O.C. Arts Center Rents at High End of Scale

The goal of the Orange County Performing Arts Center is to rival Kennedy and Lincoln centers, its top officials say. In one respect, the center here already surpasses both.

It costs more for the county’s major orchestra, the Pacific Symphony, to rent Segerstrom Hall than it costs the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in Manhattan.

That’s on an average night.

On an above-average night, when the Pacific plays to a capacity house at Segerstrom, it might be better off at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in Washington, D.C.: The rent would be cheaper.

And come September, with the beginning of the 1997-98 season, the Segerstrom rent will go up to finance the building’s upkeep.

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For consumers, that will mean slightly higher ticket prices across the board. If the center or its tenants decides to pass on to consumers the entire hike, a $19 ticket to a touring Broadway show would rise by 95 cents; an $85 ticket to the opera would climb by $4.25.

But for the Pacific Symphony and the four other regional organizations that perform or present programs at the 2,994-seat hall--Opera Pacific, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the Pacific Chorale and the William Hall Master Chorale--it means paying far more.

The center has long maintained that its fees fall in the middle compared to those at similar halls around the country. New center President Jerry E. Mandel said last week that “in terms of the regionals, we’re pretty low on our rent.”

The evidence, however, indicates otherwise. In Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, Dallas and Cincinnati, for example, the major orchestras pay much less in rent per concert. (See accompanying chart, F3.)

According to the center, it charges regional groups 10% of ticket sales per event or a flat fee of $2,500, whichever is greater. The flat fee rarely applies, except for rehearsals or modestly priced (as well as free) children’s educational programs.

If a classical or pops concert brings in $75,000--”about average for us,” says Louis G. Spisto, executive director of the Pacific Symphony and a finalist for the position Mandel now holds--the center collects $7,500. A sold-out concert, which might see receipts of $100,000, would result in a $10,000 rental fee.

“But that’s just the beginning,” Spisto says. “Everything comes a la carte.” As do many venues, the center charges separately for box-office staff, house personnel and technical crews.

Stemming from a 5% surcharge on all ticket sales, the upcoming hike will raise the orchestra’s basic cost to $11,250 on an average night and to $15,000 on a sold-out night, Spisto says. Meanwhile, symphonies in other cities are paying less.

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Manhattan’s Avery Fisher Hall charges a flat rate of $8,780 per concert, regardless of box-office receipts. “It’s our standard booking fee for a one-night rental,” says Trudy Dawson, who books the 2,738-seat facility. “It’s what we charge the New York Philharmonic and anyone else who plays here.”

(The center charged the county’s Philharmonic Society $20,000 a night at Segerstrom for two concerts it presented by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra earlier this season. “That’s under the old rental fee,” society Executive Director Dean Corey says.)

Carnegie Hall, perhaps the world’s most celebrated concert venue, also lists a flat rate for all-comers: $8,800 (weekends) and $7,700 (week nights), says Jennifer Wada, director of public relations for the 2,804-seat hall.

The National Symphony pays less on weeknights at the 2,759-seat Kennedy Center Concert Hall: $7,300. On weekends, the fee is $8,500.

“The orchestra is actually part of the center,” says Lawrence J. Wilker, president of the Kennedy Center. “All the services we provide for them--fund-raising, staffing, offices, about $2 million in overhead--is not recaptured in the rent.”

Kennedy’s fees for outside orchestras--$10,850 on weekdays and $12,765 on weekends--are a “more accurate reflection” of what the rent should be to cover the cost, Wilker says.

Closer to home, the Los Angeles Philharmonic will pay $2,360 per concert next season at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, as will other resident organizations, such as the Los Angeles Opera and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, at the 3,201-seat hall. Gordon Jenkins, who books the Chandler for the Music Center Operating Co., says the going rate for nonresident organizations will be a flat $3,500.

The San Francisco Symphony pays $1,000 per concert at 2,743-seat Davies Symphony Hall. Jennifer Norris, the city’s booker, says others pay $1,500 against 10% of the ticket sales, capped at $3,500.

When it comes to rehearsal fees, the Orange County Performing Arts Center is also expensive: $2,500 for the regionals and $5,000 for outsiders. Avery Fisher Hall charges $860 per day; Carnegie Hall gets “a small fraction” of the concert fee, Wada says. The Chandler charges resident groups $1,770 and outsiders $2,625.

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The regionals say they’re being had by exorbitant rent and unfairly forced via the surcharge to help balance the center’s operating budget.

“When you go from 10% of the gross to 15% of the gross, it’s a 50% raise in the rental fee,” says Dean Corey, executive director of the Philharmonic Society. “That,” he adds, “is a lot.”

For the Pacific Symphony, which rented Segerstrom on 58 days this past season, including 38 for concert performances (more than any of the regionals), the surcharge creates significant financial pressure.

“The total additional amount we will have to pay the center,” Spisto says, “is approximately $180,000 across the board for the year, based on our projected ticket sales. It’s money the center won’t have to raise but we will, through a combination of pricing increases and new contributions.”

The surcharge, originally announced in August 1996, will apply not just to the regionals but also to the center’s own presentations, which account for the lion’s share of the box-office revenue.

In fiscal 1997, which ended June 30 for the center, ticket sales for its own programs came to $8.8 million, says Vice President of Finance Richard A. Johnson. The Pacific totaled roughly $3 million in ticket sales for Segerstrom concerts, Spisto says. Combined, the five regionals grossed about $7 million there.

