In context of the current state of the economy, certain industries have invariably been hit harder than others. Some studies show that Americans have been cutting out luxuries, such as dining out and vacationing, to make up for record gas and grocery prices; however, a study by Zonder in May suggests that the vacation rental industry remains strong, and a new survey by the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery suggests that cosmetic surgeries - indubitably deemed a luxury - are on the rise as well.
The conundrum of why some luxury industries would be thriving while Americans are paring down on exigencies like houses and cars has yet to be unraveled. And the verdict seems to still be out on the overall effect that tighter pockets are having on the live entertainment industry, which most would agree does not qualify as a necessity.
So, is the American public cutting live entertainment out of its budget?
"That's the magic question," said Carl Hall, director of arena management at Lexington's Rupp Arena. "Are we able to keep our costs in line, and are we able to keep our expenses in line; with your discretionary income, which we all agree is diminishing, are you still able to afford to go to a show?"
Whether or not the national entertainment industry has taken a hit from all this, Rupp Arena, Lexington's primary live entertainment venue, is coming off a season with the highest attendance numbers in over a decade.
"The attendance numbers for the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, were on par with the attendance figures from fiscal year '98, which is the year that we had the NCAA basketball tournament and 40 home Thoroughblades hockey games," said Sheila Kenny, marketing director for The Lexington Center.
How does a business that has the odds stacked against it manage to not only survive but flourish in these circumstances?
"We did all we could do," Hall said. "It was a culmination of a variety of things: one, touring season was good. Two, the efforts on the part of the staff as a whole, from booking to marketing, to ticket management, to event management - everyone worked in unison."
The Rupp Arena staff has given Hall the nickname "Shoehorn" because of his inclination to book back-to-back events. One weekend last March, the arena hosted George Strait on Friday night (with more than 15,000 attendees); tore down, cleaned up, and moved Monster Jam Truck Pull on Saturday morning (with 18,000 attendees); and finally tore down, cleaned up, and set up for a Sunday women's UK basketball game (that was to be nationally televised) with a 2:00 p.m. tip off (You can check out time-lapse video footage of the three events over three days on Rupp Arena's YouTube page, www.youtube.com/user/rupparenablog).Another weekend found the staff cleaning dirt out of the arena at 5:30 in the morning to transition from a two-day Rodeo event to a Horsemen football game.
While Hall and his staff were able to combat potential economic downfall through accelerated effort and major teamwork, there are definitely sectors of the entertainment industry that cannot feasibly dodge the blow. Traveling costs for large-scale productions have increased tremendously with gas prices, and Hall predicts that this is the place that he'll start seeing shifts and scale-downs. Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood brought 23 semi-trucks and 15 buses with them to Rupp Arena for their April 26 show; current fuel prices dictate about $10,000 in fuel costs for every six hours on the road for an entourage of that size.
"With the major bands that are doing a large tour, you won't see 25 trucks, 15 buses anymore," Hall said.
So, what does that mean for the show? In short, reduced video components, lighting elements, pyrotechnics and a more basic stage. An exception for this scale-down is in stadiums tours, where artists like Madonna or the Rolling Stones do two nights in the same weekend at a venue. Without having to travel between shows as much, production companies can afford to keep the high scale. It's the "B+ players," the up-and-coming or lesser-known artists, who are going to be impacted by fuel prices the most, according to Hall.
Fuel prices may actually be an advantage in appealing to the hometown market, as Lexingtonians are less eager to drive to competing venues in Louisville and Cincinnati. The Hannah Montana show at Rupp in December '07 saw the highest attendance and highest gross revenue for a single night performance on the entire national tour. Hall cites Lexington as a very unique market, in that, while Louisville and Cincinnati have a 30-40 mile radius, our market, "ironically," has as much as a two-hour radius. People in rural Kentucky feel more comfortable getting around in Lexington than in the larger cities, said Hall, because they come here "to shop, for groceries, or clothes, for school supplies Öthey come in and out of Lexington often enough that they feel they know how to get around."
So considering Lexington's draw among Kentuckians and Rupp's ability to buck the economic trends of the recent past, is the momentum at Rupp something that Hall and the rest of the staff believe they can continue?
"I don't project this year to be as strong as last year," said Hall. "Now, each year I say that at this time, and suddenly four or five things fall into place, but my fall this year is not as strong as my fall last year."
That said, the overall forecast for Rupp Arena's 2009 fiscal year is not dismal: the only weekend in Spring that isn't yet booked is Easter weekend.