Certain events held at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum may be sacrificed in order to reconfigure the venue to attract more concerts and other live acts, according to the director of the Alliant Energy Center.
Last month, Dane County officials shared a conceptual rendering of what a reconfigured Coliseum floor could look like under a proposal by Frank Productions (FPC Live).
FPC declined to comment while contract negotiations are underway — negotiations that will determine the Coliseum’s configuration and other details about FPC Live’s public-private partnership with the county — but some degree of change is inevitable.
The conceptual rendering has not been approved and the final design will likely differ from the current version, according to Kevin Scheibler, director of the Alliant Energy Center, but the reconfigured concept would make it difficult for shows like the Monsters of Destruction monster truck show and motocross shows to continue, he said.
Other existing events should be able to adapt to a reconstruction that features a repositioned and more flexible stage area and less seating in the bowl.
“Events like the (Midwest) Horse Fair and World Dairy (Expo) should be fine but may need to adjust how they use the floor,” Scheibler said.
The tradeoff to accommodate more concerts of a certain size is viewed as necessary for the long-term economic survival of the Coliseum, which was built in 1967 and is losing money.
“We’re looking more at it like the county has this asset, and it needs a lot of capital investment just to keep it going,” Scheibler said. “It continues to lose money, and so we have this opportunity for a private entity to come in and invest the capital needed to maintain the asset but then also bring additional events to the space.”
The county is now negotiating with FPC Live, the only bidder on the renovation project.
Taking a few seats
Scheibler is confident the renovation will convince more acts to add Madison to their tours even though the proposed configuration would reduce the number of seats from just over 10,000 to between 3,500 and 6,800.
“Currently, the Coliseum capacity is over 10,000, yet we routinely only manifest under 8,000 seats, so there’s 2,000 extra seats in there that are really unnecessary,” he said. “And then we only sell roughly about 5,000 seats, so an artist doesn’t want to go into a building where there are a lot of empty seats.
“So one, it makes it look a lot better from the artist’s perspective, but then the reconfiguration, from an entertainment side of it, puts all the seats in front of the house as opposed to the current configuration. A lot of them are behind the house — behind the stage.”
For other attractions, such as League One Volleyball (LOVB) and the Harlem Globetrotters, “this is going to be a beautiful setup for them,” Scheibler said. “Everyone’s going to be a lot closer. You can have great sight lines and then the improvements that are proposed in the concourse really will enhance the guest experience as they come to the events.”
For acts that can attract 10,000 or more fans, he said there are venues such as the Kohl Center.
“There are other options in town for that, and the thing that is missing is that sweet spot that we’re at right now,” Scheibler said. “There’s really not a venue in town that makes sense for a 5,000- to 7,000-seat show. If you go to the Kohl Center with 7,000 seats filled, half the building is empty.
“So, it’s the alternative, the opposite of it, that you reduce the capacity and make it look better, then you’ll make it more appealing to the acts that are in that window.”
Under FPC Live’s proposed 30-year term, the $100 million it has pledged to reconstruct the Coliseum will help cover deferred maintenance on HVAC, upgrades to sound and rigging equipment, and improvements to public areas such as food courts and concourses.
“They would be responsible for all the future capital expenditures in the building,” Scheibler said. “Their lease term was 30 years, so anything in that 30 years, their proposal called for them to pay for that.
“The benefit to the county is that it allows us to redirect any funds that we were going to spend on that building either currently or in the future to other needs within the county,” he said.
The proposal also calls for Dane County to receive an annual rent payment of $250,000 and another payment called a payment in lieu of taxes or PILOT, Scheibler said.
The rent wouldn’t start until five years after the term begins, and the PILOT wouldn’t start until 10 years after the term starts. After 10 years, Scheibler said the county would be making about $350,000 a year on the 59-year-old Coliseum.
“Right now, the Coliseum loses money every year,” he said, highlighting the contrast.
Hometown partner
Scheibler said the county is negotiating with a company that was founded in Madison and has been involved in the local music scene for years.
“They understand Madison,” Scheibler said. “They understand what’s important to us as a community. They understand the significance of the Coliseum and what it means to people in this community, and so I think it’s more than just an opportunity for them to control the venue.
“It’s an opportunity for them to enhance the history and the significance of the building, and so it does mean a lot more to them than it would if it was a company that only saw this as an opportunity to generate revenue.”
