Huge arenas no longer is demand as music venues

7/01/07 - The Enquirer - Huge venues are vanishing: "Live Nation, which posted more than $3.5 billion in revenues last year, bills itself as 'the world's largest live music company.' It owns or operates 131 venues. Increasingly, amphitheaters sitting mainly on interstate exits and beltways outside of cities, find themselves in areas that have become prime real estate. Live Nation is selling off amphitheaters where established stars such as Buffett and Chesney may be the only guaranteed sellouts.

Just last week, Live Nation ended a management deal with the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater near Kansas City, Mo., plunging that outdoor venue's future into uncertainty.

While it divests of amphitheaters and other aspects of its business - including its Broadway Across America series that comes to the Aronoff Center for the Arts - Live Nation is beefing up its live music promotion and focusing on smaller venues. The company recently acquired the House of Blues chain of 10 clubs for $350 million.

Smaller performing venues are more attractive to artists as well as presenters, says [Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of the concert trade magazine Pollstar], because all seats are reserved. In 1994, touring groups including the Rolling Stones shifted to 'tiered pricing,' charging a premium for the best seats. But in the amphitheater world, the largest capacity is the lawn, which are the cheapest tickets.

'The artists will tend to demand that the presenters pay them a lot for that lawn capacity, whether they sell it or not,' Bongiovanni says. 'But if you only have 6,000 reserved seats, it's a safer bet. And artists generally like to play venues they can fill. No one likes to play to an empty or half-empty facility.'"