Venue Detail
Trenton Thunder
RSV Pro Facilities Report
March, 2013
Trenton Thunder
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1 Thunder Rd Trenton, NJ 08611 Phone: 609-394-3300 Fax: 609-394-9666 URL: www.trentonthunder.com Owner: Garden State Baseball LP League: Eastern League, Eastern League, Northern
Venue
Arm & Hammer Park, 1 Thunder Rd, Trenton, NJ 08611 Owner: Mercer County Managed by: Global Spectrum Built: 1994 Capacity: 6,600 Permanent concession stands: 16 Concessionaire: Centerplate Suite caterer: Centerplate Soft drink: Coca Cola
Naming rights
Sold to: Church & Dwight Co. Term: 20 years Expires: 2032
Ticket prices
Season tickets range from $650 to $650 Single tickets range from $12.00 to $13.00
Attendance
2010 average attendance: 5,408 2011 average attendance: 5,664 2012 average attendance: 5,411
Suites
Quantity: 16 Term: 3 to 3 years Seats: 16 to 16 Includes: Tickets.
Built in 1994 at a cost of $24.4 million, there are 16 luxury suites plus a clubhouse restaurant. Suites are leased for game days only at $650 per game. The price includes a $100 food credit.
The ballpark also has a stadium club that seats 20 to 100 persons for parties and other events. The cost of the facility for a pre-game buffet is $25 or $33 per person, depending upon the menu selected.
The Thunder committed to staying at Waterfront Park for 15 years under a deal that sharply reduces the team's payment to Mercer County and gives the team potentially lucrative naming rights to the ballpark. The deal was struck in 2008.
The county stands to lose about $450,000 a year in rent payments under the terms of the new contract. In return, the county is guaranteed the Double-A New York Yankees-affiliated team will stay in the city through 2023.
County Executive Brian M. Hughes said the county is “giving up some revenue to be associated with the best-known team in organized sports, which the New York Yankees are.”
“We are taking a cut in the actual revenue from the Thunder. There's no denying that,” he said. “We did that in the context of what other Double-A teams are paying their hosts.”
The new contract tosses out a complicated lease formula in favor of a flat $150,000 rental charge per year that increases to $200,000 in 2014 and $250,000 in 2019.
Under the 1993 contract that brought the team to Trenton, the Thunder have been paying the county an amount that varied according to ticket sales, and came to $607,000 in 2007.
The contract gives the Thunder responsibility for certain maintenance and cleaning duties, and says the county will pay the Thunder a $25,000 annual management fee.
Hughes said the cost to the county of maintenance, cleaning, accounting and related ballpark operations was about $300,000 a year. The county will no longer be responsible for those duties, he said. (Baseball, Facilities, Financial, Professional Sports)