Corporate executives looking to entertain high-value clients at the region's premier sports venues still have a taste for the suite life.

Increasingly, however, as investors demand more accountability on how entertainment dollars are spent, stadiums and arenas are serving up premium seating in more bite-sized portions.

This week, American Airlines Center showed off its work-in-progress CyrusOne Club loge boxes. That section on the arena's Flagship level originally contained eight standard suites that could hold up to 18 people each. Most of them were rented from AAC on a per-event basis and food and drink were extra.

Under the new configuration — which debuts in the Sept. 26 hockey matchup of the Dallas Stars and the St. Louis Blues — sports and entertainment fans can lease a box with four seats. The spaces in the south end of the arena are leased for at least two years and include a high-end buffet in the section's common area. Communal dining is a big hit with millennials, a much sought-after demographic.

Priced at up to $90,000 a season, the new premium seating could be a third the price of a traditional suite. The lowest price for a full suite is $300,000.

"This is a price point that more folks can get in," said Dave Brown, executive vice president and general manager at the home of the Stars and the Dallas Mavericks. Behind him, potential customers in hard hats and protective glasses looked at bare floors and exposed ceiling pipes, imagining the stylish finishes and furnishings to come.

"You're buying four seats vs. 12," he added. "So the economics are more affordable for some people. It's less cash out of pocket for the loge product. It's more digestible financially."

Guests tour inside the unfinished CyrusOne Club loge boxes at American Airlines Center in Dallas. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer)

Premium seating — including seats that are closest to the action and suite seats — are important profit centers for most major sports venues.

"In 1990, only 3 percent of the seats were considered premium," Bill Dorsey, founder and chairman of The Association of Luxury Suite Directors, said on the group's website. "Today, 20 percent of a major venue's seats are considered premium, which can account for nearly 50 percent of the ticketing revenue."

So premium seats are "hitting above their weight class in terms of importance," said Scott Spencer, president of San Francisco-based Suite Experience Group, which helps suite owners fill seats on days when they'd otherwise be unused or under-used.

Spencer says the AAC's plan to make little ones out of big ones is part of a growing national trend.

"A number of arenas are downsizing the number of suites or reconfiguring suite layouts," he said.

He quoted from an article in the Minneapolis Business Journal about that city's Target Center decreasing its number of suites and replacing them with "communal style" smaller suites on one side of the arena, and theater-style boxes on the other.

"The Golden 1 Center, new home of the Sacramento Kings, is opening this year with half the amount of suites as their old building, Sleep Train Arena," he added. "That's mostly a function of fewer large companies in that market willing to commit to a long-term suite lease.

"Teams and venues are getting more and more creative with their suites and premium spaces," he said.

A design plan of the CyrusOne Club loge boxes at American Airlines Center. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer)

This marks the second time the AAC has found a sponsor for a revamped seating area. It follows by three years the conversion of 20 suites to 36 smaller theater boxes in what is now the Service King seating area.

CyrusOne, which operates a 700,000-square-foot data center at the company's headquarters in Carrollton, hopes to increase its visibility in North Texas as it moves from suite owner at the AAC to named sponsor.

"A lot of companies can't afford a 10-person suite," noted Scott Brueggeman, chief marketing officer for CyrusOne, who joined the hard-hat tour this week. "And even if they can, it's hard to keep them filled all the time. This is a very friendly way for more people to get access to" semi-private premium space.

The loge boxes include tickets to all Mavericks and Stars regular- and pre-season home games. The buffet includes domestic and imported beer, wine and house spirits. Other amenities include the priority to purchase the same loge box for all Mavericks and Stars playoff games, reserved parking in the Lexus Garage, entry through VIP entrances, and first right of refusal to buy Platinum Premier tickets for concerts and other special events held at the arena.

The suites previously rented for, on average, $5,000 an event but could go as high as $15,000, Brown said.

CyrusOne's new namesake seating area will include "the most expensive finish-out per square foot of any space in the building," Brown said of the arena, which opened in 2001. It will sport "leather everything," granite countertops in the bar area, wood inlay ceilings and high-end ceramic floors.

The arena was motivated to move ahead with the current conversion in part because the Service King revamp was "a phenomenal success," Brown said. "It sold out with a waiting list in the first year."

Even with the two seating swap-outs, the arena will have 110 suites onsite. Maybe 10 percent come up for renewal each year and nearly all renew, he said. The AAC holds about 20,000 fans for basketball games and 18,500 for hockey.

A rendering sits in an unfinished area inside the CyrusOne Club loge boxes at American Airlines Center. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer)

Long-term suite leases and sales are "stronger than ever," said Andrew Silverman, chief revenue officer for the AAC, adding that most suites are leased on average for three to seven years.

That strength comes even with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban hinting that some possible practice facility locations he looked at were also "potential new arena sites, for after this lease ends."

The Mavs lease runs for 15 more years. Brown noted that existing suite holders and sponsors would get first dibs on space and sponsorship in a new arena.

He also noted that the suites weren't necessarily selling like hotcakes during the economic downturn.

"During the recession, we lost some clients," Brown said, adding that it took until last year to return to pre-recession sales levels. "The suites have sold extremely well over the last two to three years," getting an initial bump after the 2011 NBA championship of the Mavericks and the more recent improvement of the Stars, a franchise that has gone from being on the playoff bubble to a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

So the conversion gives the arena a more predictable revenue flow compared with the nightly rentals and a middle price point between premium seating in the heart of the arena and a full-size suite. It also makes the loge seats more downturn-resilient and allows the center to go after smaller businesses.

As this week's tour began to wind down, Marty Turco, the "old goalie" for the Stars, took a last look around. He declared the concept "a home run."

"We could call this a slam dunk, we could call it a touchdown," he said. "Getting to see the changes that they are making for the fans' sake and for business, what a great job they are doing.

"This fills a niche," he added. "Having everything included is very appealing to a lot of people. There is a little bit for everyone here in this building."

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