WHEELING – The concert industry as a whole has been facing the realities of a tough economic environment for ticket buyers, and the Greater Wheeling Sports and Entertainment Authority is experiencing the same challenges felt in similar markets throughout the country.

While the top concert tours continue to post record profits and average ticket prices continue to rise for a chance to see the most popular artists, ticket buyers are apparently becoming more selective about how they budget and spend their money on entertainment costs, officials indicated.

During Tuesday’s monthly meeting of the GWSEA, officials discussed the difficult balance between risk and reward when it comes to promoting shows.

In recent years, the GWSEA has utilized a co-promotion approach to help bring more offerings to the Wheeling area’s two marquee venues – the Capitol Theatre and WesBanco Arena. Back in 2021, the city of Wheeling, GWSEA and Wheeling Convention and Visitors Bureau partnered on the venture to provide $250,000 for the entertainment endowment fund.

This co-pro account provides a safety net to allow the GWSEA and outside promoters to share the risk on a show in the Wheeling area. If a co-pro show is a success, the co-pro gets reimbursed and both the promoter and GWSEA celebrate a financial win. If the show takes a loss – both the promoter and the GWSEA share in the financial hit.

The co-pro has helped the GWSEA keep a steady flow of offerings coming to the Friendly City, but a number of losses and even canceled shows have also come with the smorgasbord of bookings. Last year, officials noted that the once brimming co-pro account has begun to dwindle.

On Tuesday, Wheeling City Councilman Dave Palmer – a member of the GWSEA board – questioned whether or not the co-pro approach should continue in light of a significant number of losses.

“Looking at the co-pro numbers, I think we need to look seriously at this,” Palmer said. “The way I look at it – we had 75 co-pro events, and 20 of them returned money. It’s a great idea, but are we just holding events just to hold events? I know we have to try a lot of things, and I’m all for that. But now is the time to step back, get your thoughts on it and see what you think about how we should move forward.”

GWSEA Executive Director Kelly Tucker noted that the number of bookings for the two venues – particularly in the summer months when more outdoor activities are taking place – have been intentionally reduced in light of attendance figures over the past couple of years.

“I will say that after last year, we tried to scale back,” Tucker said. “Overall, I know the concert season is not doing well anywhere I know.”

Tucker noted that a new smaller concert venue in downtown Pittsburgh is set to open this fall, and a number of shows and concerts have been booked, but some of those shows are struggling to sell tickets

“The concert industry is not doing well,” Tucker said. “It is a gamble each time. I’ll never be able to hold a crystal ball and tell you guys that ‘I know for sure that this show is going to perform extremely well.’ You can ask any promoter in the business – nobody really knows.”

Some promoters elect to rent one of the venues and pay expenses associated with the event, which presents no risk to the GWSEA. However, a lot of promoters will not entertain the thought of trying a show in the Wheeling market unless there is risk-sharing involved.

“Many promoters we work with will not come in if we’re not doing a co-pro,” she said. “They’re only doing it because we’re giving them a deal. We’re taking the risk with them.”

Tucker said that during her first two years as executive director of the GWSEA, they booked many shows and tried to get a better idea of what events worked well in the Wheeling market and what shows did not perform as well. Now with the scaled-back bookings, Tucker said if she does not feel confident about the risk involved with putting on a particular show, she’s not going to book it.

“I have scaled back from the first two years I was here – I was going hard,” she said. “The biggest person we do business with is Drusky Entertainment out of Pittsburgh.”

Drusky Entertainment, operated by Brian Drusky, has become one of the premier medium-market promoters in the greater Pittsburgh area in recent years, officials noted.

“I just have to give him props because even though he’s lost so many, he continues to try to do business here in Wheeling, and a lot of promoters wouldn’t, honestly,” Tucker said. “I can’t get Live Nation to come back. They lost big on Godsmack. That was a $25,000 loss to them, and they’re not willing to take that risk again.”

Palmer added that he was also concerned about booking high volumes of events for fear that venue employees may get burned out.

“I worry, too, about having too many shows and overworking our staff. Are we doing too much?” he said. “And then we’re losing money. I know we’re trying to provide entertainment to the community, but we also just can’t keep losing money.”

Fellow GWSEA board member Kevin Duffin stressed that providing a selection of quality entertainment to the community is, in fact, one of their primary goals as a public entity.

“I think part of the responsibility of the board is to entertain the community – that’s what we’re here for – not for profit or non-profit or whatever,” Duffin said, noting that Tucker and her team have been deservingly praised for their work in bringing new shows to town. He added that they basically need to trust her judgement. “Do we hit a home run every time? No. I don’t think so. But I think we have a responsibility to entertain the community – we sit on this board, and that’s what we’re supposed to do.”

While the Capitol has been relatively quiet as the summer months approach, there are some events on tap. Jamey Johnson will perform there on June 3, followed by Sesame Street Live on June 4 and dance performances and recitals later in the month. A number of weddings have been booked for the Capitol Ballroom this summer, as well, Tucker noted, adding that several new shows and events for the fall are taking shape and will soon be announced.

WesBanco Arena has been bustling with activity in recent weeks as the Wheeling Miners have kicked off their season, a number of local graduation ceremonies and banquets have been held in the arena, and the Wheeling Nailers continue their playoff run.

“We went from a graduation to hockey to arena football, back to hockey to the OVAC banquet,” Tucker said of the busy arena. “So the operations team has been working very, very hard.”

The Nailers bring their playoff bid back home this week to WesBanco Arena, and Tucker said the excitement surrounding the team and the attendance at the arena for the previous games have been excellent.

“We took in $173,000 in concessions so far this month,” Tucker noted, attributing the bump in those revenues to the Nailer’s success.

Tucker said the arena will host pre-parties on the patio starting at 5 p.m. for the upcoming home games in the series so attendees have the option of coming straight from work and dining at the venue before the games.