By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

It’s not exactly the “practical math” Chuck Berry sang about when “School Days” raced up the charts in 1957.

But when it comes to determining which performers and plays audiences will get to see at the North Charleston Coliseum or its Performing Arts Center in the coming year, the no-nonsense ruminations that take place in a suite of offices adjacent to the coliseum’s box office are all about dollars, doability and determination of acceptable risk.

“I’ve always tried to book something for everybody,” said David Holscher, general manager of the two facilities and the Charleston Area Convention Center. “That’s why there’s such variety in the type of events we host, and why we feature theatrical shows as well as performing artists.

“However, in the venue business, who ultimately plays your facility and who doesn’t is driven by financial considerations. These include how much the artist wants to be paid up front, which we call their guarantee, and how many tickets we think we can sell at a price that would allow you to pay that guarantee, cover all the expenses associated with the show and generate a reasonable profit for the promoter, artists and the venue, all of whom are taking something of a leap of faith when a concert date is announced.”

Since it was established in August 1999 on the site of an old limestone pit, that leap of faith by the management of the Charleston Area Convention Center Complex has been paying significant dividends to the city of North Charleston. The largest piece of the complex, the North Charleston Coliseum, opened in 1993.

According to a report issued by the College of Charleston’s Office of Tourism Analysis, which includes convention activities as well as concerts and performances, the complex drew 1.6 million visitors in 2006, and had an estimated economic impact of $47 million, up from $45 million in 2005.

The analysis found that the direct sales tax revenue for the complex in 2006 was $5.5 million, compared to $4.7 million in 2005, but the research team at the college’s School of Business and Economics didn’t stop there.

Factoring in spending by convention center visitors at hotels, restaurants and other providers of local goods and services, the analysis holds that the concert venues and convention center combined have a total economic impact to North Charleston of $72.5 million, up from $68.1 million in 2005.

Concert audience’s impact

Holscher readily admitted that carving the economic impact of single performances or even a string of performances out of that total is difficult, but he is quick to point out that signs of it are very much in evidence.

“Any time someone buys a ticket, they’re paying a state, county and city accommodation tax, and any time they buy merchandise, they’re contributing to the sales tax. Those are tangible things you can point to,” he said. “Somewhat less tangible from my perspective, but no less important, are those instances when people travel to see an artist who might not be playing anywhere else in the state, and say, ‘Let’s make a weekend of it in Charleston.’

“I would suspect that was the case in at least some instances with the recent performance by Lyle Lovett, which had the advantage not only of being his only performance in the area, but also a Friday night show.”

Although the coliseum and performing arts center has never conducted a formal survey to ask whether concert attendees are out-of-towners who are spending additional time in the region, it has compiled a significant e-mail database of past ticket buyers that suggests many of its patrons have traveled a considerable distance to see a show.

“And even when our patrons are local, they’re probably going out to dinner before the show,” Holscher added.

Tickets sales: A guessing game

But while he clearly feels he has a story to tell when it comes to what he describes as the often overlooked or forgotten economic and quality of life impacts of the coliseum and convention center, it quickly becomes clear that the part of the job Holscher relishes most is actually booking acts for the two venues.

The North Charleston Performing Arts Center seats 2,268, while a performance at the coliseum can be configured to seat anywhere from 3,000 to 13,000 people.

“Which venue an artist plays depends on how well you think they’ll sell,” Holscher said. “As a basic rule of thumb, you put the show where you hope it will sell out without too much unmet demand for seats.”

For acts, he relies on four large and several smaller talent promoters. By far the two biggest are Live Nation and AEG Worldwide, which recently jointly presented Bob Seger at the North Charleston Coliseum.

AEG Worldwide was also the promoter behind the recently sold-out Cheetah Girls show.

Two other large promoters with whom Holscher deals regularly are Outback Concerts, which handles artists ranging from Allison Krauss and Union Station to Jorma Kaukonen to Sara Evans, and AC Entertainment, best known as the co-producer of the annual Boonaroo Music Festival.

The walls of Holscher’s office are lined with memorabilia of clients, ranging from a concert poster for one of Bob Dylan’s most recent performances to candid and concert photographs of the Eagles, Jimmy Buffet, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw and Garth Brooks, among others.

