Features
Buffalo Series Seeing Red
A mostly free summer concert series in Buffalo, N.Y., is on the line as losses mount for the nonprofit that runs the event.
Buffalo Place Rocks Canalside, which takes place Wednesday summer evenings at the Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf, featured acts including Counting Crows, The Wailers, Bell Biv DeVoe, Pat Benatar, and Matthew Good this year but failed to turn a profit.
Robert Glaser, treasurer for the Buffalo Place downtown business incubation nonprofit, told the Buffalo News the group was $68,000 in the red as of August, following a $246,000 shortfall in revenues from concerts this summer.
“We’ll be hand-to-mouth,” Glaser said. “We’ll really have to think through what we want to do with the concert series.”
Buffalo Place Chairman Keith Belanger added this isn’t the first year of problems for the series, despite $400,000 in sponsorships.
“Our business model isn’t viable, and we need to look at it again,” he told the News.
The nonprofit is also apparently facing the loss next year of a special fee that helps fund its operations as a number of tenants plan to vacate a downtown building in coming months.
Buffalo Place is considering a number of options including charging for concerts, finding another group to partner with or seeking funding from a state development agency, the paper reported.