How Covelli landed the Rocket Man

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

dastolfo@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

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Covelli Centre Executive Director Eric Ryan

How did little old Covelli Centre, with its 7,000-seat capacity, manage to land an Elton John concert?

It was a combination of business connections, the arena’s reputation ... and being in the right place at the right time.

Talk of bringing Elton to Youngstown actually began more than two years ago, said Eric Ryan, center director.

“I had been working on it since right about the time I got the job here [November 2007], or at least discussing it,” Ryan said. He first met with John’s representatives at a concert convention in California two years ago.

But it was only a few months ago that Saturday’s concert changed from a some-day goal to a distinct possibility.

“I was on a conference call with SMG and [representatives from] some other buildings and they were discussing the Elton John-Billy Joel tour that was then going on,” Ryan said. “They were saying Elton was going to take some dates on his own and play some secondary markets to leave the major markets still in play. Now that being said, we still didn’t meet the criteria. But I got on the horn and made some calls and we put together a plan with SMG and some other SMG buildings.” Covelli Centre is co-managed by SMG, an international arena-management company, and JAC Management, which is owned by Ryan. The city of Youngstown owns the facility.

Covelli Centre has the lowest capacity of the SMG-managed arenas that got Elton, but other factors worked in its favor.

“Thank goodness Elton loved the idea of playing a more intimate place,” Ryan said. “Elton doesn’t need to play Youngstown, but it was up to him and his management to say they’d play here. It went back and forth. I wanted it to happen, but I was afraid we didn’t have enough seats. But we worked out a deal and then [concert promoter] Live Nation got involved, and we finished it.”

In addition to the relationship with SMG, the arena’s history with major concerts played a role in landing the Elton John show. “[Covelli Centre] has a track record. We can say we put butts in the seats. We sold out Journey and Carrie Underwood and people are starting to notice.”

Ryan said he felt certain the Youngstown market would support an Elton John concert, even with its high ticket prices ($39, $89 and $139), and he was right.

When tickets went on sale March 12, ticket-selling Web sites got 13,000 hits in the first three minutes for the show — and each buyer could have bought up to six tickets. Buyers were mainly from the Northeast Ohio-Western Pennsylvania region, said Ryan.

“We are so fortunate; it’s unbelievable,” said Ryan. “I wake up every morning and ask my wife, ‘Is Elton still coming?’”