Chattanooga Pulse

Recently the city council smiled at a proposal to allow beer sales in the lobbies of the flailing Tivoli Theater and Memorial Auditorium during concert events to boost revenues and alleviate some of the tax money it takes to maintain these city-owned facilities.

Seems that up to now the fact that both of these venues have received major facelifts since the last time Ted Nugent swung from the rafters, combined with the limited resources assigned to cleaning up the “wango tango” left behind, has those in charge a little paranoid about spilling anything on the new carpet.
However, concession sales are what drives events to (or from) a potential stop on any tour. Ticket sales generally don’t make up all of the cost of putting on an event. So if the venue (in this case, the city), promoters and performers want to profit from the show, they have to rely on extra money generated from concession sales (and t-shirts of course).

At times, Memorial and the Tivoli have given in a little and allowed concessions to be sold—and consumed—within the confines of the lobby areas (anything can be neatly mopped up from a marble floor). However, they wouldn’t allow food or drink in the seating area—where visitors are located 99.1 percent of the time.

Maybe they recall the same days I do. I remember when you could not only plop down in your seat at Memorial Auditorium with a chili dog and cold beer, but the first thing you smelled when the lights went down and the opening riffs of “Champagne Jam” were rockin’ the house was the ever-present aroma of pot smoke (yes, you could smoke in there back then, too).

Sure the place was a complete wreck when the show was over. When the lights came on, you could barely see the illuminated exit signs for the thick cloud of smoke as you shuffled down the sticky aisles, kicking aside drink cups and half-eaten boxes of pop corn with your ears still ringing from Kansas, Molly Hatchet, Cheap Trick or the aforementioned Atlanta Rhythm Section (with Mother’s Finest opening up).

But back then, there wasn’t any other place to see bands like that in Chattanooga. Bars were still meant for drankin’ and venues the size of the Roundhouse took the Stones to fill. So across America, all of the once-nostalgic theaters of the olden days were utilized to deliver heavy metal to the masses. That was their purpose in the seventies and eighties and they did a great job of doing so.

And because we used our auditoriums for, dare I say, rock n’ roll events, they made money back then and we had some great musical moments in the ‘noog. The Who, James Brown and Prince all played Memorial Auditorium. Willie Nelson, John Prine and Jackson Browne played the Tivoli. And I will bet that every one of those shows either included some sort of concessions or someone lost their ass. That’s just the way it is.

Why do you think we have trouble attracting quality shows now when we are located at the intersection of two major freeways and 150 miles from at least five major Southern cities that ARE getting this kind of entertainment? No one can make any money here—it’s as simple as that.

The proposal to the city council that I mentioned earlier reported that both the Memorial Auditorium and Tivoli combined earned $41,000 in concession sales last year. However, a case study of a similar historic theater in Knoxville—that does allow concessions in the seating area—reported more than $400,000 in concession revenues for that same year. For that kind of money, we could hire a professional cleaning company to spiff up the place after every event and re-upholster every single seat each and every year.

It doesn’t take Mr. Know-It-All to figure out that concessions mean money. Just look at the business model of the movie theater. Your ticket money goes to paying for the film, George Clooney, his manager, agent, bookie and girlfriend. So where does the movie theater make its money? On the $5 popcorn and $4 sodas, which they will let you enjoy right in your seat. And with that kind of profit, they don’t seem to mind cleaning up after you when the show is over. Maybe there’s a lesson here.

Chuck Crowder is a local writer and general man about town. His opinions are just that. Everything expressed is loosely based on fact, and crap he hears people talking about. Take what you just read with a grain of salt, but pepper it in your thoughts. And be sure to check out his wildly popular website www.thenoog.com