Grammys May Make N.Y. Move

The Grammy Awards appear to be going Gotham.

After a four-year stay in Los Angeles, the premier awards gala in the music world looks to be returning next February to the industry’s other company town, New York.

Grammy officials confirmed Thursday that they have scheduled a Wednesday press conference in New York, and although they won’t discuss the topic, the site of the Grammy announcements in past years has been a sure sign of the upcoming show’s location. New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will attend the conference as well, suggesting an announcement of some import, such as the show’s return to the East Coast.

Officials with the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, the Grammys’ sponsor, declined to comment Thursday about next year’s show. “We have made no announcement whatsoever about the 45th annual Grammys,” academy spokesman Ron W. Roecker said. “We do have a press conference scheduled in New York City next week.”

Los Angeles, the home for the first 13 Grammys, has played host to the event 34 times, and New York has done so nine times, five in the 1990s. L.A.’s Staples Center, designed in part with an eye to becoming the West Coast home to the show, has been the site of the past three Grammy shows, and the Shrine Auditorium housed the show in 1999. Based on past interviews with Grammy officials, the most likely New York venue for the Grammys is Madison Square Garden, the site in 1997.

The Garden almost became a last-minute home to the Grammys this year. A month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in Manhattan, Grammy chief Michael Greene said he had hoped to switch the show back east as a gesture of support for the beleaguered metropolis. The logistics, though, proved too difficult, so the gala, defined by big wins for New Yorker Alicia Keys and the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack, stayed in the Los Angeles arena.

The shift east is not a surprise, even without the ongoing national romance with New York following the terrorist attacks.

Greene has often said the ideal approach for the show would be alternating between the music industry hubs. There were many whispers in the music industry that Greene, viewed as a controversial and controlling figure in the industry, would not take the show back to New York until former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had left office. The fiery mayor took some public shots at Greene and his show in 1997 after some unkind comments the Grammy chief allegedly made to a City Hall staffer.

Greene has shrugged off any suggestion that the feud played a part in the show’s planning, but it will be Bloomberg, not Giuliani, standing next to Greene next week. The Grammys are more than a mere trophy for the hosting city. The show is broadcast in 161 countries and generates an estimated $20 million to $40 million for the host city. The show has also grown to include a week’s worth of parties, concerts and cultural events that extend well beyond its three-hour television broadcast.