Yesterday Thisweek published this cute little fluff piece about the Burnsville Performing Arts Center touting how Tom Hansen, Deputy City Manager, feels that the PAC is performing quite well to date. Unfortunately, as is the case with many of these pieces, Thisweek didn’t do much in the way of due diligence to get the whole story. Thankfully, through some quick information requests and reading documentation provided by the city, I am able to give specifics that Burnsville probably doesn’t want you to know.
- The city is proud to show off the upcoming acts that are planned for the Burnsville Performing Arts Center including “country music legend” George Jones who hasn’t had a #1 on the country charts since 1983! His 2009 tour will be coming to such illustrious venues and events such as the ever so important National Peanut Festival in Dothan Alabama and Penns Peak in beautiful Jim Thorpe, PA! Now I don’t know about you but I’m almost certain that George Jones will perform to a sellout crowd of 60-somethings who have been fans of his since way back in the 1950s. Nothing like meeting your core population demographic there Burnsville.
- As Chad pointed out, they have not had any event on the 1000 seat main stage for two months including a completely empty March calendar. Explain to me how that motherfucking monstrosity is anything but an empty waste of taxpayer dollars. I’m serious, please let me know.
- While Hansen claims that the Burnsville Performing Arts Center made $45,000 between it’s January 21st opening and through February, he’s stretching the truth. Well, he’s out and out lying but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt because I’m sure he has to tow the “political shit” line that Mayor Elizabeth Kautz and councilman Dan Gustafson probably tell him to.
Now, you might ask me, but Bill, why would they stretch the truth about how much money the PAC made? While I can’t answer that question with any confidence I have to say that it’s because they are being assaulted during city council meetings by fiscal conservatives like Charlie Chrichton who is an outspoken critic of the entire Heart of the Shitty™ area and especially the $20 million Performing Arts Center. While Kautz and her fucking lap dog Gustafson are finally on the losing end of financial battles, they are still standing their ground and insisting on wasting taxpayer dollars to fund improvements to an area that is absolutely fucking dead and only getting worse.
If you don’t believe me, take a look at this document (PDF) which shows the approximately $45,000 figure that Tom Hansen quoted to Thisweek (it was actually $44,683). Now, if you just looked at that and took it at face value, like the reporter did from Thisweek, you’d say hey, that’s pretty fucking good for only being open a month and a week. Unfortunately that bullshit document only tells a small portion of the story–and only the good portion at that.
I was provided with this document (PDF) by the Deputy City Clerk from Burnsville which shows the other half of the story (in fact, it only shows 1/4 of the story because the information from February is due today but I won’t be able to get it until next week at the earliest because of staffing issues and the hard work the finance department is currently doing. Update: you can see the February 2009 data here (PDF) where they lose $63,729.36 more. As you can see from the document, in January *alone* the Burnsville Performing Arts Center lost nearly $90,000 ($84,077.56)! Oops, Burnsville claims to have made $45,000 in January and February but it’s going to lose $150,000+ in the same time? Funny, Thisweek didn’t mention any of that in their article. What are they doing over there, writing free press releases for the city?
Oh but Thisweek did mention what the city expects to make over the entire year and that they expect to fall short of about $265,000 for the year. Yeah, thanks, we already knew of those numbers though. Being that they’re already $85,000 in the hole and probably another $50,000 on top of that (if not more), I have a feeling that the hard economic times, the empty 1000 seat main stage, and the shitty, washed up acts they are bringing in aren’t going to make their revenue projections for this year.
So, based on what you see here, what do you think about the possibility of the Burnsville Performing Arts Center breaking even after its 5th year? Do you think that the acts that they have been bringing in are going to draw the crowds necessary to offset the huge deficit that they are digging for themselves? Perhaps you just think it’s way too early to tell and expect a little more leeway to be given to this project before we start diving into the specifics. Whatever it is, feel free to share your thoughts below!
