Ticket Hikes at Irvine Meadows Will Pay for Police

The cost of a concert ticket at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre has gone up 50 cents due to a new tax levied by the Irvine City Council to pay for police protection and traffic control at performances.

The fee will raise an estimated $205,000 this year, according to Paul Brady Jr., Irvine’s assistant city manager. The tax applies to entertainment facilities with a capacity greater than 1,500. Aside from UC Irvine facilities, which are exempt, the 15,000-capacity Irvine Meadows is the only entertainment operation in Irvine large enough to be subject to the fee.

“I don’t think anybody doesn’t have a problem with a tax, but we recognize why it has to be,” Bob Geddes, Irvine Meadows’ managing partner, said Wednesday. “The last thing we want to do is (make the city pay for costs) that are rightfully ours. We tried to do some lobbying to perhaps reconfigure (the tax) or reduce it, or at least put a lid on it but we were OK with it in the end.”

Irvine Meadows already adds a $1.50 “surcharge” of its own to the face price of tickets--with the surcharge money kept by the amphitheater to cover its own costs. Geddes said that ticket buyers will now see a $2 “surcharge/tax” listed on their tickets.

Since it opened in 1981, Irvine Meadows has reimbursed the city of Irvine for the salaries paid to police officers assigned to concert details. The new tax will cover salaries as well as the cost of equipment needed to police the concerts. That includes 2 paddy wagons, 5 patrol cars and 19 radio sets.

The Police Department assigns 15 to 23 officers to Irvine Meadows on sold-out concert nights, Brady said. The cost--time-and-a-half under the police officers’ contract--is $37 per hour (including benefits) for regular officers, and $42 for supervisors, for an estimated annual total of $153,000.