 "Photo: Photo courtesy of AEG Worldwide Asset Gallery")
The United Spirit Arena hosts a cast of A-list celebrities during its Fall 2009 season.
Performers including Gary Allen, Jeff Dunham, Jay-Z, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the Harlem Globetrotters have been in the lineup for the arena, but none with as much anticipation and success in ticket sales as Kelly Clarkson.
“There can be anywhere between six to 10 artists in a year, it varies,” said Cindy Harper, associate director of the USA. “One of our challenges is that we are a secondary market, so it is a little bit harder to persuade artists to come here, especially if it is a big headline act, where they can go to a bigger town and a bigger venue.”
The Kelly Clarkson show, which will begin at 7:30 p.m., differs from the majority of shows coming to the USA because of the physical size of the show and number of tickets that can be sold. The show is only a half house, limiting the number of tickets available for purchase to 5,400.
“Right now Jay-Z’s ticket sales are a little bit lower than Kelly’s, which is weird because we’ve heard more buzz about his show than hers,” Harper said. “We’ve heard from so many people that they think it’s sold out, but it isn’t. There are still a few weeks left before his show, so it will hopefully continue to grow.”
The arena, built in 1996 and voted on and paid for by students, focuses on serving the Lubbock community and Tech students.
“The support from the students and community for these shows is huge,” said Kent Meredith, director of the USA. “I think it’s always important to bring someone in who’s commonly known by everyone. In years past, people have said that there’s nothing to do in Lubbock, but we do our part by bringing all these big names to the USA. Hopefully we’re bringing diverse enough groups to town this semester that there’s something for everyone.”
Booking these artists requires the arena to plan months in advance. The arena does not make any direct offers to artists, but goes through promoters who make offers and bids to performers, without whom big names may not have come to the USA.
“It’s been really good for the Lubbock community because it draws fans from New Mexico, Amarillo, Midland, and we’ve even had someone come in from England to see a show,” Harper said. “It’s really amazing with the draw that we have and the economic impact that it has on the hotels at night, the restaurants and the shopping that happens when folks come into town. It helps stimulate the economy.”
Drawing in audiences from various regions has an obvious effect on the local economy, said Meredith. But because the show hits the stage on a Wednesday night, the impact is lessened because people are less likely to come in from out of town for a show during the week.
“One reason why this show is on a Wednesday night is because it’s probably playing a bigger market on the weekend,” Meredith said.
Since Lubbock is a secondary market, due to it’s population size, performers tend to forget about this smaller city. Even though the smaller size of population hinders the number of big names wanting to perform in the USA, the arena staff keeps trying to get Lubbock known by promoters.
“I think that the arena has helped the market, we’ve been able to bring in stars like the Dixie Chicks, Elton John and George Straight, but at the same time promoters have asked why they’d bring in big names to Lubbock when they only play in huge venues,” Meredith said. “We still try and we don’t give up. People still have the mentality of ‘where’s Lubbock?’ so we still have to remind people of how successful we were, how many tickets were sold and the support that the groups received, but people have a short-term memory as far as what Lubbock has done.”
The Clarkson show helps bring Lubbock into the spotlight for the support it has for the music industry. Before the show, Harper said, Clarkson will put on a pre-party for VIP ticket holders, where she will perform songs a capella, a commemorative gift and souvenir lanyard. This pre-party will give fans a chance to see Clarkson up close before she hits the big stage in front of thousands of fans.
“The VIP package is what makes this show more unique than others,” Harper said. “We’ve never had a pre-party or an open sound check before; it’s really unique and should add an interesting dimension to it. It should all go really smoothly and be great. It is just something that we don’t usually see.”
Something else the audience doesn’t usually see — the list of requests from the performers. Harper said performers ask for anything from 200 towels to soccer balls and from special dietary needs to work out facilities. The USA has seen and accommodated them all.
“All of the writers will ask for dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms or rooms for promoters, production or different people that will travel with the tour,” Harper said. “In the past, we’ve had tour managers ask where a good route is to go run for either someone on tour with them or even the artist. It’s kind of interesting when we get those requests, but there hasn’t been anything too terribly crazy for this concert.”
Clarkson will perform one of the biggest concerts to play in the USA this year. Even with the highest tickets sales yet, tickets are still available ranging from $41 to $81 in the box office at the arena.