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March 20th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
g. jones is 78! i’ll bet the pipes are at least 120!!
bb
March 20th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I don’t know what makes me angrier: (a) the fact that the city had actual loss figures available and did not present them at the same time as the article; (b) that the reporter did not ask a basic follow-up question: “If this is the income, what are the expenses for the same period of time?”; and (c) how many people are going to read that article and say, “SEE, it IS succeeding,” without thinking about what ISN’T being revealed. I can appreciate the “PAC is built, let’s deal with it” argument, or even “the economy is bad, so its not doing as well as expected” but don’t pile lies/omissions on top of it, please. It just makes it worse.
March 20th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Why is it sitting empty? It is a brand new facility! Even if they get crap acts in there there should be no reason why every Friday, Saturday and Sunday there is not an act or event leveraging the main stage to generate revenue. Take a look for your self and look at all of the NO EVENTS ON THIS DAY!!
http://www.burnsvillepac.com/event-calendar/70
Come on Mayor Kautz, you wanted this “Nice to have” without putting it to a vote of the people of Burnsville, now you got it, FILL IT!!!
Every day this “Mayor Kautz Vision” sits empty with the fixed overhead of at least 11 people in operating expenses is more losses for the tax payers of Burnsville to pick up.
http://www.burnsvillepac.com/about-bpac/staff
Looks to me like many of these staff should be fired!! Business Manager, Event Coordinator, Executive Director, all should be fired due to they are obviously not doing their job to have events at least every weekend night in what is a brand new facility.
March 20th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Of course, what else are they going to say at this point? “Oh man, this was a stupid mistake, sorry for wasting your tax dollars!”
We had a similar problem to Charlie Chrichton in Farmington-A council member who would never stop whining about a project that got passed by the rest of the Council. OK, we get it, you can’t stand it. Now get back to the business at hand, and stop bitching about it every time some other vote comes up regarding the project. It’s over, move on.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Greg,
No, but they shouldn’t be “satisfied” with it. They are utilizing third parties (and probably rightfully so) to handle the marketing, the maintenance, and the general management of the facility and thus they should be in the face of that company asking some really hard questions like, “why the fuck are you bringing in 4th rate acts?”
In addition to that, they certainly shouldn’t be saying that they made money. They should be quite upfront and post all of the financial information for the PAC on the website for the PAC or at the very least on the front page of their website for all to see.
They made great noise during the lead up to the build out for this thing and now they are suddenly quite hush-hush about it and how it’s run. Well they wanted it to be publicly funded, now they should own up to it and display everything about it publicly.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I read that they are paying $10,000 a month for management and marketing. So who is supposed to be booking the acts, I wonder? Why do they need this management company, anyway? What exactly are they managing OR marketing?
Regardless, make the best of things and GET SOME SHOWS BOOKED.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
I too do not understand the lack of shows (let alone good shows) being booked at the PAC. I realize that you can’t just have any old performance there — if it doesn’t make enough money in ticket and concession sales, you’ll end up losing money and would be better off not having booked anything at all. But it’s not like other venues in the Twin Cities aren’t booking shows, even ones in the suburbs (example: Myth in Maplewood).
Plus, they need to realize that there’s more people living down here than senior citizens and, well, rednecks. There’s plenty of us in the 20′s through early 40′s who would appreciate shows that are a bit more relevant.
Finally, Crichton needs to knock it off already unless he can think of a way for the PAC to make more money. He’s not helpful and is just wasting the taxpayers’ time. Like Greg said, move on.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Great ideas – how about a local band showcase – at a level somewhere between the garage and first ave…..
March 20th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Seriously, they should have kicked this place off with a big time concert or play of some kind. And the first several weeks should have had big acts or at least big regional acts. Other than this web site, I dont see any marketing for the place. I dont see flyers at the restraunts I frequent, I dont see any signage, or billboards, or even those stand in the middle of the street that you see for pancacke breakfasts and stuff.
