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Market changes lead to Weidner Center transition Today, I am writing about a subject of great importance to our area and to Green Bay’s University of Wisconsin: the future of the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts. It’s the future I want to focus upon. But, to get there, I will need to first take a glance at the past. The Weidner Center was built by Green Bay and dear friends of Green Bay. Important in its own right as a performance venue, it is as important, in my mind, as further outstanding evidence of a community that believes in always brighter futures and that understands one must actively step forward to make those brighter futures happen. As originally conceived, the Weidner Center would feature fine arts performances by community and University groups, supplemented by the occasional scheduling of performances visiting Green Bay as part of wider tours. That original concept soon evolved into an exciting and richer bill of entertainment that had, at its foundation, Broadway shows. Right up there with the major cities around the country, Green Bay had access to Broadway shows once they began national tours. And, because Broadway was making money, even more programming at the Weidner was possible. |
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Now,
a fact of life well established in the studies of performing arts centers:
Across the country in markets such as ours, performing arts centers recover,
on average, about 60% of their overall budgets from ticket sales. The rest
comes from some sort of subsidy — taxes and philanthropy primarily. The Weidner Center was a national leader, in this period, in developing innovative approaches to securing Broadway shows and to reaping the financial rewards of successful Broadway runs at the Center. Through this leadership, Green Bay and its Weidner Center did not have to face the financial facts of life that other performing arts centers must annually address. During the heyday of the Weidner Center, ticket sales covered just about all operating costs and allowed the Center to build up substantial reserves. Then the market changed. Much has been made of the increasing competition: the opening of the Resch Center, the Meyer Theater, and the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center. The days when people would board buses in Milwaukee and in Iowa to come to the Weidner Center were waning. But, that waning has to do more, I believe, with another fundamental market change: People have many more entertainment choices, often at the tip of their fingers while relaxing in the comfort of their own home. We saw the balance sheets for the Weidner Center begin to dive into the red before the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center opened, before the Meyer and the Resch opened, before 9-11, and even while staging spectacular award-winning product like Thoroughly Modern Millie. We adjusted, shifting programming, ending relationships that were a drag on the bottom line, and laying off employees. But, in a changed marketplace, such adjustments were not sufficient. Last year, the Weidner Center was budgeted to lose $1,000,000 but had a management objective of actually breaking even for the first time in several years. It ended up losing $2,600,000. Even after substantial cutbacks, as audiences failed to meet budgeted projections this fall, we were on a trajectory to lose $2,000,000 in the 2005-06 fiscal year. |
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