PMI still operating in red at Leach
Well, the latest figures are in on the Leach Amphitheater, and PMI Inc. continues to report a loss on its income statements submitted to the city, despite an increase in gross revenues of $55,000 this last year.
This is disappointing news. I think most people can understand that it takes a little while to get up to speed and that most venues such as this do not show a profit overnight. But the folks from PMI talked a good game when they were trying to get their contract with the city – a contract which, by the way, ended up being a year longer than planned because of a mistake made by our city attorney’s office. But now, two years into the deal – and with the city still only receiving the bare minimum of its $30,000 a year guaranteed payment – PMI is saying “it just has been harder than we thought.” They also reportedly said that events such as Country USA, Lifest and regional fairs have made it a challenge to book certain acts they expected would otherwise do well at the Leach.
I might understand comments like that from someone with less experience. But these guys boasted about how this was their area of expertise and how they could do it better than anyone else. They were also aware of the annual events such as Country USA and Lifest. These events, especially Country USA, are staples in the community and, being the professional promoter PMI is, one would think they would have done their homework and figured out a way to overcome these “obstacles.”
According to this article in the Oshkosh Northwestern PMI president Ken Wachter went on to say the company's financial statements at the Leach would have turned out very differently if Lyle Lovett's show had sold 500 or 600 more tickets. That’s a hell of a lot of extra tickets. A comment I heard from many in the community – even at the time the tickets were being sold and before we knew that show was going to result in an $11,000 loss for PMI – was that the show might have sold more tickets if they hadn’t been priced so high.
Real or imagined, these sound like excuses to me from an overly ambitious promoter who either didn’t do enough homework to know how to properly market and promote this venue or who maybe just simply doesn’t have the skills and expertise we need to make the Leach successful.
In any event, PMI has another two years remaining on their contract. Let’s hope they work smarter and not harder during the last half of their contract. Otherwise, it would behoove the city to start shopping for a new promoter.
This is disappointing news. I think most people can understand that it takes a little while to get up to speed and that most venues such as this do not show a profit overnight. But the folks from PMI talked a good game when they were trying to get their contract with the city – a contract which, by the way, ended up being a year longer than planned because of a mistake made by our city attorney’s office. But now, two years into the deal – and with the city still only receiving the bare minimum of its $30,000 a year guaranteed payment – PMI is saying “it just has been harder than we thought.” They also reportedly said that events such as Country USA, Lifest and regional fairs have made it a challenge to book certain acts they expected would otherwise do well at the Leach.
I might understand comments like that from someone with less experience. But these guys boasted about how this was their area of expertise and how they could do it better than anyone else. They were also aware of the annual events such as Country USA and Lifest. These events, especially Country USA, are staples in the community and, being the professional promoter PMI is, one would think they would have done their homework and figured out a way to overcome these “obstacles.”
According to this article in the Oshkosh Northwestern PMI president Ken Wachter went on to say the company's financial statements at the Leach would have turned out very differently if Lyle Lovett's show had sold 500 or 600 more tickets. That’s a hell of a lot of extra tickets. A comment I heard from many in the community – even at the time the tickets were being sold and before we knew that show was going to result in an $11,000 loss for PMI – was that the show might have sold more tickets if they hadn’t been priced so high.
Real or imagined, these sound like excuses to me from an overly ambitious promoter who either didn’t do enough homework to know how to properly market and promote this venue or who maybe just simply doesn’t have the skills and expertise we need to make the Leach successful.
In any event, PMI has another two years remaining on their contract. Let’s hope they work smarter and not harder during the last half of their contract. Otherwise, it would behoove the city to start shopping for a new promoter.
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 6:28 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home