They are doing nothing. The 11 people on the staff, and the marketing/booking company should act like they realize that they have jobs that are hanging by a thread. No acts, and no progress in this monstrosity might actually lead to people demanding they be fired instead of cutting back on firemen and policemen.
Honestly, I just want someone to say that the area cant support having events every weekend. And then I hope someone is standing nearby who can say “no kidding?, wow I cant believe nobody thought of that sooner!”.
Private companies walked away from this, for the very reason that its going to be a HELL of a lot of work to get this off the ground and start to draw people on a regular basis. A bunch of people who are not the least bit worried about loosing thier jobs are not going to put in the blood sweat and tears that are demanded to get this kind of place up and running and on peoples radar as a place to go for great entertainment.
It should be a PRIORITY to get a bar/restraunt in the storefront across the street. It should be a PRIORITY to get some shops in all of the empty spaces along Nicollet and where Double Dip was. Unless this place is going to fail miserably it should have been a priority to have these things done and ready when the PAC opened, and there should have been a series of big concerts/plays from the start. Bring in people with local ties. Figure out how to get something like Triple Espresso or Tony and Tinas Wedding to make this thier home venue. Get local TV stations to do features on the place. Get the Govenor to stop by for a publicity event about the suburbs trying to go outside the box to improve the area or some bs like that. Etc Etc Etc.
I think that as a private venture, the PAC might be viable. If the person behind it was a type A personality willing to work 20 hours per day for the next several years, with ties to people throughout the Twin Cities and favors lined up to help him/her make thier dream a reality. Thats not the case though. So start firing people until you find someone who is willing to work thier ass off to get this place off the ground.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Apathy rules in Burnsville. So it appears.
March 21st, 2009 at 9:03 am
Apathy certainly does rule in Burnsville. I’m never surprised at the number of people in my own neighborhood who don’t have a clue as to the goofy decisions that have been made by our city leaders. Then to top it off, they will vote these dim bulbs back into office because they recognize a name on the ballot.
I really feel that better reporting by the local papers would help. For example, the issue surrounding the 500K improvement to the PAC water feature deserves a feature article. Maybe then a few more people would start to take notice of their local government.
March 21st, 2009 at 9:17 am
It seems also that, at least during the warmer parts of the year, the ampitheater at the Minnesota Zoo will be a major competitor with the PAC, and it’s much more established. It helps too that the ampitheater actually gets acts people want to see.
March 21st, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Tim you are dead on. Sue McLean & Associates is the promoter for the Zoo Ampitheatre and as you can see from her companies website she does a great job at not only promoting the Ampitheatre but books acts in the Varsity, Cabooze, Gutherie, State and many other theaters in the cities. I personally worked with Sue many years ago on getting major acts for a major summer concert series and she is a class act. The City of Burnsville should dump their current promoter and get someone who will fill the PAC.
I receive weekly emails from them on their concerts around the Twin Cities.
http://www.suemclean.com/index.html
March 21st, 2009 at 8:46 pm
The zoo is a great example of what can happen when you bring in good acts to a good venue and work to promote it.
March 22nd, 2009 at 9:20 am
Sandy wrote Apathy rules in Burnsville.
I was going to say that, but I just didn’t care. Ha! I amuse myself!
I think Chad’s idea of something along the lines of ‘Tony & Tina’s Wedding’ or ‘Triple Espresso’ could be really successful. I would attend an event like that (sorry, you won’t catch me purchasing tickets for 1/4th of the ‘Blue Collar Comedy Tour’).
