Great American Ballpark great concert!

[Joeytraveler]

What then is an acceptable percentage for the venue? Is this current figure out of line compared to similar acts? Do you have experience in concert promotion?

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by Joeytraveler

What then is an acceptable percentage for the venue? Is this current figure out of line compared to similar acts? Do you have experience in concert promotion?

No I am not a promoter. But common sense tells me 15-20% would be more like it for the venue owner, especially with the inflated value of tickets. Without the venue there is no concert. Why should the good people of Hamilton Co. be charged with benefiting another private business? Saying it benefits all of the other private businesses within the City, hotels, restaurants, etc. just makes me more resolute the primary bill payers should be receiving more for their dollar.

[abr7rmj]

Originally Posted by kjbrill

I understand the City as a whole profited. But what was the attendance, 41,000 at an average cost of what $50 a ticket or $2 million dollars. And the County profited by $150,00 dollars or 7%. Seems to me the principle owner got had.

Is Paul McCartney in the business of playing concerts for free? Any way you slice it, $150,000 is better than $0.00.

And it was the downtown businesses (hotels, bars, restaurants, shops, even parking facilities) that were the real winners here on a night that would have otherwise been quiet with the Reds on the road. Therefore, the economic impact was substantially larger than $150,000.

[kjbrill]

I know I come on kind of strong concerning the stadia and their use. I just feel the residents of Hamilton Co. got hosed on the original deal. Why is there not more required of the direct beneficiaries? A portion of the hotel/motel tax should go to the stadium debt retirement. There should have been a luxury entertainment tax and restaurant tax also to contribute. Those who receive the most benefit as private businesses should bear the burden, not the poor citizen who is paying more sales tax on the purchase of a pair of socks.

You may construe this as saying I am anti-Cincinnati. Say what you want, I am anti-special interest groups taking advantage of the general populace. Rah rah is all well and good, providing the bill is paid by those benefiting the most. This is what I do not see happening.

[Joeytraveler]

Maybe even 15-20% is extremely undervalued. I really have no barometer as it's not a field that I work in. Without knowing what comparable percentages are I'll withhold judgement. As far as the stadiums go I'm not a big fan and support a ticket tax so the actual users are paying it. Not that there will be many users at PBS but that's another story.

[abr7rmj]

Originally Posted by kjbrill

I know I come on kind of strong concerning the stadia and their use. I just feel the residents of Hamilton Co. got hosed on the original deal. Why is there not more required of the direct beneficiaries? A portion of the hotel/motel tax should go to the stadium debt retirement. There should have been a luxury entertainment tax and restaurant tax also to contribute. Those who receive the most benefit as private businesses should bear the burden, not the poor citizen who is paying more sales tax on the purchase of a pair of socks.

You may construe this as saying I am anti-Cincinnati. Say what you want, I am anti-special interest groups taking advantage of the general populace. Rah rah is all well and good, providing the bill is paid by those benefiting the most. This is what I do not see happening.

I'd definitely support a hotel/motel tax to go toward the stadium fund. That burden would be paid primarily by out-of-town visitors, many of whom come to Cincinnati specifically for events at the stadiums or some of our other venues (Aronoff, US Bank Arena, UC/X arenas).

I'd be real careful with enacting any sort of restaurant or entertainment tax in Hamilton County for similar reasons though. While restaurants downtown certainly do benefit greatly from Reds/Bengals games, I'm not sure that restaurants in Oakley, Kenwood, Blue Ash, Tri-County do also. And those establishments in northern Hamilton County certainly don't benefit like Newport and Covington bars/restaurants/hotels do. Maybe that's the most unfair thing of this all - northern Kentucky riverfront communities get to sit back and enjoy all of the rewards and benefits of having GABP and PBS located within walking distance or ferry distance, but bear absolutely none of the burden associated with the stadiums.

I know Newport, in particular, was a big proponent of GABP being located on the riverfront instead of Broadway Commons. And Newport reaps tremendous gains from Reds fans before/after games. Maybe there should have been some sort of shared tax with Newport and Covington for the stadiums. That concept isn't unheard of elsewhere.

Paul Brown Stadium is another matter. I supported construction of a new stadium for the Bengals and I'm glad they're still here. But why the county allowed Mike Brown to dictate the location and, more importantly, type of stadium built is beyond me. PBS should have absolutely been a dome or retractable dome, which would have allowed its usage year-round for large conventions, other sporting events besides NFL, concerts, etc. As it stands now, even under the best of circumstances in a typical year, it won't be used to its capacity for more than the 12 (at most) Bengals games played there and the occasional UC football game when they play a big-name opponent. It's literally an obsolete building from mid-January through August. And, if it absolutely had to be an outdoor-only stadium, it should have been built in Queensgate or some other lightly traveled area. To hog up valuable acreage on the downtown riverfront for a facility that's barely used is inexcusable.

Either way, it's too late for all that now. Voters approved what we have today.

[kjbrill]

abr7rmj... I totaly agree with your obvservations on the stadiums. It is a case of too little too late. The taxpayers should have gotten a lot more for their money.

But to say it is too late now as the taxpayers got what they voted for I am not sure. Those same taxpayers can vote for something else.

[abw0315]

I am going to a concert here next Saturday and I'm wondering where anyones seats were...I chose the only seats available at the time and now I'm scared because they are so far back.

Sec 128.