While arenas around the country frequently host large-scale concerts by big-time stars, the majority of the arenas’ income usually comes from the sports teams that call the massive venues their homes. However, KeyArena in Seattle, WA seems to be bucking that trend and going all-in on the music.
Aside from the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, KeyArena hasn’t housed a major athletic franchise since the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics moved south and became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008. While securing a major sports franchise is often a prerequisite for arena expansions, Los Angeles-based firm Oak View Group (OVG) will move forward with its $564 million arena renovation proposal without a team based on projected concert revenue resulting from a new partnership with corporate concert giant Live Nation.
Beyond the regular slate of large-scale concerts at the arena, the partnership’s financial viability will hinge on a possible “extended residency” deal with local rock legends Pearl Jam. According to a report in the Seattle Times, the potential residency would see Pearl Jam play “multiple KeyArena shows on a regular basis, much like Billy Joel does at Madison Square Garden in New York.” OVG is quite familiar with such arrangements, as their main financial backer and chairman James Dolan is also the Executive Chairman at the Garden. The Seattle Times article explains that Pearl Jam’s manager Kelly Curtis has been added to an OVG advisory board tasked with exploring how to improve the arena’s “acoustics and overall concert experience.”
Explains OVG CEO Tim Leiweke, “If we don’t have their partnership here and we’re not able to do 40-plus nights of music and we don’t have Pearl Jam … we couldn’t stand on our own two feet and take this risk. We’re going to build it, and we believe they [teams] will come. And if they don’t come, we’re not going to get killed. So Kelly Curtis, the manager, agreed to serve on the advisory board and help us make it the perfect music experience, and the band … would love to do an extended residency kind of idea because they still believe Seattle is their home city.
The inclusion of Pearl Jam in this arrangement stemmed from a meeting at last week’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where the band was enshrined in their first year of eligibility. “For us it changes the game completely,’’ Leiweke says in the article, “Because now we go back to the premise of ‘We’re going to do this and stand on our own two feet.’ And we believe that by doing that we give Seattle its best chance to get one or two teams.’’
Those familiar with Pearl Jam’s history of contentiousness with corporate ticketing entities may find this new deal strange. The band has publicly feuded with Ticketmaster for more than 20 years over exorbitant ticketing fees, and Live Nation has now owned Ticketmaster for several years. However, all involved parties seem committed to making KeyArena the best possible place to catch a concert, and hope that sports teams–and revenue–will follow from there.
You can read the full Seattle Times report here.
[h/t – Seattle Times]