March 22nd, 2009 at 12:27 pm
I thought the “we opened in winter” excuse offered by Wolf Larson was weak – frankly, if you put a good act on in the winter, I would be MORE apt to go, as opposed to sitting inside a building during one of MN’s rare spring/summer days and evenings when I would rather be outdoors. What is his weather related spring/summer excuse going to be: that it was “too nice” and people did not want to sit inside? Bleh. (Plus, I think he’s worked in the midwest, so he should be familiar with the weather issues). I know people say, the PAC is built, so now let’s “make it a success”: so to them I say: Why is the PAC big box theatre sitting empty during March, as so starkly shown in Bill’s photo of their calendar? Also, remember this guy started drawing his salary last fall, so he’s had plenty of time to schedule acts while waiting for construction to be completed. (and City, please don’t say managing the construction because we paid a construction manager some BIG BUCKs for that work). If you want to “make it succeed” then come ON and put acts in there that the majority of people would say: “I’d like to see that.”
If there are some “big moneymakers” coming up this spring and summer, (a) he should already know what they are, and (b) should be promoting them at least on the calendar so he can justify what he is being paid. I can see not ramping up a full advertising campaign so far out, but at least let the taxpayers know on the online calendar what (if anything) is coming up. And scheduling the International Festival of Burnsville this far out does not require a lot of effort, considering its already been put on (for free I think) in Burnsville for years. So putting that on the calendar to the exclusion of anything else leads me to think that there have not been any acts signed this far in advance.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, but like many others, my summer weekends fill up pretty fast with kids sports events and trips to the lake, and with “staycations” becoming the norm in this economy, I’m not anticipating a lot of out of town visitors coming to Burnsville to take my place or the place of other cabin owners. Again, this is a fact which is known right now (there were articles locally about people not traveling MONTHS ago). So, what adjustments in planning are taking place to counteract that? What acts are being brought in to make me say: “I’m staying in Burnsville that weekend and going to the PAC instead of the lake?” THAT is the marketing reality that Wolf Larson needs to consider. Don’t give me excuses about the weather. Get me results.
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:09 am
PAC Ticket Pricing is Rediculous!!!
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:18 am
George Jones tickets at the PAC are $79.50 per ticket.
Lets take a look at George Jones Ticket Prices for his next few shows.
4/17/09 in the Columbus Civic Center – $45, $35, $25
4/18/09 in Myrtle Beach – $58.95, $51.95, $44.95
4/24/09 in Florence, SC – $37.75 – $19
What gives charging 26% to 400% more for tickets at the Burnsville Performing Arts Ceter for a washed up act that I can not find anywhere else that is charging $80 for a ticket?
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:18 am
Wow, Thought Leader. Abso-fricking-lutely wow. Throw that one on the “we citizens demand an explanation” pile. That is insane.
FYI, I did a quick sampling:
Ordway Theater, “Legally Blonde” (Broadway traveling). Main floor: $75.
Ordway Theater, “Color Purple”. Main floor, 6th row center: $75.
Guthrie Theater, “Two Gentlemen of Verona”: Most expensive seat: $60
State Theater, “RENT” (Broadway traveling):
XCEL, Elton John & Billy Joel: Lower level $97
Target Center, Sugarland: Most expensive seat: $46.50
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:19 am
TL, very interesting. I wonder how they can now say that it’s cheaper to go to the Burnsville Performing Arts Center than to go and see a show downtown? Kim and I just had tickets to the Guthrie (much better facility), with food and beer, for $30/ea. Hmm.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:20 am
MSPD, do you mean to tell me that the Burnsville PAC’s ticket pricing for a washed up old dude that I had never even heard of is only $10 less than Billy Joel and Elton John together?
