For those of us who attend Hamvention the
following should be of interest. If Hara were to
go away, a person would wonder where the event would take place.
Pat, K9JAUDayton Magazine - Winter
Dayton Comment
Is it curtains for the legendary entertainment venue?
By Jim Bucher
A New Era at Hara
It would seem like anyone who has called Dayton
home in their lifetime has enjoyed and
experienced an event at the Hara Arena Complex.
But recently it has become quite complex to even
keep the doors open. Karen Wampler, spokesperson
for the Wampler family (owners of the Hara
Complex), grants Dayton Magazine the first
exclusive interview about Hara’s survival.
First, a little background.
In the 1940s, the land where Hara now sits was
the Wampler family fruit orchard. In 1943, the
Red Barn was built on Wolf Road as a fruit and
vegetable stand for Wampler Farms. Harold
Wampler, Sr., and his wife, Myrtle, enjoyed
dancing so they built a hardwood floor on the Red
Barn’s loft, which became the exclusive dance
venue known as the Cedar Loft Club. Harold soon
rented out the Red Barn as demand exceeded
supply. He began a tradition that his sons and
their sons would follow: build to meet a demand.
Right across Shiloh Springs Road, he started the
Hara Complex with the Ballarena in 1956. Dancing
was at the height of its popularity and more room
was needed. Harold’s two sons, Harold, Jr., and
Ralph, seized the opportunity and added the
Silver Arena in 1959. Noticing that the Dayton
area didn’t have a place to host the Shrine
Circus, the Wamplers built the 5,500-seat Hara
Arena in 1964, which ushered in an era of
entertainment the Dayton area had never seen.
“The name Hara was taken from the first two
letters of Harold and Ralph’s names,” says
Marketing Director Karen Wampler and wife of Rue
(Ralph Jr.) Wampler, Ralph’s son.
“We’re thankful their birth order wasn’t
reversed. Otherwise, we’d be welcoming people to
Raha Arena. Where else but Raha!” she jokes.
From those humble fancy-feet beginnings, Hara
was the place to see and be seen. The Rolling
Stones, Aretha Franklin, The Who, Prince, Kenny
Chesney, Brad Paisley and Kid Rock are just a few
of the acts that played the arena. Dayton was
suddenly a market where ice shows, car shows,
circuses and monster truck challenges stopped.
And who can forget the hottest ticket in town, Dayton Gems Hockey?
When I asked for stories about Hara on Facebook,
the memories flowed like water on the arena floor
before it freezes. Bill ‘Seg’ Dennison, a radio
personality at Cincinnati’s 700 WLW, calls it
“The Hockey Barn of Bedlam.” Even our very own
editor, Natasha Baker, recalls her grandma as a
popcorn lady wearing her trademark red-and-white
striped coat. Mark says, “It’s funny, you had to
dump your bottles before you entered a concert,
but the pot flowed.” And Danny shares, “very few
places leave me with a sense of awe like Hara.”
But times change and so do tastes for newer,
bigger, better venues. Others saw the Wamplers’
vision demand was greater than supply and
soon UD Arena, The Nutter Center and others
popped up, and competition became fierce. The
Wamplers welcomed it, but the odds were against
them. “Few complexes such as Hara are private,
family-owned venues, and while we struggle to
meet our considerable tax load, we often compete
against facilities that receive subsidies from
taxes. It’s an uneven playing field, at best,
complicated by Hara’s internal struggles,” says Karen.
After Harry and Ralph passed, the hand off wasn’t
smooth, leaving one of the estates open to this
day. “At a time when it was critical to adapt, we
were tethered in place, hemorrhaging resources to
legal fees and property taxes for land we couldn’t sell,” adds Karen.
Much has changed, but Hara hasn’t. Locked in
place, Hara fell into disrepair. “Sometimes
people ask, ‘Why don’t you do something with the
place?’ Trust me, we‘ve noticed, we’re trying.
Some serious sacrifices have been made to resolve
Hara’s issues, to keep the struggle in house,”
says Karen. “Turns out you can’t easily hide
165,000 square feet of struggle. There was a time
when we were really hard on ourselves for not
being able to better play the very difficult hand
we were dealt. Today, we take pride that we’re still at the table.”
Hara recently partnered with VenuWorks, a
respected facilities management company that
operates almost 40 venues nationally and whose
vice president is John Siehl, former president of
the Nutter Center. “John, who began his career at
Hara, introduced us to VenuWorks President Steve
Peters. We shared our story: the good, the bad
and the ugly. They told us, ‘Your baby’s ugly,
but it’s got great bones and can grow out of it,’ ” says Wampler.
It seems those bones still have a lot of meat on
them because a plan is on the table, including a
debt restructuring plan and cash for necessary
improvements. Investors and potential buyers will
be aggressively pursued, which means the Wampler
name might not be associated with its namesake, a
revelation that brings a tear to Karen’s eyes.
But the show must go on and in 2012 it did,
bringing nearly $32 million in economic impact
and filling the complex with 220 events.
“If a broken Hara can generate those numbers,
what could a whole, restructured, renovated Hara
do? We hope that in the coming yearHara’s 50th
anniversary we can find out,” says Karen.
Don’t you think we should jump on the bandwagon
here, or, in this case, the Hara Zamboni? Do we
really need to lose that kind of coin in our
depressed economy? I think not. Operation ‘New Era @ Hara’ has begun.
“While nothing is certain in the upcoming year,
we enter it with a solid plan, some extraordinary
allies, a realistic grasp of what needs to be
done, a weary, but truly dedicated staff, a
statue of St. Rita (Patron Saint of Impossible
Causes) watching over us and 50 years of moments,
memories and relationships from which to draw momentum,” says Karen.
We can only hope and pray that St.Rita loved to dance.
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