...or Sandstone, or whatever you call it. Anyway, the company once known as ClearChannel just sent out this press release, penned by its Hollywood-based communications director:
LIVE NATION TO EXIT VERIZON WIRELESS AMPHITHEATERIN BONNER SPRINGS AT END OF 2007 CONCERT SEASON
Move Reaffirms Company’s Strategy to Refocus Venue Mix in Certain Markets
LOS ANGELES, CA – June 20, 2007
Live Nation (NYSE: LYV), the world’s leading live music company, announced today that it will not seek to renew its lease to operate, book and manage the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Bonner Springs, Kansas under its existing terms, which expire at the end of 2007. The 2007 summer concert season will not be affected by this decision. The move comes as Live Nation seeks to optimize its venue portfolio.
Live Nation hopes to be able to place many of the small number of employees affected by this decision elsewhere in the company.
Live Nation remains committed to its 2007 slate of concerts at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater and will continue to bring top quality talent to other venues in the Kansas City area.
What's next in the KC venuescape?
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As a former Live Nation employee, and former Liberty, MO resident I am HAPPY to see Live Nation gone from Sandstone Ampitheater. I worked @ Germain Ampitheater here in Columbus, OH from 2005 to 2007 and I have to say that you guys are lucky that your ampitheater stayed open. They closed ours in an attempt to sell it after finding out the land is worth $500,000 an acre even though the Ampitheater was still making money. This occured in 2007. Here we are in 2009, and I went to the Ampitheater yesterday... it's in ruins. Graffiti everywhere, they ripped out all the copper for some more $$$$, weeds growind every which way. It'd a horrible sight for the place that hosted Ozzfest every year from 97-07. The morons didn't realize that it would cost someone billions because of the concrete on the hilly terrain that would have to be dug open to flatten out the land for Apartments and Office Buildings due to their Clause in the designated Contract claiming that the future owner may not run it as a venue and it can only be used for those purposes. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is RIP Germain Ampitheater 1994-2007
Oh, and SCREW Live Nation and Clear Channel
Clear Channel... I don't Think So.
-Jared
Former LN Employee
PS. Tool kicked a$$ is STL last weekend! Saw them in KC last year and again last weekend in STL.
I don't have a problem with Live Nation, Tom Petty or the Black Crowes. In fact going to see Black Crowes at Red Rocks this year. Just a thought, maybe Live Nation pulled out of Bonner Springs Kansas so they can make deals with the new Sprint Center. Can you hear me now? no.
I saw Tom Petty mentioned above as cool- I agree.
Now that Live Nation/ClearChannel doesn't own the venue Petty will play there again.
He had a beef with LN/CC over radio airplay and was boycotting non-essential venues.
Expect lower prices next year. The new owners will not be trying to get $75 for tickets in the lower bowl for Red White and Boom. LN jacked em up when they bought the venue.
The concert venue isn't closing, there will just be a new operator for the place. There will continue to be good shows there, probably better because it isn't about LN/ClearChannel trying to negotiate that the bands play at only their venues.
It's all for the best. LiveNation had done exactly nothing to improve Sandstone except for putting a bunch of advertiser booths there and making a can of beer $9.
Last time I walked the venue I could see crumbling walkways all the way through the lower bowl. We end up having to change dozens of tickets each show because the seats are falling apart.
Good riddance Live Nation/Clear Channel.
It's better for the KC live music scene that the venue in KC and the venue in STL (old Riverport) be owned by different people.
-LN employee
The concert venue isn't closing, there will just be a new operator for the place. There will continue to be good shows there, probably better because it isn't about LN/ClearChannel trying to negotiate that the bands play at only their venues.
It's all for the best. LiveNation had done exactly nothing to improve Sandstone except for putting a bunch of advertiser booths there and making a can of beer $9.
Last time I walked the venue I could see crumbling walkways all the way through the lower bowl. We end up having to change dozens of tickets each show because the seats are falling apart.
