Our first concert at the EC, at $10 a ticket is only expecting about a 3rd of capacity;
Huffman said he expects a crowd of about 4,000.
Makes you wonder how many empty seats will be at the other ‘sold out’ concerts, or if most of those seats have been scooped up by scalpers.
UPDATE:
If I had to make a rough estimate of how many people were at the show last night, I would say between 2,500-3,500. Maybe the EC and SMG will release how many attended. In the AL today they estimated 4-5,000, but didn’t have hard numbers ‘available’. They must have had the Lifelight counters present.
Parking will be an issue for the sold out concerts. Let’s say there was 5,000 people there last night. When we arrived most of the Arena and EC parking lot was full, there were people parked on the street also. We parked in the South Canaries lot which had very few cars in it. For your typical concert that is at that 5,000 range, parking should be fine. But when there is a sold-out show or multiple events, it is going to be a major problem.
The sound was pretty decent for Joan Jett, but not as good for Starship. I was not too impressed by the light show.
As for drink prices they run about $6 for a 16 OZ tap and $6 for a well drink. You are allowed to tip the bar and beertenders, but cash only. If you run your card they do not give you an opportunity to leave a tip on it, and I got the feeling they are not allowed to. So I asked why they could not have a tip jar in view. An SMG employee said this, “We were told by management (SMG) that since it is a city owned facility we are not allowed to put out tip jars.”
I’m just shooting in the wind on this one, but I think that is a complete line of BS from SMG. I can’t imagine a city ordinance existing that prevents ‘tip jars’. Besides, when I have been to concerts at the Pavilion, I have seen tip jars by the bars, and that is a city owned facility.
So what would be the reasoning behind SMG not wanting to encourage tipping their employees? The more money people spend on tips, the less they spend on buying product.
SIDING UPDATE:
I also noticed in the AL today that the siding mockups have not been started. The excuse the city attorney gave; they were working on touch ups to other parts of the building. Then when asked about when they would start the mockups, the city attorney said that Mortenson has up to a year to come up with a solution. In other words, we better get used to the siding we have now, because it will probably never get fixed.
They will claim its a success, since josn Jett couldn’t draw 2000 to any other venue in town.
And just how many tickets were given away for free to the clowns friends?
From what I heard – they were doing a massive “give away” of tickets yesterday afternoon to their major sponsors.
I ran into quite a few people who said they got a FREE tickets. Pretty sad when you have to give away tickets to a $10 Arena Show. I also noticed the Suites were pretty full.
I heard the suites were made full with zoo monkeys. ‘Hard Numbers Available’, really. No such lingo. The best you can do is divide by 2. If it’s city expenditure, then double it. When the wind blows run into falling siding shanks. It’s a million dollar liability settlement.
Strange how a free for all like we had last weekend can come up with an exact figure of 5008, but the real thing, with ticket sales, cannot come up with a number. Between 4 and 5 thousand is their best answer? I’ve been to NFL sellouts before, and still see lots of empty seats. There are varying degrees of the term sellout.
A friend went to this “EVENT” if that’s what the media chooses to call it. $7 for a coke spritzed with Morgan. These kind of concession prices are unsustainable.
The main reason I feel this white elephant is just that, was explained in the argus in an article just above the fluff piece they wrote about last nites big show. On page 7a.
http://m.union-bulletin.com/news/2014/sep/25/middle-class-squeeze-costs-sharply-wages-stagnant/?
And I realize this is the new EC, but the Argus can cover this show? Back in my 20’s, (which was awhile ago), the Argus did a write-up after every concert/show which was something most looked forward to reading. Now we have the Pavilion, the Orpheum, the District, and yes, Sioux Falls, your new Events Center, and there hasn’t been a write up in years. I think it is a disservice to businesses that are trying to run a business and to the public that we cannot find someone to regularly cover these shows and give credit (or lack there of) when it’s due. I don’t care who covers concerts such as Tim McGraw at the fairgrounds, Big Head Todd and the Monsters at the District, Jason Aldean at the EC, or Jersey Boys at the Pavilion – but someone should be. The AL has no problem walking into a restaurant that has been open for all of three days and berating the crap out of it, but it can’t cover local entertainment? I miss that coverage.
I was going to go to this, but the sound system at the open house was so loud it made whole place sound terrible. My guests and I couldn’t hear ourselves talking to one another.
Why can’t our town’s newspaper of record ever write an article about events long enough before the happening to let us know something is going to happen so we can participate?
the argus would need to hire a critic. the argus hasn’t had a real critic since marshall fine. he was fun to read because he hated everything.