Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012

WakeMed renews deal on stadium for RailHawks

The RailHawks soccer team's future in Cary was so uncertain last year that the brand and mascot were for sale on eBay. Even a sports conglomerate's purchase of the team didn't bring full stability - the new owner, Traffic Sports, signed only a 10-month sublease on Cary's WakeMed Soccer Park.

Now the professional squad is making a longer-term commitment to Cary. A new lease, up for approval by the Cary Town Council, would put the RailHawks in Cary for three years. WakeMed also is signing on for three more years of naming rights after close to a year of negotiations.

William Davis, Cary's athletics manager, said he was weighing the impact of a RailHawks exit this time last year. The departure could have left the 7,000-seat stadium, which sits on state-owned land, without a main attraction.

"We had to look at that really hard," Davis said. "Having that primary tenant and having that name and having them promote the park itself is something that's really important, and that's a loss that we would have trouble filling."

Speculation about the club's sale also pinched one of the stadium's main sources of income - amid the doubt, WakeMed signed a deeply discounted and shortened one-year naming rights contract.

"Last year was a unique situation with the change in ownership," said Curt Johnson, the RailHawks' new president. "We all felt ... that in order to move the process forward, it was probably better just to focus on a one-year deal because we were very late in the deal negotiating it."

Those negotiations now are nearing an overtime conclusion. The soccer club's lease and the hospital's sponsorship deal expired at the end of December, but both are ready for new three-year commitments.

The RailHawks will pay $90,000 a year to sublease the stadium. WakeMed will pay $315,000 to put its name on the center, a sum that Cary will split evenly with the team's owners.

The town's lease offers a slightly sweeter deal for the soccer team. Previously Cary had claimed roughly 65 percent of the sponsorship money.

Cary also has offered the RailHawks more flexibility and incentive to bring in third-party sponsors, and the new documents provide for more banners, signs and in-game promotions.

"Now we're looking at kind of coming in together, us working on it as a team," Davis said.

In a separate deal, the town, state and county are funding major upgrades for the park this year. A $6.3 million project, largely paid for by interlocal hotel occupancy taxes, will add 3,000 permanent seats to the stadium.

The fact that we have this kind of crown jewel here in the Triangle that's going to offer an even better place to stay, more amenities - it's fantastic," Johnson said.

The expansion, already under way, is scheduled to conclude this fall.