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Mandel notes that the center has subsidized building maintenance since it opened 11 years ago. Adding a surcharge now, he said, “is absolutely the right thing to do. That’s the bottom line. It’s done. It’s over with. Let’s move on. It’s the cost of doing business at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. We don’t force the regional groups to be here. If they want to go elsewhere, they can.”

He says the center can no longer subsidize repair and maintenance of the $73-million building alone: “Frankly, we’d have to raise funds for it, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to use fund-raising money for that purpose.

“Fund-raising,” Mandel notes, “should be targeted for programming, not to support the groups that perform here. They should pay their fair share of the building maintenance.”

The regionals agree they should help with maintenance, but they believe the “fair share” represents an unfair burden.

Moreover, Corey says the surcharge was installed by fiat. “There really wasn’t a lot of choice,” he says. “They pretty much control the place and pretty much do whatever they want. We’re at their mercy.” For that reason and others, he has begun presenting more programs elsewhere.

Adds Spisto: “The real issue is, are we starting from a fair base? We don’t think so, not when we pay more than bigger orchestras with bigger budgets in bigger markets.”

By all accounts, fee comparisons are possibly misleading because of many variables. Some halls get large government subsidies or operate as public-private partnerships. Others function within municipal agencies. The center accepts no government money, which makes it unique.

Also, some orchestras have paid for their own facilities. The Dallas Symphony raised $91 million to build Meyerson Hall. The San Francisco Symphony financed Davies Symphony Hall and five years ago spent $10 million on a major renovation. Neither the Pacific Symphony nor the other regionals paid for any of the center’s construction.

“Everything in this business is apples and toy trucks,” says Heather Dinwiddie, director of information resources for the American Symphony Orchestra League, which tracks such things. But she says of the center’s fees: “It does seem they’re charging at the high end.”

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Center officials point to the numbers to argue their case.

Since 1987, Johnson says, the center has put a total of $6.2 million into a repair-and-replacement fund, including $100,000 in seed money, to keep the building in tip-top shape. Based on real-estate estimates of maintenance costs over a 30-year period, center officials hoped to funnel $715,000 a year into the fund.

They adhered to that payment schedule for seven years, from fiscal 1988 to 1994. But in fiscal 1995 and 1996, they could only afford to put in a total of $415,000, leaving a $1-million gap in the payment schedule.

Although they resumed the schedule in fiscal 1997--again putting in $715,000--they realized they had greatly underestimated the cost of upkeep.

“It looks like we’re going to have to put in more like $800,000 to $1 million . . . to keep the fund properly replenished,” the center’s Greg Patterson said.

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Projecting a jump in ticket sales next season, center officials anticipate more than $12 million in revenues to which the 5% surcharge will apply. That would relieve them of finding $620,000. Given their need to raise at least $5 million a year in donations to meet its annual operating budget project of $23 million, it’s easy to see why the new revenue stream makes sense to its defenders.

Corey, looking on the bright side, says: “The one thing that’s good about all this is that they have kept that place in great shape for the last 10 years. It’s one of the real strengths of the hall.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Music Money

Here’s how fees at Segerstrom Hall compare with those at similar venues around the U.S.:

All orchestras

Venue: Carnegie Hall, N.Y.*

Seats: 2,804

Rent per Concert: $7,700-8,800

Rehearsal fee: Varies *

Cincinnati Symphony

Venue: Cincinnati Music Hall: 3,417

Seats: 3,417

Rent per Concert: $2,355

Rehearsal fee: $690

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Dallas Symphony*

Venue: Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center

Seats: 2,063

Rent per Concert: 1 per year

Rehearsal fee: --

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Houston Symphony

Venue: Jesse H. Jones Center for the Performing Arts*

Seats: 2,775

Rent per Concert: $1,700

Rehearsal fee: $1,100

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Los Angeles Philharmonic

Venue: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Seats: 3,201

Rent per Concert: $2,360

Rehearsal fee: $1,770

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National Symphony

Venue: Kennedy Center Concert Hall (Washington, D.C.)*

Seats: 2,759

Rent per Concert: $7,300-8,500

Rehearsal fee: 50% of concert fee

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New York Philharmonic

Venue: Avery Fisher Hall, N.Y.

Seats: 2,738

Rent per Concert: $8,780

Rehearsal fee: $860

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Pacific Symphony

Venue: Segerstrom Hall

Seats: 2,996

Rent per Concert: $11,250-15,000

Rehearsal fee: $2,500

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St. Paul (Minn.) Chamber Orchestra*

Venue: Ordway Music Theatre

Seats: 1,945

Concert rent per month: $22,864

Rehearsal fee: --

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San Francisco Symphony*

Venue: Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall

Seats: 2,743

Rent per Concert: $1,000

Rehearsal fee: $325-674$ *

Seattle Symphony

Venue: Seattle Center Opera House

Seats: 3,000

Rent per Concert: $1,290

Rehearsal fee: $1,290

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Notes:

* Carnegie Hall charges for rehearsals in increments of time; the cost is a small fraction of the concert rental fee.

* The Dallas Symphony built the $91-million hall.

* The Jones Center provides option of $2,300 for rehearsal and performance.

* The Kennedy Center charges other orchestras $10,850-$12,765 for a concert; rehearsal fee is $700 daytime Mon.-Thur.; 50% of concert fee all other times.

* The St. Paul Chamber charges a flat monthly fee for rehearsal and performance.

* The San Francisco Symphony built its hall.

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Sources: Individual orchestras, hall administrators, American Symphony Orchestra League

Researched by JAN HERMAN / Los Angeles Times