Coliseum renovations should proceed with caution

After its planned renovation, Veterans Memorial Coliseum will be among the most expensive culture- and entertainment-related construction projects in our region’s history. The estimated cost of $150 million discussed during Alliant Energy Center Redevelopment Committee meetings approximates the price tags of building the Kohl Center or Monona Terrace in the late 1990s, adjusted for inflation. Only Overture Center for the Arts, Camp Randall Stadium’s 2005 renovation, and the under-construction Wisconsin History Center will have been larger capital projects.

Given Dane County’s recent $31 million structural operating deficit and less-than-rosy budget projections in the near future, under the leadership of County Executive Melissa Agard and Alliant Energy Center Executive Director Kevin Scheibler, the County pursued a public-private partnership to secure capital investment to update its 1967 arena. Proposals were due November 21. On December 5, it was made public that only a single response to the request for proposal (RFP) was received, despite the hiring of CAA ICON, the industry-leading strategic management consulting firm for public/private sports and entertainment facility owners, to drive interest in the project.

It’s not surprising that the only proposal came from Frank Productions Concerts (FPC) Live, LLC, given the company’s long and storied history with the venue. Growing out of managing the Coliseum’s box office under the name Madison Ticket Agency, Frank Productions eventually became the third largest concert promoter in America in no small part due to promoting arena tours in mid-sized cities across the Midwest.

For the past decade, if you have gone to a concert in town, it was likely booked by FPC Live in a venue owned or controlled by Frank Productions. All of their Madison business dealings from the acquisition of the storied High Noon Saloon and merger with Majestic Live to building of flagship Sylvee venue felt different when Live Nation, the world’s largest concert-promotions company, acquired a controlling stake of the formerly independent locally based promoter in 2018. Even if you are not familiar with which publicly-traded company owns your favorite brand, you are surely familiar with their ticketing platform, the reviled Ticketmaster.

In a rare move that even liberal concertgoers might approve, President Donald Trump signed an executive order this past March to tackle exploitative ticket pricing and unfair fees. Soon after, as the Wisconsin State Journal reported in an almost gleeful manner, “State Democrats and Republicans seem to have found something they agree on: Reining in live-event ticket companies that scoop up tickets and resell them at vastly inflated costs.” While political pressures mount from both Executive and Legislative action, Live Nation also faces an antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice along with 30 state and district attorneys general, including Wisconsin’s Josh Kaul. In a recent public appearance, Live Nation-Ticketmaster CEO and President Michael Rapino proposed an insensitive counter-narrative, especially given our current affordability crisis, arguing that concerts are still underpriced when compared to sporting events.

Despite national tours serving as the main source of income for musicians, with streaming decimating revenue from recorded music, it still isn’t enough. Garbage, the internationally successful rock band which spawned out of Smart Studios (formerly at 1254 East Washington Avenue), announced this past fall’s North American headline tour would be their last. Shirley Manson, lead singer, has explained in a speech to their crowd nightly: “…It has become entirely unsustainable for a band like us to come and tour anywhere except the coasts. And it’s upsetting, but we’ve had a glorious 30-year career, and we really have no complaints. But I bring this up every night because I think it’s imperative that we all start to understand what exactly is going on in the music industry.”

At a community meeting on April 23, Alliant Energy Center’s Scheibler casually referred to “our friends at Frank Productions.” While that’s a fairly innocuous phrase, especially considering their half-century-long business relationship with the County, the words ring unfavorable given the lack of competing proposals. It is true that “there are only a handful of companies that do venue renovation work”; and, in my opinion, this was always the likely result.

I implore community members, our elected officials, and those participating in the confidential RFP review process to be critical of any deal that does not return proper value to taxpayers. The economics of large events and stadium financing is fraught, as books such as Field Of Schemes: How The Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money Into Private Profits have illustrated as well as activist NOlympics campaigns. Alliant Energy Center no longer hosts the CrossFit Games and will hopefully continue to be home of the World Dairy Expo for decades to come. The dynamics of this opportunity are unlike that of most stadium deals. No major league sports tenant can threaten relocation if a new building is not constructed—a situation experienced by other communities (such as Seattle and its former SuperSonics in the NBA) which resemble hostage situations, leveraging fandom and community identity for private profit.

FPC Live was able to navigate community pushback in Milwaukee to successfully build their new 4,500-capacity venue, Landmark Credit Union Live. And FPC as well as Live Nation shareholders stand to make a healthy profit from pursuing this public-private partnership. Their CEO, Joel Plant, is a politically-savvy figure, having worked as an aide to former Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and made three separate $1,000 contributions to Agard’s campaign to become County Executive. Business interests pursuing this deal will figure it out and be okay. We can revive our Coliseum the Dane County way, without giving in to the worst excesses of privatization.