Sales are the ticket for arena success
Ticket sales are 'solid and very encouraging,' said an arena official.
By GUY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The flurry of concerts by A-list performers announced for the new Youngstown Convocation Center has raised the anticipation level while erasing some of the public skepticism over the new building.
3 Doors Down, a top-selling mainstream rock band, with solid support acts Shinedown and Alter Bridge, will open the arena Saturday. Legendary jazzy crooner Tony Bennett will take the stage Sunday.
Before the year ends, the Australian Pink Floyd Show (Nov. 2), Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Nov. 13), Clay Aiken (Nov. 27) and Barenaked Ladies (Dec. 5) will make appearances.
And the Youngstown SteelHounds minor league hockey team will play the first of 32 home games Nov. 4.
But ultimately, the success of the arena won't be measured by the number or quality of events, but by ticket sales.
Matt Hufnagel, sales and marketing director for the arena, said ticket sales are "solid and very encouraging" for the first batch of concerts. The arena does not reveal numbers unless a show is sold out.
Financial risk
Even if sales should falter, Global of Youngstown LLC, the arena's management company, and the city of Youngstown, which owns the building, have little to worry about, at least in the short term.
The reason? It's the concert promoter, and not the arena, who bears the financial risk for each show, said Hufnagel. The arena charges a rental fee, which varies by the show, to the promoter, who then must pay the band and try to realize a profit by filling the seats.
If a show flops, the promoter loses, not the arena.
"We're pretty much out of the risk business," said Hufnagel.
The exception is if Global handles the promotion of a show by itself, as it did for Bennett.
The SteelHounds are owned by local businessman Herb Washington, who pays a rental fee to the arena. It's a financial risk for Washington, especially since Youngstown isn't a hockey hotbed. But Hufnagel said the trick is to just get people in to see the team once.
"Everybody who sees it loves it and comes back," he said. "It's good hockey, but it's not just hockey -- it's family entertainment."
Promoter
Most concerts at the arena will be promoted by Cleveland-based Belkin Productions. Belkin is a regional giant in the entertainment promotion business, booking shows in Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Columbus.
Michael Belkin, president, said his company will experiment to determine Youngstown's musical tastes and what works best here.
"First we see what the market will support," said Belkin. "We look at the local radio stations and see which ones have the best numbers. We look at album sales in the market. From that we can see what might work. But in the end, ticket sales dictate [the type of bands] we bring in."
Is Youngstown's location between Cleveland and Pittsburgh a drawback, limiting the caliber of talent that the arena can obtain?
Not necessarily, said Belkin.
People in Youngstown are used to traveling to Pittsburgh and Cleveland for entertainment, but the Turnpike runs in both directions, and Belkin hopes to tap into both major markets.
"We expect to get people to travel to Youngstown from Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The location may turn out to be a benefit," he said. "We'll look at ticket sales, where the people are coming from who go to the shows, and that will determine where we spend our advertising dollars."
Nor will Youngstown's proximity to the bigger metropolitan areas necessarily limit the number of shows at the convocation center.
"[Spacing out concert venues] is a judgment call," said Belkin. "There is no set mileage distance, and no formula that we have to follow in determining who we bring in and where we put them."
Belkin is very upbeat about the convocation center's chances.
"It's a nice building with an excellent management team," he said, "and we've delivered some entertainment that the market hasn't seen yet. We've invested a lot of time and risk in [the convocation center], and I believe it will lift the local concert scene to a level not seen in years."