Drawing in big names isn't necessarily a big concern for Robert Myers, director of John R. Emens Auditorium and Pruis Hall. But that isn't to say he isn't trying.
While Indiana and Purdue universities have brought such big acts as Lady Gaga and Bob Dylan, Ball State University's highest grossing show has been ‘80s rock group Styx, which hasn't had a top-charting Billboard single in more than 20 years.
Emens often has difficulty competing with commercial events because of Muncie's close proximity to Indianapolis, which already has several larger venues dedicated to commercial shows, and is why most of the programming is performing arts, culturally and educationally oriented, he said.
"We're trying. We really want to have good stuff here," he said. "I know it's not always the pop shows students would like. If I had the funding to do that we'd try to do more, but I can't take what I have to spend on these events to try to risk on something else."
Myers said the Emens mission is two-fold: to support an estimated $800,000 annual operating budget while creating cultural events for the campus and surrounding community.
Even with a few events still pending for the remainder of the 2009-10 Performance Series the venue is on par financially with how it usually fares for this time of year, he said. Revenue from shows this year stand at $804,124 as of Feb. 19, but he's expecting big numbers from bigger name shows like Broadway favorite "Avenue Q" and popular magician David Copperfield later in the school year.
"My philosophy is that if shows are likely to come to Indianapolis, students can just go there and see those," he said. "I want to provide different opportunities that they wouldn't otherwise have."
Myers said he would still look into booking rock shows and bigger celebrity acts when the opportunity presents itself, but the financial risk involved and the rest of the venue's performance lineup are taken into consideration before making a final decision. Sometimes the decision is difficult because it's up to the performer's agent who usually leaves only a four-day window for an opportunity to book an act.
As is the case with Indiana University Auditorium and Purdue University Convocations, Myers said Emens is not looking to make a profit off commercial shows; instead each director said the venue's goal is to come close to breaking even when scheduling a mix of both performing arts and educational shows and larger-name student-oriented rock shows. Much like its Purdue and IU counterparts, the trick with scheduling student-oriented rock shows in Muncie comes down to a matter of geography, timing and working with commercial booking agents.
"Not only is it the size of the city, it's the size of the venue; sometimes the seating capacity isn't big enough to make a reasonable offer to a booking agent," he said. Compared to Purdue which has 6,000 seats, they might have an opportunity to put on shows that we can't hold with a seating capacity of 3,300."
IU Auditorium Director Doug Booher said his venue's annual budget of $3.4 million covers staff, marketing and the university's student program board in addition to the money it shells out for booking performances. The allowance in his budget for each show depends on the event: some he hopes to make a modest profit with while others have more co-curricular value.
"Some small events we plan to lose money, to be honest," he said. "It's a balancing act, but we always look for the budget to break even."
Purdue Convocations Director Todd Wetzel said he doesn't set out with a predetermined budget at the beginning of a booking season, most of which is confirmed prior to the end of the previous school year, but it ranges from $1 million to $1.2 million. For commercial acts the booking process starts two to six months prior before the show takes the stage, but the financial success or failure of one show can change the rest of the venue's operating budget, which also takes perspective of the local market, community partnerships and donations into consideration.
"Getting four (artists like) Lady Gaga can change the fiscal outcome by $200,000 in sales," he said.
Myers said a year-to-year comparison and revenue analysis for different show genres is dependent on what collection of events Emens presents each year. While Emens is slowly trying to increase the number of offerings that appeal to different audience segments, based off the top 5 grossing shows for this season, the venue has an established Broadway audience, and current country and comedy acts tend to do well, Myers said. He also has seen a positive trend in student attendance for performing arts shows, which he attributes to the venue marketing at affordable rates — free or $5 for students.
Dillon Kimmel, UPB vice president of marketing and columnist for the Daily News, said the organization maintains a good working relationship with Emens in terms of being proactive with UPB's resources.
Having sat in on the committee that plans shows in the past, Kimmel understands how difficult it is to book a big-name artist.
"It's all about hitting it at the right time: knowing you have the resources when you see it, know what types of acts you're looking for and what resources you can commit to act quickly when something becomes available," he said.
What about Worthen?
The feasibility of bringing bigger rock shows to Worthen Arena, a venue with the potential for seating capacity of 11,500, comes down to a matter of scheduling with both athletics and the concert promoters, but booking larger rock shows have a history of mixed reviews by student audiences, Myers said.
