3,800 to $4,500. Food and drink – the club will have a liquor license – are extra.

“This club is not designed for the guy living over there,” said Thornton, pointing out the window. “This is (for) the corporate dollar.”

He envisions a place to entertain clients and conduct a little business, pre-or post-game.

“It’s going to be the ultimate night out in Lewiston,” said Thornton.

And, he says, he’s going to sell each and every table this season.

What you won’t see in the arena this season: Girls on ice.

After putting out a midsummer call for experienced female skaters to rally the crowd and hand out prizes, the team only netted two applications.

Saving money, paying it back

Thornton’s background is marketing. He used to work for Reebok, recruiting National Football League athletes and coaches for endorsement deals. He’s seen the inside offices of every NFL stadium. He says he knows what works.

His game night plan: have 32 volunteers working as ticket takers, greeters and ushers. “We want people to say, Man, we got treated like a king tonight,'” Thornton said.

Theriault used 10 to 12 paid ushers per game last season. Bennett points to the volunteers as one of the business-minded decisions they’ve made to keep the budget down.

Another: cutting four days of public skating down to one. The new hours start today, from 3 to 5 p.m.

Renting the ice to hockey leagues for $200 an hour is just more profitable, Thornton said. “It’s strictly a financial decision.”

Other ideas to get revenue up: more promotions.

The Blue Goose Tavern bought ad space on the beer cups. Thornton has talked with another company about putting scratch-and-win stickers on cups. The new message board may evolve into a paid space for birthday greetings or proposals.

An updated Web site – thecolisee.com – is selling ad space to local restaurants and hotels looking to be listed as near the Colisee. And people can now buy tickets, check seating charts and get directions online.

“I think it makes a heck of a difference,” said Thornton. The site “is the first contact we’re going to have with a lot of people.” He’s hoping to make a good impression on fans and event promoters alike.

The team’s also raising its profile with more marketing deals, recently signing with VIP Discount Auto Center and Androscoggin Savings Bank, and testing payroll deductions for season tickets at six local companies.

“We couldn’t dream (of having) the advertising budget VIP does,” McKnight said. The hockey team employs 40 people part time and nine full time. Three, including McKnight, are devoted to marketing.

He also has a seat on a the nine-member, government official-heavy Colisee Board of Directors. It has lent an interesting perspective.

“We can’t be asking for things we know they can’t provide. It doesn’t hide anything, it puts everything on the table,” McKnight said.

Until ticket sales reach 2,750 or more, the team keeps all revenue from tickets. The city’s going to make most of its money on concerts and concessions. It keeps $3 out of every $4 spent on food and drink, and 25 percent of profits on merchandise, according to Bennett.

From February to June, the Colisee almost paid for itself, Bennett said. It hosted a rock concert, circus and the Harlem Globetrotters, and had expenses like paying for all new locks and keys, which, according to Bennett, Theriault told the city he lost. (Attempts to reach Theriault for comment were unsuccessful.)

The first debt payment, $562,000, is due next fall.

Bennett said he’s had a tough time convincing people that taxpayer money hasn’t already gone into the Colisee.

He hears things like, “You won’t put a streetlight in front of my house but you’ll buy a hockey team.”

Bennett said he regrets the timing of the cost overrun on the new addition, which this month bumped from $1.5 million to $2 million, especially in light of a tax-cap initiative and scenarios he’s offered that would cut city staff nearly in half if the tax cap passes in November.

Booking activity will pick up once construction is done, he says. “Right now people ignore the place because of past issues.”

Thornton “absolutely” thinks the facility will be self-sufficient this first year under city ownership. He has said it’s his job to make that so. The Colisee has four full-time employees – Thornton and one person each to run the office, sell tickets and manage the arena – plus 35 part-timers to work concessions on game nights.

“I always start with my glass half full, and it stays that way until someone knocks it over,” he said.