GRAMMY GEOGRAPHY

An announcement is expected within two weeks about whether the Grammy ceremony will stay in New York for a second straight year or return to its original home, Los Angeles. New York is believed to be the favorite after last year’s move up to the arena level with the show at Madison Square Garden, allowing for greater attendance and spectacle.

However, questions have been raised about the costs of the larger event, as well as the “distancing” factor of the bigger hall which many felt flattened the dynamics of the telecast. With that in mind there is much speculation that the Grammys will return to New York’s Radio City Music Hall, which had annually battled with L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium for the honors. Each facility holds about 6,000.

A return to the smaller setting could put L.A. back in the running, though Cody Cluff, Mayor Richard Riordan’s entertainment industry liaison, says that seems a long shot.

“We’ve been operating with the understanding that when they went with New York last year, they would be gone for two years,” he says. “But we have been told that the decision has not been made yet.”

Cluff will be meeting with Michael Greene, president of the Grammy-sponsoring National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, this week to discuss the matter.

Both Greene and Grammy show producer Pierre Cossette are based in L.A., and have long stated their preference for the convenience of having the event here. But New York has consistently mounted an aggressive campaign to host the show, and L.A. hasn’t provided the same kind of civic electricity around the event as tightly packed Manhattan.

L.A., though, could make it a contest in a few years if the planned downtown arena opens. Greene has been in discussions with the facility’s planners about design features that would serve such an event both in terms of production costs and atmosphere.