Some shows in the past have been housed at Worthen, including several country shows and Brian Adams in 1994, when the arena first opened — but have failed to sell enough tickets to make it worth the cost, Myers said. The production costs to put a show on in Worthen are much higher because it requires building an entire stage or platform for performers to play there, he said.
"We received all kinds of feedback saying students couldn't afford a show that was $25 or $30," he said. "I'm at a loss when students think that we can present commercial events at a discount. We're not funded for that."
Myers pointed to similar experiences with bringing student-oriented rock shows in the past: Both the Muse and Tori Amos shows didn't fare well either in the early ‘90s, Myers said, and shows like The Strokes and O.A.R. lost the venue nearly $15,000 and $32,643 respectively when they performed at Emens in 2006.
Acts like Ben Folds and Ben Harper did "just OK" in terms of bringing in modest numbers to the box office, falling 600 tickets short of the 2,000 needed to break even for those shows respectively, Myers said, but those weren't enough to make future student-oriented rock shows viable for the Muncie market.
"If I have to pay $100,000 then an additional $20,000 or $30,000 in production, expenses and stage labor, box office, ushers and catering, I'll have to sell those tickets at $65," he said. "I might have some that are a little less than that, but they'd need to be well over $50."
Megan Geoppinger, a freshman speech pathology major is limited by lack of transportation to Indianapolis for shows she'd like to see because she doesn't have her car on campus, but would pay up to $50 to see a show at Emens.
So far she's seen five shows at Emens in the past year, including "Wizard of Oz," "Lord of the Dance," Groovaloo and Cirque Dreams, and is overall satisfied with the kinds of programming Emens puts on but would like to see more comedians and Broadway shows like "Wicked."
"I'd pay the same as if it were any other venue if it's something I'm dying to see," she said.
Student and community feedback
Emens does have a suggestion box in its lobby for students to give their opinions and has tried informal surveys at the Scramble Light and in front of Emens during ticket giveaways, Myers said. Since Fall Semester 2008 the venue has had a Facebook fan page, which has 1,369 fans as of March 15 and had eight suggestions posted on its suggestions page. The last post was dated April 30, 2009.
Myers said the student feedback resources Emens provide as well as the campus communication system the venue uses as a marketing tool haven't taken off as much as he would like; people can choose to opt out of the Arts, Culture and Entertainment alerts that contain information about upcoming shows.
Darcy Wood, associate director of marketing for Emens, said she hasn't looked into additional social media outlets such as Twitter because she doesn't know if students have expressed interest in seeking out additional feedback outlets.
"People can walk into the box office," she said. "There's not a lack of outlets on campus."
Responses to feedback efforts typically don't follow any particular trend, but the general requests include Broadway shows and high-profile comedians such as Jim Gaffigan, Lewis Black, Sarah Silverman, Dane Cook and Chelsea Handler.
"Most students just follow their artists online and go where they go. They don't need to have them at their back door," she said.
Emens also works with a convocation committee — a group comprised of faculty, staff, community members and student representatives — that meets to talk about upcoming events, look at videos, listen to audio samples and discuss potential titles for future years to best serve the community.
Purdue works with two organizations — the Student Convocation Voice Network, whose members work as volunteer ushers and do grassroots marketing, and the Student Concert Committee to conduct student surveys to see what students would most like to see, Purdue Convocations Director Todd Wetzel said.
IU Auditorium also works in collaboration with the university's Union Board, which sometimes rents out the auditorium space to bring in bigger rock shows on its own, in addition to booking shows that will enhance the culture of the campus and Bloomington community, IU Auditorium Director Doug Booher said.
Meanwhile, Ball State student programming is usually more focused with the University Program Board and isn't necessarily Emens' mandate, Myers said. UPB and Emens have worked together in the past to bring concerts to campus and have had conversations into looking into some bigger name acts like Maroon 5 but have gotten away from working together in the past few years, he said.
Student Government Association incumbent president Matt Whitlock doesn't directly work with Emens but said that SGA would consider co-sponsoring a bigger name if the opportunity arose and he is open to suggestions.
Kimmel said his guess was that UPB would be involved with planning a big-name show within the next year, but allotting money from the organization's $100,000 budget for a student-oriented rock show is completely subjective at this point. The budget could allow for anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 with the idea of getting money back with ticket sales, he said.
"It's a difficult balancing act, one we haven't been able to master yet, but we're working hard to get something done," he said. "Unfortunately that hasn't transpired into any big shows yet."
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