Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reports: The Charlotte Coliseum's managing director says the plan to pay for a $231 million arena could complicate paying for that building's operation.

Mike Crum told the Coliseum Authority this week several aspects of the arena-financing plan -- equipment trade-outs, a ticket surcharge and possibly giving the Hornets a better lease -- could make it tougher to run the building profitably.

"There's only a finite amount of public and private money going into the building," Crum said. "You've got to decide how much will go in up-front and how much will go in over the life of the building," Crum said. "The trick is how you divide the pie to also pay for the operation of the building and make the tenant (the Hornets) economically viable."

The Coliseum's operating budget is about $10 million annually. The Coliseum Authority will run a new arena if one is built.

The business community is fronting $100 million for the project, and not all of that is cash. Some could be providing food-and-beverage equipment by signing a long-term contract with a commercial concessionaire.

Crum said those contracts often are more costly than beneficial for an arena, eating up much of the profit from concession sales. Instead, Crum would like the business community to front the cost of the equipment and be paid back through concession proceeds.

"Then the building and the tenant enjoy the benefit of those extra revenues over the remaining life of the facility," Crum said.

Crum also expressed concern about how a 3 percent ticket surcharge on events in the new arena might discourage some concert promoters from coming to Charlotte.

"Third-party promoters have very, very narrow margins," Crum said. "The building gets its piece, the act gets its piece, and at the end, there's a little sliver for the promoter. Anything that you tack on to the promoter's cost makes that (sliver) smaller. So the question is, does that affect their decision-making in bringing certain shows to your market?"

Crum suggests factoring the ticket-surcharge into the Hornets' rent in the new building. He says that's reasonable because the Hornets would account for such a large percentage of the building's total events.

Crum also said the Coliseum Authority would likely be asked to adjust the Hornets' lease, to help the team through at least two more seasons of losing money in the Coliseum. Hornets co-owner Ray Wooldridge said his team will lose at least $25 million this season.

"The team playing in this facility has some really serious economic challenges. That's why we're in this in the first place," Crum said. "If the team is making a long-term commitment here, then we need to address some of the team's short-term issues."

Crum said that could include giving the Hornets a larger share of the profit from food and beverage during their games.