Aging Sportatorium Keeps On Rocking

Yet the Hollywood Sportatorium, in far western Pembroke Pines, continues to attract major rock stars and draws an average of 9,300 people a show.

The enigma is easily explained:

``It`s a five-letter word -- money,`` said Jack Boyle, president of Cellar Door Concerts Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, which promotes about 15 concerts at the arena each year.

The 14,000-seat Sportatorium is the largest indoor arena in South Florida -- in fact, it`s the largest in all of Florida.

Performers -- who have included Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers and Madonna -- can reach as many fans in one night at the Sportatorium as they can in three at Broward County`s other major concert hall, Sunrise Musical Theater.

Big crowds create media coverage, and that sells records.

``It`s a big market, an important market; a lot of people who buy records live there,`` said Stephen Smith, vice president of the Howard Rose Agency Ltd. in Los Angeles, booking agent for Elton John.

Fans simply like the music.

``The Sportatorium`s got the feeling,`` said Dave Young, 18, at a recent concert by Power Station.

```It`s better than Sunrise. Sunrise is like goody, goody. The Sportatorium always gets the baddest bands. That`s why everyone comes here.``

Boyle said performers playing the Sportatorium can make $25,000 to $150,000 a show. He said promoters can make $5,000 to $10,000 a concert, although they generally make less than $5,000.

The arena, too, can make $20,000 a night if 10,000 to 12,000 people attend the show, Sportatorium Manager Mike Oliver said.

But a sold-out show rarely happens, and rock `n` roll alone has not been enough to keep the arena in the black.

(BU)

The Sportatorium is a subsidiary of Florida Hialeah Inc. of Orlando, which is owned by the estate of Stephen A. Calder. The estate has no connection with the well-known Calder Race Course in North Dade County, but at one time Calder was one of the owners and the track is named after him.

The executor of Calder`s estate, Hort Soper, said that the Sportatorium has not made money in the seven years he has been executor of the estate and that it consistently loses ``substantial`` sums of money.

Its costs are high. According to the Broward County Property Appraiser`s Office, the Sportatorium paid $134,584 in property taxes last year. More than $10,000 per concert, Oliver said, is spent on utilities and security.

And there are too few events -- only 11 concerts have been held so far this year -- to cover its annual costs.

One solution, Soper and Oliver agree, would be for the Sportatorium to house a professional sports team.

That would provide guaranteed booking for perhaps 40 dates a year and a steady stream of income. At one time, that was almost a reality.

The Sportatorium was built in 1969, three years after Calder and his partner, Norman Johnson, built the Miami-Hollywood Speedway on the same site, only a few hundred yards east.

The Sportatorium, made of concrete and steel, initially had three sides of bleachers on an asphalt ground floor.

``The idea was to have a facility which could have entertainment and events out of weather,`` said Bruce Johnson, Norman Johnson`s son.

Bruce Johnson, who managed the arena until 1980, said that concerts and some rodeo, wrestling and boxing events were held at the Sportatorium fairly regularly until 1975, when it was decided to try to attract a professional sports team with a refurbished arena.

The owners spent $4 million for renovations, including adding upstairs seating and installing pipes under the floor to make ice.

``There`s no way this place can fail,`` Bruce Johnson said in September 1975, as the construction was nearing completion.

He appeared to be on the right track.

On June 6, 1976, Paul Snyder said he was close to selling his Buffalo Braves professional basketball team to Irving Cowan, owner of the Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood. The team would play at the Sportatorium. Pledges for more than 8,000 season tickets were received. Hollywood Mayor David R. Keating was quoted as saying, ``I think it`s just great. I`m planning now to meet (the team) at the city limits.``

A suit by the city of Buffalo, however, blocked the team`s move, and the Sportatorium was left flat.

``It was a dream of Mr. Calder,`` Soper said. ``He wanted to make it a success and have a sports team there. They sold season tickets, had a press conference and then they double-crossed him and didn`t come.``

Meanwhile, the newly renovated arena attracted major rock stars, but problems arose.

Raucous crowds were the major one.

(BU)