Emens Auditorium lost more than $30,000 on its Oct. 15 O.A.R show, putting Emens' total loss for rock shows during the Fall Semester at more than $70,000.
Bob Myers, director of Emens Auditorium and Pruis Hall, said the show was marketed well, but students simply did not show up for the concert.
"Students knew about the show," Myers said. "We didn't fail to market the show. They just didn't respond."
Myers said that while other schools may be prepared to accept losses on certain shows, Emens Auditorium does not have that luxury.
"I just don't think this is unusual," Myers said. "Other campuses are prepared to underwrite shows, but I just don't have the funding to do so."
Some other Indiana schools are feeling the crunch to provide revenue in the competitive concert industry.
The Student Concert Committee, a self-funded branch of Purdue Convocations at Purdue University experienced the same issue for its Oct. 4 Wilco concert. Wilco is an alternative-country band whose 2002 album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association America in 2004. Yet Purdue lost more than $21,000 on the concert, according to a performance settlement release.
Laura Clavio, assistant director of Purdue Convocations, said students were made aware of the concert but did not attend.
"The general consensus was that the students did not know who the band was," Clavio said. "Wilco is a little old for freshmen and sophomores."
Like Emens, Clavio said the Student Concert Committee is not equipped to continue underselling concerts.
The inability to sell rock concerts has these venues questioning what went wrong.
Shaheen Borna, professor of marketing at Ball State's Miller School of Business, said venues need to consider three things when marketing shows on campus. One, they need to define what the concert is.
"There are different kinds of concerts," Borna said. "It is good to have a definition."
Once promoters have an idea what kind of concert they are marketing, they need to determine whether the concert is for profit or non-profit. Borna said this helps to price tickets and understand how many tickets will, realistically, be sold.
The last step, Borna said, is to determine what the target audience is. The product needs to be consumer-oriented. The promoters need to consider student, not personal, taste when determining what shows to bring to campus.
"It seems to me they underestimated consumer tastes," Borna said.
Borna used an analogy of a broken chair to describe how concert marketing can fail. If one leg of the chair breaks, the chair will not work. Concerts are the same way. He said the most common problem is determining the target audience.
"Sixty percent of products introduced into market do not have a good analysis of consumer need," Borna said.
Good news may be on the way for Emens, Myers said, as Larry the Cable Guy will come back to the auditorium on Feb. 17, according to Larry the Cable Guy's Web site. When he performed last year, the show sold out, earning Emens $230,000.
"He is an artist who was well-received in the community," he said. "It's gratifying to bring back artists who do sell well."
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