Smaller halls sell out sooner, adding urgency
Britney Spears’ new Las Vegas residency, entitled “Piece of Me,” has brought attention to the trend toward smaller, more intimate concert venues in Sin City, which usually likes to do things bigger, better and more bombastic.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, this year the city will count seven concert venues within four miles with capacities ranging from 1,500 square feet to 5,000 square feet. They include the remodeled the Axis at Planet Hollywood, where up to 4,500 people can catch the Spears show; the Chelsea at Cosmopolitan, which seats 2,500; the upcoming Brooklyn Bowl at the Linq, which will hold about 2,000; and a number of others at Mandalay Bay, the Palms, and neighboring resorts. The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, first created for the Celine Dion residency, seats 4,300.
“The sweet spot is 1,500 to 3,000 for the largest percentage of bands,” concert promoter Danny Zelisko told the Review-Journal.
“The touring artists like it because usually it’s a good payday, and the capacities are not so huge it’s beyond their abilities,” added Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar. A midsized hall “gives you the ability to gross quite a bit of money, and still be able to have all the production values that you’d want.”
Recording star Bruno Mars has downsized from stadium-type arenas in favor of the new Chelsea, the Review-Journal reported. For one thing, he and other artists prefer to sell out rather than perform in an unfilled hall. Fewer tickets also boost customer demand.
“If you’re attending a show you know is sold out and you can’t get in, there’s a certain coolness and you know you spent your money well,” Bongiovanni says. “On the other hand, if there’s lots of empty seats around, your whole vision of the evening is not quite as positive.”
