Arenas Heed Call For Smaller Halls

Responding to a perceived need for more 5,000-seat halls, arena owners are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in curtains, chandeliers, and rigging tracks in a bid to create intimate theaters within the arena bowl. And while the address is the same, arena theaters are being marketed and even named separately to emphasize the difference.

The ArenaNetwork, a consortium of arenas that can promote and co-promote, has even formed a sub-group, Arena Network Theatre Group (ANTG), to buy tours and promote the smaller venues as a separate route.

Its motivation is that there are more acts on tour that can fill 5,000 seats than those that can fill 20,000. From the booking agent's viewpoint, it's a more appropriately sized venue, with "all the staging space you'd ever need," notes Creative Artists Agency agent Ron Baird.

Currently, there are 18 ANTG theaters, not including the American Airlines Arena theater in Miami, scheduled to open in 2003. Tim Ryan of Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim and the Theatre at the Pond says ANTG would like to have "30 [member theaters] within the next 12 months."

Clear Channel Entertainment's Bruce Kapp believes the theaters are evidence that arenas "are not utilizing enough dates a year because of their capacity, so they're trying to lure artists in by cutting down capacity. A few have done spectacularly well, and a few haven't."

Baird, too, calls it a way of putting a spin on the arena to book it, but he sees more and more artists in the mid-level range that can take advantage of the trend.

In the past, not many 5,000 to 6,000-seat auditoriums were built. Kevin Twohig, who books his Star Theatre at the Spokane Arena in Washington, believes 5,000-seaters were "going to be a trend 50 years ago, but there weren't a lot of acts at the time that could sell that many seats."

Today, there are a huge number that can sell that many seats, Twohig says, and the war memorials and civic centers don't work. Those that were built were all compromises. "You can't build a 5,000-seat hockey rink and get a 5,000-seat theater out of it. Your seats are in the wrong places for a theatrical environment." But the big arenas can create an environment that looks and feels like a theater, Twohig says: "We paid off our $250,000 investment in the first 18 months."

Bob Hunter of Air Canada Centre in Toronto, which houses the 5,500 to 5,800-seat Sears Theatre, has hosted 25 shows in the theater setup since the arena opened three years ago—"about one-third of our business."

Daren Libonati of Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, home of the Ultimate Theater, cites flexibility as a key to the success of arena theaters. "Our advantage at this building is I can set the theater in a short house configuration," Libonati says, "as well as spin it around and do it in a complete lower bowl situation."

When Nine Inch Nails' attendance projections dropped way down, "we were able to drop the curtain and go into the theater setup," Libonati says. "An arena show became a theater show, and it created a very intimate 5,000-seat sellout."

It has worked in the other direction, too. Thomas & Mack staff can "lift our curtains in quadrants," Libonati notes. "When Creed caught fire years ago, we lifted one straightaway side, then the other, then the back of the bowl, so we were able to expand it."

Bucky Dame of the Joel Coliseum Theater at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C., is new to the game. His first show in the 5,600-seat theater setup will be April 20, when Nelly plays there.

The centerpiece for Dame's theater is a $10,000 chandelier that is 14 feet wide by 15 feet high. "We found it on eBay," Dame says. The monster chandelier stays up all the time, wrapped in a sock and tucked away during arena events.

"We took a look at what acts are available, and we had a lot more potential acts for the theater than the full arena," Dame continues. "And your margins are better, your outlay is not quite as much. You're looking at guarantees from $40,000 up to $150,000. For the full arena, it's $100,000 plus. If you have a show with a $100,000 guarantee at 5,000 seats, you can keep ticket prices rather reasonable."

Scott Williams of the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, a member of the ArenaNetwork, isn't part of ANTG and can't justify spending "$350,000-$400,000 for five or six shows a year. This market is not short on small arenas."

Xen Riggs of Value City Theater, Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, is 100% behind the idea. "We did ours almost four years ago. Frankly, some of the promoters we were working with said, 'You may want to reconsider that; I'm not sure how much you'll do in that setup,' " Riggs recalls. "We've been open four years, and we do five or six shows a year that we consider Value City shows."

Kevin Ullestad of Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill., has made some modifications to his 5,000-seat, 38-year-old theater. "Roughly 40% of our concerts [have been] in our theater configuration [during] the last two years, because there are [fewer] and [fewer] shows that can sell 10,000 tickets," Ullestad says. "ANTG will shine the light on an excellent opportunity that is already there and [that] we've been utilizing."

Ed Rubinstein of Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, S.C., opened his Pepsi Pavilion in February 2000 with Reba McEntire. He has always believed that "there is an untapped market for the 4,000 to 5,000-seat configuration. There aren't that many cities that have facilities that size."

However, Rubinstein also believes there was an embarrassment factor for acts if they couldn't play the full arena. A curtain didn't quell the feeling, but a separate theater, he believes, will. "I get calls now from agents and acts and promoters that want to play the Pepsi Pavilion."

With the fiscal year started Sept. 1, 2001, Rubinstein has seven events booked through April 21 and offers for three or four more. Concerts include the Guess Who, Patti LaBelle, CeCe Winans/Donnie McClurkin, and, coming up, Steven Curtis Chapman and dcTalk.

Twohig says, "Rob Zombie is our next show in there. How insane is that? And we're going to do Styx/REO Speedwagon a week after that. Rob Zombie is way, way into the black—it's very profitable—and Styx/REO is doing fine."