Pond to Fill Need for a Mid-Level Concert Venue

The Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, the dominant large-concert arena in Southern California, will soon start booking many of the mid-level concert attractions that usually play the Universal Amphitheatre and Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

These concerts historically have bypassed Orange County for lack of a suitable venue.

Using a ceiling-to-floor acoustic curtain, Pond officials plan to cut the arena in half to reduce its 18,000-seat capacity for selected concerts, general manager Tim Ryan said Tuesday.

The scaled-down venue, which will be called the Theater at the Arrowhead Pond, will be unveiled in late July or early August, allowing the Pond to increase its bookings and tap a growing need for mid-size concert venues nationally.

It is not, however, expected to set off booking wars with similar-size theaters in Los Angeles because Orange County is considered a strong concert market independent of its neighbor to the north.

“A state-of-the-art 6,000-to-7,000-seat venue is something that’s been missing in Orange County, and this is going to fill a void that’s been here for a long, long time,” said Ryan, who estimated that the conversion will cost slightly less than $1 million.

The new setup should add eight to 10 concerts to the Pond’s schedule in the first 12 months, he said, and increase annual revenue by 5% to 10%.

Mid-size venues of 5,000 to 7,000 seats are in demand, concert industry experts said, because there are always acts on the way up--and down--from playing clubs to filling arenas. That’s why mid-size facilities are sometimes referred to as “elevator theaters.”

“There has always been a need for them,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the Pollstar concert-tracking magazine. “Artists always prefer to sell out and turn people away than play to half-empty arenas.”

No performers have been confirmed yet by Nederlander Concerts, which has an exclusive booking contract with the Pond, but the facility is targeting groups similar to those coming to Universal and the Greek.

Acts booked for the 6,200-seat Universal include British rock band the Cult, singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco and R&B; duo K-Ci & JoJo. Among the acts on the 6,100-seat Greek’s schedule are British art-rock band Roxy Music, flamenco group the Gipsy Kings and a jazz bill topped by Al Jarreau and George Duke.

Pond and Nederlander officials say the strength of the Orange County concert market should allow most acts to play both Los Angeles and Orange County rather than be forced to choose one over the other.

“I think it will complement the other two 6,000-seaters much the same as the Pond complements the Staples and the Forum,” said Nederlander Concerts Vice President Ken Scher.

The Pond shouldn’t siphon off much business from Universal Amphitheatre, said Alex Hodges, executive vice president for House of Blues Concerts, which books the Universal. “But the way I view other venues is that on any given day, any venue or every venue may be your competitor.”

In effect, the Pond will be cut in half with a floor-to-ceiling curtain running north to south, leaving the east half of the arena’s seating and luxury suites open for smaller concerts.

Capacity typically will range from 5,000 to 7,000, with a maximum of around 8,000 seats. In addition, the floor will be carpeted, and five chandeliers will be lowered from the ceiling to make it feel less like a sports arena during concerts.

“It sounds like what the Pond is doing is going beyond just dropping a curtain,” Pollstar’s Bongiovanni said. “By also putting in carpeting and the chandeliers, it means they’re legitimately trying to change the atmosphere into something more akin to a smaller theater.

“It’s also important to be able to do that in a cost-efficient manner,” Bongiovanni said. “It doesn’t help to cut seating from 18,000 down to 6,000 if the overhead to promoters is essentially the same as in the full arena. The cost of doing a show has to be proportionally reduced as well.”

In fact, it will cost rock and pop acts far less to play the scaled-down configuration than it would to perform at full capacity. “Our costs should be very competitive with every venue of this size,” Ryan said.

Additionally, Ryan said, the curtain masking half the arena’s capacity is acoustically treated so sound quality should be commensurate with a smaller hall.

Mid-level pop and rock acts currently have nowhere to play between the county’s two biggest clubs--the 1,000-seat House of Blues and 1,200-seat Sun Theatre, both in Anaheim--and the 15,000-capacity Verizon Wireless Amphitheater and 18,000-seat Arrowhead Pond. The 5,000-seat Bren Events Center at UC Irvine is booked so frequently for university sports and special events that few dates are available for outside concert bookings.

The Pond typically holds as many arena concerts each year as Staples Center, the Forum and L.A. Sports Arena combined. It’s been far more active as a concert facility than the new, tonier Staples Center largely because Staples has three professional sports teams (the Lakers, the Kings and the Clippers) to the Pond’s one (the Mighty Ducks).

The new setup is being paid for out of capital improvement funds the arena sets aside each year and should be recouped in two years, Ryan said.

Pond officials aren’t expecting any slackening of concerts requiring the full 18,000-plus capacity of the arena, which last year held nearly 30 shows.

The Pond is one of at least a half-dozen arenas in North America that have come up with reduced-capacity capabilities to meet the demand for such venues.

“In general, that’s the hole in most markets,” Bongiovanni said. Los Angeles is that rarity that has two free-standing mid-size concert facilities, with a third under consideration near Staples. It would be built by Staples owner Philip Anschutz and developer Edward Roski.

“Southern California’s such a huge marketplace that it probably can absorb more competition than most markets can,” Bongiovanni said.

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A Smaller Pond

The Arrowhead Pond will begin booking mid-size concerts by configuring the 18,000-seat arena for 5,000-to-7,000-seat shows, filling a growing niche for smaller theater facilities.

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Eastern half of Pond

5,000-7,000 seats

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Source: Arrowhead Pond