As much as Penn State students try to deny it, central Pennsylvania is not the most happening place on the planet -- and it takes a big paycheck to convince A-list music performers to book a show here.
Most artists would rather play cities where people have money to burn, and not in front of college students, some who can't afford tuition, let alone concert tickets.
As promotion companies continue to expand and offer artists larger paychecks, the chances that a tour will hit the Bryce Jordan Center (BJC) begin to narrow.
These changes in the music industry mean a venue can go from bumping to bombing in a matter of months.
A large venue in a smaller market -- like the BJC -- has to play a juggling game to ensure its survival.
But how does a venue survive in a town of mixed tastes and incomes?
Past success
Eleven years ago, the BJC was a hot market for one reason -- it was the first big venue in central Pennsylvania and able to attract tours simply because it was within a few hours of Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.
Al Karosas, BJC assistant general manager, explained that a decade ago, the BJC relied on promoters -- people who buy a tour from an agent to make as much money as possible for an artist.
"The promoters are the ones who take the financial risk on a show," Karosas said.
They try to sell the show to different venues, hoping to book stops in many markets.
"Promoters from the large cities fairly close to State College could all compete," Karosas said. "The key for the promoters was to figure out how much to sell tickets to a show for in order to make money."
Back in 1996, promoters could not have been happier with the BJC. People bought tickets. Shows sold out. Promoters made money and brought more shows to the arena.
"A new building sells sponsorships," Karosas said. "There was obviously a huge local interest in the BJC when it first opened. There was a void in entertainment in the area, and people just ate it up."
The first concert held at the BJC was on Jan. 18, 1996, when the Badlees and the Goo Goo Dolls opened for Rusted Root. Tickets were $20 for general admission.
Bernie Punt, director of sales and marketing for the BJC, said the BJC originally tried to offer about four to five shows aimed at the college crowd each semester. In the past, he said general admission tickets for acts like No Doubt, Smashing Pumpkins and Bush had sold for $20 to $25.
This process worked well for many years, but near the turn of the century, large companies began to buy up smaller promoters. Clear Channel Communications, a promoter that used to be successful at the BJC, bought SFX Entertainment in 2000 and turned into Live Nation a few years later.
"All loyalties were severed," Karosas said.
These new companies began to offer acts "ridiculous" amounts of money, Punt said.
"An artist that was once worth $100,000 was $200,000 a month later," he said.
So to sell 10,000 tickets for the artist that is now worth $200,000, ticket prices would have to double so the BJC would not lose money.
In 2001, the BJC was still working with a promoter to bring in student-oriented acts such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and John Mayer.
"All of a sudden, Red Hot Chili Pepper's tickets were $39," Punt said.
Ticket sales went down, and promoters lost money at BJC shows for five months.
"In this business, you are only as successful as your last show," Punt said.
By 2002, the situation was not improving, and Punt said he was alarmed at the decline in ticket sales.
"Students told us they couldn't afford the increased prices, and that they would maybe only go to one show in a year," Punt said.
Punt said they tried to explain this to the promoters, but the promoters soon lost interest in the State College market and began to take shows to other venues in Hershey and Pittsburgh where people held jobs and had more disposable income.
"[The promoters] never came back," Punt said. "The BJC had to pretty much be its own promoter."
HARD TIMES
For the next couple of seasons, the BJC tried to cut its losses.
"We had a lot of country shows around that time," Punt said. "Those were the safest shows to get in Central Pennsylvania, but the student programming went way down, and students complained."
Karosas said people at the BJC sat down and started brainstorming about how to get students back into the arena. He said the BJC had an interest in forming a partnership with University Park Allocation Committee (UPAC) to get more student programming.
At the time, UPAC needed more of an identity to show students what their activity fee was being used for. Karosas said for this reason, UPAC was aggressive in wanting to get its message out, and the BJC was a way to make that happen.
Karosas said they decided to try to get a comedian show and use some money allocation from UPAC to lower student ticket prices.
"We decided to try Tracy Morgan since he was hot in SNL," he said. "He was based out of New York, and his shows were not too expensive."
