By Sarah Mcsparin
Despite an enrollment of more than 20,000 students, the University of Louisville has not held a major concert for students in recent years.
With the creation of a new student government executive agency, Student Government Association President Brian Hoffman believes this will no longer be an issue.
The agency, named Student Government Productions, will investigate the feasibility of holding a large concert at U of L in the future.
?”We have been charged to come up with a detailed report on how other universities are having success with on-campus concerts and to test some of these ideas at the University of Louisville,” junior marketing major and Director of Productions Madison Hamman said.?”This report will then be given to future SGA executives in hopes that this committee will become a staple in SGA, and ultimately, a free student concert at Papa John’s will be an annual event.”
Last year, the Student Activities Board’s bid to host The Fray was rejected. Hoffman said the main problem was the negative attitude toward the idea.
“In recent years, we haven’t put much effort into looking into this,” senior economics and political science major Hoffman said. “We’ve had a pessimistic attitude, saying, ‘We can’t do this, it’s too much money.'”
Also, the duty of putting on concerts was previously allocated to SAB. This transfer of power is intended to give more focus to funding a concert and not distract SAB from their ultimate mission of holding a wide array of diverse events, Hoffman said.
“Last year, they were in charge of putting the contract together,” Hoffman said. “SAB already puts on 200 events for the year, it’s an unreasonable request to throw this on top of them.”
“If we were to undertake a concert, I think that would severely compromise our ability to put on all the events we do,” Executive Chair of Variety Alex Hunnicutt, a junior marketing major, said. “As long as it doesn’t take money away from SAB, I think the group is a great idea.”
Venue and costs are the main issues that Productions intends to research, Hoffman said. “Who pays for this? Where could we do this?” Hoffman asked. “Right now, do we charge students? These questions are our goal this year.”
With smaller universities such as Murray State University drawing popular musical acts like John Mayer to their annual concerts, many students don’t understand why U of L can’t attract big performers.
“We have had a lot of musical activities here on-campus, but we don’t have big concerts for a lot of people to come out to,” sophomore liberal studies major Maggie Peake said. “It’s a good opportunity for people to come together.
Hamman and Hoffman agree that a major hurdle will be the costs of bringing a big name to Louisville.
“The fact of the matter is, if we had an unlimited budget, virtually any artist would come to Louisville for a students’ concert,” Hamman said. “For ‘Dave’ to stop by Papa John’s, it would take $1 to 1.5 million just to get him in the gates.”
An additional $50,000 for venue set-up and $100,000 for security, concessions and utilities makes it easy to see why student concerts have been a problem for U of L, Hamman said.
These predicted costs have the agency searching for possible promoters and local sponsors to help put money forward. All money is required up front, so the organization can’t depend on student ticket sales to relieve the debt.
“We won’t be a success until we find someone to partner with that has the money,” Hoffman said.
Although a major student concert is not planned for this school year, students can expect to see a smaller concert this spring.
“SGA Productions has its sights set on a free concert at Jim Patterson Stadium this spring after a home baseball game,” Hamman said. “The acts we are negotiating with are a little more appealing to the students of U of L than any band that has visited the university so far.”
