Stuck between the two top-50 concert markets of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, State College is ranked at 272 -- meaning any act touring and hitting cities in order would play 271 cities before they would ever step foot in the Bryce Jordan Center.

"When a building first is opened, there is a little bit of a honeymoon period," said Bob Howard, BJC general manger. "A building is new and promoters are a little more apt to bowl you over to get in the door so their act can be one of the first to perform."

But the BJC's honeymoon is over, and Howard said it is getting increasingly tougher to find acts to come to the BJC.

With statistics like that, how does the BJC manage to book big-time acts like Kanye West?

"Our relationship with UPAC [University Park Allocations Committee] has really helped us bring back student programming to the BJC," Marketing Manager Bernie Punt said.

Punt said that a few years ago, promoters in Philadelphia said they would no longer bring student programming to the BJC because students weren't buying tickets. Punt said it wasn't the concerts causing the low attendance; it was the price of the tickets.

Now, Punt said he goes to UPAC with potential concert acts and get its feedback on whether the act is popular enough to sell tickets or not. Then, with the help of UPAC funds, the BJC offers dramatically lower ticket prices for one concert each semester. With leftover funds, they try and lower the ticket prices of other concerts as well, he added.

"We have to fight for what's out there; most acts will do between 30 and 80 dates," Howard said. "If an act is only going to do 30 cities, then they're probably going to be in the big metropolitan areas."

Howard said some bands do college tours, which is where the Bryce Jordan Center tends to find many of its acts.

"It's definitely an advantage for us," Howard said. "This is how we end up with acts like Dave Matthews Band."

But often, Punt and Howard need to go out and find concerts for the BJC, Howard said. He added that he prefers bringing in a concert through promoters -- investors who are risking their own money to bring the concert to the BJC.

The BJC rents everything to the promoters, including the building, Punt said. It is the promoters' job to rent the act for the night, as well as the sound and lighting, and to take care of advertising. Sometimes, though, the BJC pays for an act itself.

"In the first five, six years, if we bought one or two shows, that was a lot," Howard said. "Now, we're buying 40 to 50 percent of the shows."

Howard added that big promoters, such as Clear Channel, like to bring in concerts that are in the $200,000 range.

While this is outside of the BJC's budget, the venue still manages to bring in concerts that cost anywhere between $35,000 and $125,000, such as Yellowcard and O.A.R.

When it came to the Kanye West tour, promoters wanted to sell tickets for $49.50. Howard told the agents that if they didn't lower the price, students wouldn't buy tickets.

"I turned them down because I knew we'd never be able to sell the tickets for that much," Howard said.

Although he turned them down, he offered to buy the concert from the promoters..

"They came back a few hours later and said, 'It's yours,' and we went ahead and bought it," Howard said. "We proved that if you listen to the market and lower the prices, that you're better off."