Boxoffice Insider: Act Regionally, Think Globally – Regional Openings Offer Possible Pathways

The Beauty Of The Pageant:
Peter Newcomb / Getty Images – The Beauty Of The Pageant:
Pollstar takes a look at venues in locales that are attempting to open, including Missouri, where St. Louis concert mainstay The Pageant reported 141 shows in 2019.

With the concert business seeking rays of light when it comes to the possible reemergence of live entertainment, the state of Missouri offered a possible step toward a return to normalcy with its recent announcement that concerts were given a conditional green light as part of the state’s Show Me Strong Recovery Plan that launched its first phase on May 4. There are restrictions that must be followed, though, namely that seating must be configured based on social distancing requirements.

Municipal governments, including those in both the St. Louis and Kansas City markets, have stricter guidelines in place that prohibit gatherings such as live concerts at this point, yet other areas of Missouri are following the state initiative. Officials in Branson, for example, recently voted unanimously to abide by the new state guidelines. Even with the lack of official stay-at-home mandates and continuing social distancing rules, it’s still up to each individual facility to decide when they return to business.
Arkansas is also testing the water when it comes to large gatherings for live concert events. As already reported by Pollstar, the 1,150-capacity TempleLive theater in Fort Smith, Ark., will host a Travis McCready concert under the state’s new guidelines for operations by indoor venues on May 15. Strict social distancing and sanitization standards are part of the Arkansas response plan, which is set to go into effect statewide on May 18.
Obviously, a far higher percentage of concert activity occurs in more highly populated states than Missouri, which accounted for only 1.89% of the shows reported during calendar year 2019. At only a quarter of 1%, Arkansas constituted an even smaller share. Yet, the smaller regional areas in those two states and others could be instrumental in the early stages of recovery. Regional or local artists may well be pioneers when it comes to reopening the concert business at smaller venues where social distancing might be easier to accomplish than in larger facilities.
Box office results from 2019 give clues about what to look for when bookings rebound, even though, with capacity reduced due to social distancing, the number of tickets available for purchase could be less than half of what sales figures reflected prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Last year, St. Louis’ 2,300-capacity The Pageant reported 141 performances with an average of 1,296 seats sold per show. The city’s 750-capacity Delmar Hall reported 123 shows last year, averaging 447 tickets sold per performance.
At Kansas City’s Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland, 14 reported shows produced a ticket count of 30,774, or an average of 2,198 per night, while the Uptown Theater logged 1,365 tickets per show from eight reported events.
In Columbia, Mo., the 850-capacity Blue Note registered a 496 ticket average at 69 reported shows, and the 265-capacity Rose Music Hall averaged 140 tickets at 81 shows. The figures were reported by FPC Live in Madison, Wis., which operates and manages both venues.
In Arkansas, four shows reported at Fayetteville’s 700-capacity George’s Majestic Lounge produced a per-night average of 534. Little Rock’s 2,200-seat Robinson Performance Hall averaged 1,885 per show, and the aforementioned TempleLive reported two events in 2019: Cody Jinks on March 1 with 1,046 tickets and Rival Sons on April 5 with 749.