Will The Warfield Become Another Planet?
From a Pollstar exclusive, the Warfield Theater in San Fransisco has just been sold. Clear Channel, in the form of BGP still has two years left on the lease. I’m usually there in one form or another at least once or twice a year. It is in a shitty part of town, the stage left mon beach is pretty crowded, the dressing rooms and catering facilities are are pretty sparse, but the SF crowds are awesome.
Likely inheritents of the lease are Another Planet Entertainment, sheparded by Greg Perloff and Sherry Wasserman, both alums of the real Bill Graham Presents who embody the true meaning of BGP. Greg and Sherry are the kind of people that should be in this business. On the other side, there’s AEG Live nee Concerts West that has a finger in several high profile venues around the world. Owned by Philip Anschutz, AEG produces the Celine Dion show in Vegas, the Coachella Festival, New Orleans Jazz Festival, the current Alanis Morrisette tour, the current Neil Diamond Tour and Paul McCartney. They also operate Staples Center in LA, Nokia Live in Dallas, several pro sports franchises as well as the first big promoter I worked with in the early 80s, Goldenvoice Concerts. Goldenvoice has come a long way since me and Gary Tovar were smoking joints in the production office of the Olympic Auditorium.
That begs the question. It the industry served by another conglomerate with interests other than concert promotion? Certainly, AEG IS NOT Clear Channel. AEG seems to know what they are doing, at least in my direct experience. In recent years some of the Concerts West tours have lost their ass. Will it be any different for AEG in a post Clear Channel industry? Are we trading one megacorp for another?
Only time will tell. An interesting time at that…
May 3rd, 2005 at 11:49 am
Ironically, at least as I remember it, Concerts West actually held the master lease on the Warfield after it ceased operation as a movie theater.
They only produced shows there sporadically and about the time the building needed major structural/earthquake resistant work, they started to look for an out.
BGP, with BG himself still alive was interested, but enter a couple of young Indian people with the dream of turning the space into a big, New York style dance club, a la Xenon or whatever. They spent a pile of money removing the seats in the orchestra and levelling the floor. They “redecorated” and if I remember right paid for a fair amount of the seismic work.
They had the hottest club in the City, for about six weeks and then tanked.
BGP stepped in, all too happy to take over now that the capital expenditure for the “remodel” had already been done on someone else’s dime.
That’s the tale as I know it.
I’ve also heard rumors of yet another set of players interested in the space.
It’ll be fun to see what develops.