Concert is financially unsound, misuse of fees

[Editor's Note: The following refers to the consensus editorial "Concert Wisdom" in the February 11, 2000 issue of the Technique.]

The editorial warning against the UHR concert proposal should be applauded. Using Student Activity Fee funds so that a handful of people can see a concert is an embarrassing misuse of our money.

The unofficial group that calls itself the "Ad Hoc Committee for Student Retention" has worked to get $40,000 of the remaining student fees for the year, and unwillingly reduced it's request to $25,000 when their bill was in jeopardy.

If this "Ad Hoc" committee has it's way, 2/3 of the campus will pay for another 1/3 to see a concert the "Ad Hoc" committee chooses. And that's if you could get 1/3 of the entire undergraduate and graduate population interested in paying $15 to see one band. But it gets even worse.

The proposal that the "Ad Hoc" committee prepared shows the concert loosing money unless more than 50% of the attendees are non-Tech students (who would pay $10 more than Tech students) even with a sell-out at the Coliseum. To break-even, this boondoggle would no longer be a Tech event.

If only 80% of the tickets are sold, the concert looses between $7,000 and $24,000. If only half of the tickets are sold, the concert will loose $50,000. (Remember what a great success "Ben Folds Five" was last Fall?)

It'll come out of your Student Activity Fee, an investment on par with purchasing the Brooklyn Bridge or swampland in Florida.

These numbers are the "Ad Hoc" committee's own projections, which they didn't distribute to SGA members until the eleventh hour. Professional concert promoters can lose lots of money: look at the Ferst Center for the Performing Arts.

The proponents of this bill want to go to a concert with their friends, and they want all of us to pay for it. Let your SGA representative know that the "Ad Hoc" committee is welcome to walk the three blocks from the Coliseum to the Cotton Club and spend their own money if they want to see a concert.

Grant Jenman

Graduate Senator

gte078r@prism.gatech.edu