CONCORD, CA (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord, California, has had a rough couple of years, losing $560,000 last year and nearly $1 million in 2004, according to an independent audit released by the city last week.
The tax-supported amphitheater will again make no money for community arts events from its profit-sharing agreement with Live Nation this year, according to the Contra Costa Times, because of its poor performance over the past two years.
The paper reports that it is doubtful that the city will see any profits in the foreseeable future because of the contract provision that allows Live Nation to recover the collective $1.5 million loss before sharing money with the city.
Concord has committed $755,000 over the next two years for those payments, but city leaders haven’t pinpointed where that money will come from out of the general fund.
The city expects to pay at least $2.1 million over the next decade toward the debt payments.
“The entire industry has been turning downward, and the pavilion doesn’t operate in a vacuum,” Lee Smith, Northwest Division president for Live Nation, told the paper, blaming the pavilion’s latest financial woes on the sagging concert business.
Live Nation this summer plans to book more than the 18 shows put on at the Sleep Train Pavilion in 2005, but that even A-list names slated to perform, including Bruce Springsteen, Santana and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, probably won’t sell out the 12,500-capacity shed.
“Last year was obviously disappointing,” Concord assistant city manager Mark Deven told the Times. “There were not enough shows and not enough profitable shows. But this year we’re seeing more high-quality artists.”
Under the agreement, after Live Nation recovers its past losses, the city receives half of the first $200,000 in profits, 30 percent of the next $200,000, and 20 percent above that. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
