BREN CENTER BOOKINGS AT SLOW PACE

Prospects now appear slim that the new Bren Events Center at UC Irvine will host a significant number of pop music concerts any earlier than next winter, center officials and independent promoters said this week.

The $15-million, 6,000-seat center, named after Irvine Co. Chairman Donald L. Bren, opened in January, not only as a long-awaited deluxe home for UCI’s men’s and women’s basketball teams, but also as a more suitable site for pop, rock and jazz concerts than the echo-heavy environs of the university’s 2,100-seat Crawford Hall.

But the only non-athletic events now booked at the facility are a March 10 benefit concert with Jackson Browne and an April 30 appearance by political satirist Mark Russell. The only word Bren Events Center director Steven Neal gave this week on future shows is, “We have some dates we are holding open, but nothing we can talk about yet.”

At best, Neal projects a few isolated concerts in coming months once the Pacific and Irvine Meadows amphitheaters open their summer seasons. Potentially, the center’s busiest period will be from late fall to early spring when the outdoor amphitheaters are closed.

Officials at major Southland concert promoters, including Avalon Attractions, Parc Presentations and Pacificoncerts, said delays in cost projections and indications that those costs, once determined, may be higher than at other similar-size facilities have so far prevented them from lining up more pop concerts at the center.

“They haven’t had a budget, so there’s been no way for us to make offers,” said Avalon Attractions’ Jim Guerinot, who started his career as a booking agent as a student at UCI. “Having been a student there, I really want to get in and do some shows because I think it’s a beautiful room. So last week I brought a computer down, and we sat down and knocked out a budget. But with it being initiated at this point in the season, it’s not going to yield any significant activity until probably November. This probably should have been done last August.”

Said Steve Redfearn of Parc Presentations, which is co-promoting the Jackson Browne concert on March 10: “I have seen the budget on Jackson’s show, but we’ll have to wait until March 11 to know whether that actually turns out to be the real cost. It’s not that everything is riding on this show, but it will give an indication whether (promoters) will be able to do more things there soon.”

“It’s been difficult because the center has no history to go on,” said Lance MacLean, director of UCI’s associated students group. “But now that we’ve done one date (a Feb. 14 dance-concert with the Untouchables), we’re getting the figures on the bottom line, and I think things are starting to pick up.”

One problem booking agents cited is UCI’s requirement that university staff be used at center events in addition to personnel typically hired by the promoters.

Neal confirmed that UCI campus police, community service officers and ushers will work center concerts alongside security, parking and ticket-taking personnel provided by promoters from independent firms such as Event Management and Contemporary Services Corp.

“By insisting on using their security and their ushers as well as ours, doing a show there can get very expensive,” said Larry Ahearn of Pacificoncerts.

“That will nickel and dime you to death,” Avalon’s Guerinot added. “If you want to have an after-concert party, you have to hire two police officers at $37 an hour, instead of two Event Management guys at $9 an hour. That’s the kind of stuff that in the long run will be cost restrictive.” (MacLean said Irvine police are paid $36 an hour to work center events.)

Commented Neal: “We’re still getting the feel of it--it is a business, and we have to be competitive. Hopefully, it will be advantageous and profitable for groups to play here. We don’t want to have a situation here that will drive shows away. So we are listening to promoters and looking for ways we can keep costs down.”

“In some cases,” UCI’s MacLean said, “the costs will be less than at other places. This is a non-union house, and we use non-union stagehands, which saves quite a bit over union houses like the Universal, Irvine Meadows and the Pacific.”

Another complication is the scheduling priority given university athletic teams over non-athletic events, even though Neal said that concerts “will most likely be more profitable.” That sets up a potential conflict between economic priorities of meeting the center’s operating costs and university officials’ desire to accommodate sports teams.

Besides pop concerts, Neal said the center’s multipurpose design will be able to accommodate classical music, dance, comedy and other cultural events and serve as a convention, meeting and exhibition hall. Also possible are bookings of non-collegiate sports events such as the Harlem Globetrotters and the volleyball exhibition between the U.S. Olympics team and a team representing China held earlier this month.

That flexibility, however, may be something of a curse in trying to book concerts in summer months because, as one promoter said: “Given a choice, most bands will want to play one of the amphitheaters, which are designed specifically as concert facilities. And they’ll see the Bren Center as the place where UCI plays basketball. But between November and February, it (the center) is going to look great.”

The center may also receive competition from Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Gym, which this year is aggressively booking pop entertainment. Lower operating costs at Titan Gym allow Cal State Fullerton booking agents to somewhat offset greater ticket revenues possible with the Bren Center’s larger capacity, one promoter said.

“There are some acts that would do better there and some that would be better here,” MacLean said. “The Titan Gym is still a gym, and they have to rent a stage, lights and more equipment. The Bren Center is more attuned to special events like music. So I think it will work out to a push.”

Sam Kinison, one of the nation’s hottest comedians, has been booked at Cal State Fullerton on March 15. He is the type of act center officials have hoped to book.

“After they (center officials) saw the Sam Kinison show go to Cal State Fullerton, I think they are more willing to be flexible with promoters,” said a promoter who asked not to be identified. “And I think Cal State Fullerton people see the Bren Center opening as competition and, as a result, are more cooperative with outside promoters.”

Neal said the Untouchables concert--the first musical event at the center--went “very well” from both the standpoint of technical operations and feedback from those who attended.

Campus security, however, reportedly complained about the behavior of some Untouchables fans and requested beefed-up security for the Jackson Browne benefit. But one of the show’s promoters disagreed, saying the Untouchables concert went very smoothly.

“Steve Neal is a really good guy and an experienced building manager,” another promoter said. “But the cops and (community service officers) can’t be running the shows on campus. It’s ridiculous. So they might take some lumps for a while until that gets straightened out.”

LIVE ACTION: Tickets go on sale Sunday for the Eric Clapton-Robert Cray Band concert April 13 at the Pacific Amphitheatre. Phil Collins is slated to handle drumming chores as part of the band that will back Clapton on his 12-date tour. . . . Tickets will be available Monday for Hiroshima’s April 18 concert at UC Irvine’s Crawford Hall. . . . Mel Tillis returns to the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana on March 16. . . . Charlie Musselwhite and Papa John Creach will be at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on March 11. The Heaters, which backed actor Bruce Willis in his recent foray into pop music, will play the Coach House on March 17. There’s no word on whether their high-profile leader will be moonlighting with the group that night.