YOUNGSTOWN — After 16 straight years of turning a profit, the city-owned Covelli Centre, Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre and Wean Park finished 2025 with a staggering $484,728 operating loss.

It is the first year in which the downtown facilities lost money under JAC Management Group, which started operating the center in late 2008. The amphitheater and park opened in mid-2019.

“We need the big shows to make the money and we didn’t have them,” said Eric Ryan, JAC’s president. “It was our most difficult year financially. We had a few less shows than we hoped and some of the ones that we had, unperformed. For the first time in 17 years, we lost money. It’s a one-year anomaly. Direct event income was down.”

But the 5.5% admission tax on tickets sold for shows at the complex in 2025 broke the record for largest revenue for a year at $375,638, according to city Finance Director Kyle Miasek.

“The net to the city is not bad,” Ryan said.

It is a $109,090 deficit.

It is a far cry from 2024 when the facilities made $635,082: $349,594 in admission tax and $285,488 in operating surplus.

Even during 2020, the COVID-19 year that caused entertainment facilities in Ohio to be closed for months and then have attendance restrictions, the city-owned properties made $126,730 from the admission tax and operating surplus combined — though it greatly benefited from a $419,878 federal Shuttered Venue Operators Grant to bail them out.

Last year was the worst operating loss since 2006, when only the Covelli Centre, then known as the Chevrolet Centre, existed and lost $541,298 in its first full year of operation when it was managed by International Coliseums Co. The center opened in October 2005.

Much of the operating loss in 2025 occurred in the fourth quarter with a record $444,019 deficit. The facilities had a $40,709 deficit through the first nine months of 2025 and finished with a $484,728 operating loss for the year.

Ryan said markets similar to the Mahoning Valley “have faced increasing difficulty attracting larger events due in part to a significant rise in major markets hosting stadium-scale shows, which has further limited the available touring inventory for mid-sized venues like ours.”

Ryan said his company used to get 20% of the shows it bid on for the city-owned facilities and it was less than 5% in 2025. That is because of an increase in stadium shows so performers that used to come to Youngstown are instead playing at larger, nearby amphitheaters: Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls and the Pavilion at Star Lake in Burgettstown, Pa., Ryan said.

Ryan also mentioned that the city’s admission tax is only on events at the Covelli Centre, Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre and Wean Park. Most cities with an admission tax is paid by all venues, he said.

The admission tax was imposed on tickets for events at the city-owned facilities starting in 2009 to help pay off the debt owed on the Covelli Centre. The city paid off that debt in January 2024.

The Y-Live concerts in 2025 — John Mayer on Sept. 26 and Tim McGraw a day later — were responsible for more than $115,000 in admission tax collected last year.

This year’s Y-Live shows — July 10 with Jason Aldean and Eric Church a day later — will be at Youngstown State University’s Stambaugh Stadium with the city not receiving any admission tax for those shows.

Ryan said 2026 was off to an excellent start with three consecutive sell-out shows at Covelli and a successful run of Disney on Ice in January. Disney on Ice is usually in December, but got pushed back a month, leading to some of the center’s financial issues for 2025, Ryan said. Disney on Ice will return in December of this year, he said.

Ryan said he is confident that the first quarter financial figures for the first quarter of this year will be among the best ever for the Covelli Centre (the outdoor facilities don’t have events during the first three months of the year). The first quarter report should be available shortly.

Ryan said: “We are already seeing encouraging momentum and anticipate a return to our historical performance levels.”

Ryan said the second and third quarters are always challenging, but some events are lining up well for the third and particularly the fourth quarters of this year.

“We’ll be back on track,” he said.