Good riddance Live Nation/Clear Channel.
It's better for the KC live music scene that the venue in KC and the venue in STL (old Riverport) be owned by different people.
-LN employee
No big concert venue? Heck, I'd be happy if Kansas City had a decent radio station. I travel and hear good music in most metro areas - but here we have the 2 guys and woman laughing over high school humor and pranks, and maybe playing a lame song every 10 or 15 minutes. Or the self-absorbed shock-jock who thinks it is entertaining to be nasty to people and then play one of George Thorogood's 2 or 3 songs. We are slowly being reduced to being able to buy "popular" music as sold only at WalMart, Best Buy, Target, or at the mall. Give us some decent "college" type radio stations that play a mix, and maybe we can support more acts to fill an amphitheater. I tune into WXPN or a few others on the web when I want to listen for new stuff, or even discover old stuff I never heard before. Oh, and I listen to Lyndsay Shannon's show on KCFX. Try to buy some good blues at WalMart or Best Buy....
tom petty is completely the man. jason is right-on.
dontneedanything, you'd be surprised here in STL how much we complain that bands "go right from chicago to kansas city." Tool played here tonight for the first time in six or seven years -- and they've been to KC twice in the past year. i might be wrong, but this year at the big concrete amphitheater, we've had about the same acts. warped tour, ozzfest, REO speedwagon, etc.
the bigcool amphitheater tours i wanted to see -- i.e., the true colors cyndi lauper tour, the placebo/my chemical romance jaunt -- aren't coming to STL OR KC. the cure's fall arena tour is also skipping all of us. so. it's a midwest problem, not just a KC one.
and the only way i wanna see petty is if he's flanked by roy orbison and george harrison.
im just sick of seeing the same shows come thru town year after year. im sick of seeing bands tour schedules go from omaha to denver or st.louis to houston. i cant think of the last time a show i wanted to see came thru that place. we need new blood. ya'll can disagree all you want, but i think this is a great thing.
What kind of 'progressive' and 'better' shows would you recommend booking in a venue that size where it would actually be fiscally wise to do? That's what the smaller and midsize venues are for- if you can get 18,000 people in this town to go to a show out there from a band you like...go for it. Until then, the baby boomers still are going to want their yearly REO Speedwagon and Aerosmith fix. Oh, and don't forget about all the teenage girls that would miss the latest pop/rock stars and starlets coming through on the festival circuit for Red, White & Boom and the other assorted festivals.
Just because it's not necessarily good by our standards doesn't mean there isn't a place for it. Closing the venue also runs the risk of trickle-down effects on the smaller shows. If Live Nation feels that we don't need the 'arena' kind of shows, they may soon feel that they don't need to do any kind of booking here- even the smaller shows at the midsize venues.
Jason- the capacity is significantly different. VZ/Sandstone publishes a capacity of 18,000. Starlight's published capacity is just over 8,100.
HWHahahawhat? You sayin' Tom Petty and the Black Crowes coming through here was a bad thing? OK, well, the Crowes are a shade of their former selves, but Petty is the man. Also, it's hard to argue against a show like that when it sold completely out. At the same time, I'm not a fan of venues that huge and remote and, well, ugly. I don't know. I have mixed feelings.
But I think Dawn's right -- we gotta have our big ass venue for the big ass shows. I wish I knew whether/how much bigger Verizon is than Starlight, 'cause that's a nice place to see a show.
i actually look at this as good news. maybe someone with more progressive views will come in and bring some better shows with them. do we really want another year of tom petty and the black crows? i dont know about anyone else, but that wasnt what i wanted to see running thru the venue formerly known as verizon (which i vote that we make known only as an unpronounceable symbol next and spraypaint "slave" across the stage). lets hope this just opens the door to something good. this glass isnt half-full - its overflowing.
I rarely go to shows out there, but this news saddens me. KC is a market that needs a venue of that size for the larger shows that tour through. My worry is that if nothing new pops up to fill that void that KC will become even more of a flyover city.
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