OMFG.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:30 am
Good luck finding any tickets for $97 (Billy Joel and Elton John). We tried to get some tickets and nothing is available through Xcel or Ticketmaster. Everything that Mr. Marcos could find was closer to the $600 price range.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:34 am
That has nothing to do with a ticket’s face value. That’s because Ticketbastard has those stupid fucking ticket auctions where “people” buy great seats and then more or less scalp them back off on the Internet. It’s a huge fucking scam. Boo on Ticketbastard.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:38 am
On a side note to MSPD’s comment, I saw The Color Purple this weekend at the Ordway. Worth the $75 ticket price – incredible cast, great staging, and amazing voices that will blow you away. (BTW: A Saturday matinee at that ticket price had maybe 25 empty seats, including the balcony, so don’t blame the economy for the rows upon rows of empty seats at the PAC- people will shell out big bucks for quality entertainment) Would I pay the same amount to see George Jones (or anything else I’ve seen on the PAC calendar so far)? No freaking way.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 am
Mrs. Marcos, it was just a quick random sampling. I imagine tickets were bought very quickly when they went on sale. That said, for a single ticket, you can still get lower level for that price, but it’s to the side of the stage, slightly behind so the view may be obstructed.
The main point is that the PAC is asking the same ticket price or more for George Jones as internationally-renowned acts at nationally acclaimed venues.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:53 am
I was responding more to Bill’s comment. I can’t seem to get any tickets to pull up on the Xcel site, tells me nothing is available.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:02 am
Remind me on June 1st to chain my riding lawn mower to a tree for the week when George Jones comes to town.
Country Music Television (CMT) ranks George Jones’ famous 1960s drunken lawn-mower ride in Beaumont as the #7 Greatest Redneck Moment Ever.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:00 pm
How timely: The Guthrie announced its schedule today, with dates running from to July 24, 2009 to August 2010! Hmmm, and LAST year around this time in made an announcement of its schedule for THIS year. Holy smokes Batman! Do you suppose that’s how its done??!!!
I seem to remember an article about the PAC and one of the members of FOBPAC boasting that the upgraded, comfy seats at the PAC being “just like those at the Guthrie”. That must be where the comparison stops. But hey, maybe ours won’t have to be replaced as often, since there will be less wear and tear.
March 26th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I finally received the February summary and you can view it here (PDF).
They lost another $63,729.36 to bring it to over $147,000 in two months.
March 27th, 2009 at 7:45 am
That puts them on pace to lose $882,000 this year. One might jump to the conclusion that they should start scheduling some events……………..
March 27th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
To follow up on Chad’s comment about projections, this estimated figure doesn’t even include payments on the construction debt of $20million either.
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Want to save $26.50 on PAC tickets + Ticketmaster and service fees? Ralphie May’s act (coming to the PAC tomorrow) is showing on Comedy Central right now.
April 5th, 2009 at 10:27 am
When the PAC closes due to poor ticket sales they might come looking for you, Whit! ;)
April 5th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Nah – everyone knows it’ll be because they serve PEPSI products there ;)
April 5th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Maybe when it closes, Burnsville High School can use it for their magnet school thingy.
April 5th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
O.M.G. WHIT! Are you serious?!?! That place serves PEPSI products?! UGH! I am even MORE disgusted with the whole project.
April 6th, 2009 at 8:01 am
from the minn. zoo’s website
Subway Music in the Zoo 2009
The most popular outdoor concert venue in the Twin Cities is gearing up for another great summer of music! The concert schedule will be available May 1 at mnzoo.org and tickets go on sale mid-May at Ticketmaster. All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. and end at 10:30 p.m.
bb
April 7th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
An article about this topic appeared in the Star Tribune today. You can read all about it here.
December 16th, 2009 at 9:25 am
[...] to be nearly 3x what they originally planned it made sense to me and just about everyone else except Burnsville’s City Staff. Now with my deficit numbers confirmed, it’s up to the PAC’s final hurrah for the 2009 [...]
June 18th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Looks to me like the Burnsville Performing Arts Center Art Gallery is at capacity as art work has now spread to the Buck Hill Road and Southcross Gallery in Burnsville.
June 18th, 2012 at 12:53 pm
They probably had to move it because the couldn’t handle the amount of cash that those art pieces bring into the facility. Between the artwork and the weekly Giggling Girl Dance Recitals, the BPAC just continues to be a gold mine.