“When we did the Eagles at $95 a ticket, that was the first time we went that high with a ticket,” Holscher said, making an off-handed reference to the large framed collection of Eagles photographs. “We sold out the show.”

Holscher said as a general rule, Performing Arts Center artists tend to be those acts whose audience either has eclectic tastes or is willing to pay a premium to see them perform.

“Harry Connick is one of the latter,” he said. “He’s huge, but his music isn’t really suited to a coliseum setting. So he’s going to play the performing arts center, but at a slightly higher ticket price than if he played in a much larger venue.”

Other kinds of deals

Another group of professionals who often call Hoslcher’s office are the territorial representatives of talent agencies like the William Morris Agency, CCA, ICM and the Agency for the Performing Arts, who get in touch as soon as they learn one of their roster of stars is interested in touring in the Southeast.

“They may want me to make an offer, in terms of an artist’s guarantee, or ask me to hold potential dates open,” he said.

Thanks to a brief flirtation with basketball, which ended with the league having to pay the coliseum management a substantial sum of money, Holscher has a reserve fund from which he can make offers to artists he thinks will do well at the coliseum.

Such was the case with Lovett.

“When someone asks you to make an offer, you typically either meet their guarantee or offer what you think their show is worth, based on the potential ticket sales,” Holscher said. “In the case of Lyle Lovett, I said I’d be happy to meet their guarantee, but only if we could get him for a weekend performance.”

In addition to an undisclosed guarantee, which typically runs in the low six figures, Lovett also received a percentage of the ticket sales.

With the concert a near sell out, Holscher described the arrangement as a good deal for everyone.

In the case of an upcoming show with Bonnie Raitt, Raitt’s promoter is renting the venue based on the educated assumption that she’ll sell well here.

“The challenge for a building is having a reputation in the market, and we have a strong reputation for selling tickets,” he said. “From the promoter’s standpoint it’s a constant case of, ‘What’s it going to take, in terms of sales, to pay everybody and reimburse those we need to reimburse and to get paid off on the level of risk we’re assuming.’

“If her people were unsure Charleston would deliver—they base their level of trust on our reputation—Bonnie Raitt wouldn’t be playing here,” he said.

Of course, Holscher said, there have been times when the coliseum and Performing Arts Center have been thrown a curve, either by an artist selling far fewer tickets than expected or when they’ve sold much faster than anticipated.

“We knew James Taylor would be a strong seller, but his first solo show here sold out in minutes. Likewise, Allison Krauss, the last time she was here, she sold out in a day,” he said.

“Ironically, artists that don’t sell well in this market are those we thought would based on how well they do in places like Myrtle Beach,” Holscher added. “Glen Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Melissa Manchester. We just never found a way to get their audience to come out.”

Rock, pop and country

Holscher said in terms of popular taste, the Charleston market’s tremendous baby boomer population still loves its classic rock, and has a strong affinity for the country music of Keith Urban, Faith Hill and Kenny Chesney.

“Bonnie Raitt, Chicago, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones sort of speak to the people here, the movers and the shakers, and those that are moving here,” he said.

“We’re also now seeing a strong demand for younger rock ‘n’ roll bands. Widespread Panic did great when they played here last fall, Nickelback has been selling well, and we’re also about to present The Fray, who’s song is the theme song to television’s Grey’s Anatomy.”

To judge by his office walls, Holscher has booked and greeted a veritable who’s who of the music industry in the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center, but there are those, he said, who have priced themselves out of the Charleston market.

“Billy Joel, U2, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, they all demand a guarantee of $1 million or more per show, Jimmy Buffett as well,” he said.

“Buffett’s an interesting case because he loves Charleston, used to regularly rehearse for his tours here, and is probably in town more often than you’d think; I’d love to have him back,” Holscher said. “The problem is, he tours less these days, and commands such a high guarantee for the dates he does play, that the economics don’t work for Charleston.

“In a sense, as a market, I think we are a victim of the guarantees that some artists are getting. It’s part of my job to wrestle with that question: Is there a population at this point in time that would pay $200 a ticket to see Paul McCartney? That I don’t know.”

Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.

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