American Idol auditions deliver value

Evidently it's a very good thing when American Idol comes to town for auditions. This article mentions that cities like Minneapolis and Birmingham actively courted American Idol to win auditions for their cities, working at it for at least a year in advance. In one case it was the local Fox affliate doing the wooing and in another case it was the marketing manager of the local arena. Producers were courted the way any large event would be: phone calls, goodie baskets, presentations about local support and capabilities.

Ledger-Enquirer, 7/29/07: American Idol auditions music to ears of host cities financially: "[Birmingham, Alabama] The city that gave the wildly popular FOX television contest two winners in five seasons will host 10,000 to 15,000 entrants at an audition Aug. 21, one of seven cities where the flood of would-be Idols are expected to bring upbeat exposure and ring cash registers.

"'You're talking millions between hotels, rental of the facilities and then the intangibles of when you see your city, your facility highlighted like that on a number one show,' [Scotty] Colson said. 'How much is that worth?'...

"'You can't buy advertising like that,' said Scott Johnson, deputy director of North Carolina's Greensboro Coliseum, which hosted season five auditions. 'It's a tremendous amount of advertising value that's great for the community, and of course to have all those kids come out here and go on to the show, every time they talked about them, they said they auditioned in Greensboro.'...

"'Trot out the stuff to them that's the best. We show them the barbecue, we show them the music, we show them the restaurants. Put your best where it does the most good,' he said.

"But he also has a few words of caution.

"'They're having fun, you might be getting great exposure. But they're going to poke a little fun at people trying out (who weren't) very good,' Johnson said. 'You've got to take the good with the bad and you can't really control that. But the good far outweighs any bad you might have.'"