The much-ballyhooed New Year’s Eve concert to be televised nationally as part of Dick Clark Productions’ Rockin’ New Year’s Eve broadcast is not going to happen.
The New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, which signed a $12.5 million agreement with Dick Clark Productions to keep the Miss America pageant in the city through 2019, included the New Year’s concert as part of the deal. The national exposure to be afforded by the concert was more important to many city officials than keeping the aging beauty pageant, the relevance of which has declined steeply in recent years.
However, CRDA officials now say they were unable to secure A-list entertainers for the concert due to scheduling and financial concerns. “The big-name artists we were looking for—we didn’t want some small opening act; we wanted a true difference-maker—they’re typically not on tour this time of year,” said CRDA Deputy Director Chris Howard in an interview with the Associated Press. “The cost associated with bringing that kind of act when they’re not on tour was prohibitive compared to what we were anticipating.”
Atlantic City officials bemoaned this latest bad news for the city, already reeling from five casino closures and a takeover of assets and decision-making power earlier this month by the administration of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
“It’s a shame,” Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian commented on “Off the Press with Scott Cronick” on local radio station WOND. “I know CRDA has been working hard to find a band, a musical group, and just hasn’t been able to do it.” Guardian said the CRDA funding approved for the agreement with Dick Clark Productions depended on the New Year’s show. “Miss America by itself was not going to pass,” he said. “Not for that kind of funding for three years. (The New Year’s Eve show) really is what sold everybody on it.”
As for the other two years of the contract? Maybe next year, said CRDA officials. “The New Year’s Eve show was an opportunity created through our agreement with the Miss America Organization and Dick Clark Productions,” the agency said in a statement. “We will continue to work with our partners to take advantage of this opportunity next year.”
Some state lawmakers representing the region, though, believe the CRDA agreement to be of dubious value with or without the concert. “From a tourism standpoint, it’s about putting heads in beds,” said state Senator Jim Whelan, a former city mayor who represents Atlantic County, in an interview with the Press of Atlantic City. “I don’t believe people in Middle America are watching Miss America or this proposed concert as part of the New Year’s Eve show and slapping their foreheads and saying, ‘Let’s go to Atlantic City.’”