Karosas said the student ticket price for the Dec. 2003 show ended up being $5 and that 12 percent of Penn State's student body went to the show. He said UPAC had never sponsored an event with such a high turnout before.
UPAC'S ROLE
BJC's relationship with UPAC has helped get the venue back on the map, Punt said.
"In 2002, State College was a dead market, and we have slowly been gaining back confidence," he said.
Karosas cited the 2005 Maroon 5 concert as an example of a show where many more tickets were sold because of an affordable price.
"We sold tickets for $10, but a promoter would have sold them for $35 to $40," he said.
If it sells tickets at a discount, the BJC needs more students to come. Punt said offering tickets at a discount is a risk, but he's willing to take it.
"Every show is like buying a stock or rolling the dice," he said.
The risk paid off in October 2005, when the BJC brought Kanye West to town.
Punt said the BJC scheduled him for the Friday of homecoming weekend -- a date that promoters had said no to.
"The show was $150,000, and we didn't have a lot of UPAC money to work with," Punt said. They booked the show and offered student tickets for $29.50 as opposed to $37.50.
Karosas said the student response was overwhelming.
"We were number three in sales for the tour, behind New York and L.A.," he said.
Punt said others wanted to know how a venue in Central Pennsylvania was having success, and promoters became more interested in bringing acts into town.
"People I had never done business with before were asking us how we get good ticket sales," Punt said. "We are just smart with our ticket prices and try to give the students what they want. It works."
But without UPAC, the BJC might not be able to attract as many big-name acts to the area.
"If we didn't work with [UPAC], we would lose a great deal of student programming," he said. "Forty-five percent of our shows are affiliated with UPAC."
Stan Latta, director of Unions and Student Activities, said UPAC considers the BJC one of its "big budgets," meaning that it is a program that receives a significant amount of funding every year. Other big budgets are LateNight Penn State, the Center for the Performing Arts and the Distinguished Speaker Series.
Each spring, these groups go before UPAC for a budget hearing and have to make a presentation about how they use their part of the student activity fee.
This past year, UPAC was allocated $2.1 million, and $100,000 of that went to the BJC.
In 2006, the BJC offered a student discount to 10 events and offered discounts of nearly half price to four shows including Live, Black Eyed Peas and the Freestyle Motocross Ramp It Up Tour.
Current UPAC Chairman Greg Heleniak said UPAC's relationship with the BJC has been successful.
Heleniak said UPAC tries to have one student-oriented show priced at $9.75 per semester, such as Angels and Airwaves, which played the BJC in November. He said any leftover allocation money is used to offer students discounts to other shows.
Karosas said he likes to involve the students at UPAC in choosing the show.
"UPAC suggests artists sometimes, and if they aren't available, we suggest others," he said.
LOOKING FORWARD
UPAC was formed in 1997 to allow students to decide how to allocate their activity fee. The committee currently has 35 student members, chosen through campus-wide elections.
Next year, Funding Allocation Board (FAB) will be responsible for distributing the Student Activity Fee. UPAC will still exist and will become one of the big budget organizations that will apply for FAB funding. From there, UPAC will distribute money to smaller organizations.
FAB will consist of seven students, three faculty members, one non-voting faculty adviser and one non-voting student chair. All members will be appointed by President for Student Affairs Vicky Triponey, a policy that some students have criticized for what they say is taking power out of the hands of the students and giving it to Penn State's administration.
Heleniak said the university knows students have an expectation for discounted shows, and "nothing should be affected" when FAB starts to work with the venue.
Latta said FAB has already contacted all of the big budgets to request their budget proposals for the next year and that hearings will be held in March.
Punt said Tool will be coming to the BJC in April.
"We are slowly restoring faith in our market," Punt said. "It is not completely restored yet."
Punt said the BJC has been building a new foundation by attracting solid mid-level shows so they can work up to getting top performers.
"We are not quite up to having someone like Justin Timberlake, who is really popular right now," Punt said. "But we have a much better shot than we did a few years ago."
