Nautilus Concerts Aren’t Going Swimmingly; Poor Attendance May Scrap Sea World Series

The first big-name concert series in Sea World’s history may prove to be the 25-year-old marine park’s last.

A source close to Sea World’s concert promotions acknowledged Friday that because of poor attendance at this year’s inaugural series of pop, rock, jazz and country shows at the 7,000-seat Nautilus Amphitheater, there is “a strong possibility” that plans for a second series next year will be scrapped.

“Most of the concerts have featured jazz acts,” the source said, asking for anonymity, “and we’ve found out the hard way that there are not many jazz acts out there that can sell 7,000 tickets.”

According to the source, fewer than 1,000 of the approximately 4,000 people at the July 14 Mel Torme concert and the Aug. 4 Dizzy Gillespie-Grover Washington Jr. concert had actually paid. The others, the source said, were there on complimentary passes. A second source, also speaking with requested anonymity, said there were about 3,500 people at the Mel Torme concert and only 500 paid.

An Aug. 17 performance by a trio of jazz greats--Miles Davis, John McLaughlin and Milton Nascimento--has been canceled because of sluggish advance ticket sales. The source said that a scheduled Sept. 9 concert by jazzmen Stan Getz and George Shearing has also had slow ticket response.

“The other stuff is doing pretty well,” the source said. “Already, there are less than 500 seats left for the Miami Sound Machine show (on Aug. 23), and a concert by the Judds (on Sept. 15) is halfway sold out. But the jazz stuff is just not doing that great. Some of the acts don’t have a big-enough draw, while in Mel Torme’s case, we made a booking mistake.

“The show was confirmed just two weeks in advance, and I don’t care who you book, even Bruce Springsteen--two weeks isn’t nearly enough time to sell very many tickets.”

Sea World publicist Dan LeBlanc acknowledged that the concert series at the Nautilus Amphitheater, which began with a March 26 appearance by ex-Doobie Brother Michael MacDonald, hasn’t lived up to expectations and may be canceled at summer’s end.

“Like any business, we’re looking at every aspect of our operations to cut costs, and the concert series is one of those things,” LeBlanc said. “But at this point, we haven’t made any decisions.”

The only decision that has been made, LeBlanc added, is to reduce expenses for the remaining half-dozen shows in this year’s series by dropping the Gable Group as concert publicists and having Sea World’s in-house publicity department take over.

“We’re reviewing expenses everywhere,” LeBlanc said, “and that includes re-evaluating the ways we spend our money (on the concert series).”

Other concert promoters who produce shows in San Diego aren’t surprised that many of the dates in Sea World’s initial concert series have had poor box office response.

Bill Silva, who recently brought Bob Dylan to the Batiquitos Lagoon’s Sammis Pavilion in Carlsbad and Sting and Rod Stewart to Southwestern College’s DeVore Stadium in Chula Vista, said that no one in the concert staging business is having an extraordinary summer but added that Sea World’s 7,000-seat venue is too large for the caliber of most of the acts it has booked.

Moss Jacobs, general manager of Avalon Attractions, agreed with Silva and suggested that Sea World’s inexperience at promoting big concerts has proved a liability.

“It’s a lot more difficult to be a promoter than it is to be a talent buyer, and to be able to do both well is a skill not a lot of people have in the entire United States,” Jacobs said.

The L.A.-based Avalon Attractions regularly promotes shows locally at the California Theater downtown and the San Diego Sports Arena. It is also producing the 12th annual summer concert series at San Diego State University’s Open Air Theater.

“For many of the acts that Sea World has been booking, the Nautilus Amphitheater has been the wrong building,” Jacobs said. “It’s simply too big.”

Still, the Aug. 17 concert by Davis, McLaughlin and Nascimento is the only future show Sea World has canceled. Remaining concerts on the Nautilus Amphitheater schedule, in addition to the Miami Sound Machine, Stan Getz and George Shearing, and the Judds, are Anne Murray (Sept. 23), blues revivalists Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Fabulous Thunderbirds (Oct. 1), and jazz legends Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Williams, and the Count Basie Orchestra (Oct. 16).