Date: Fri 14-Jul-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Meadows-venue-Koplik-Hootie

Full Text:

NO LONGER A DREAM, THE MEADOWS MUSIC THEATRE A LIVING REALITY

(with 3 cuts)

B Y  S HANNON  H ICKS

HARTFORD - At 6:05 last Sunday evening, as the first ticketholders passed

through the front gates, promoter Jim Koplik saw a dream become reality. With

the opening of the Meadows Music Theatre in Hartford, the concert world has a

new place to call a pit stop on that interstate bands call The Tour Schedule.

Originally named the Connecticut Center for the Performing Arts, the venue has

been redubbed the Meadows Music Theatre.

Koplik, president of Metropolitan Entertainment, Inc., one of the nation's

largest and strongest concert promoters, has been saying for years that he

would like to build his own amphitheatre in the Hartford area, somewhere the

concert promoter could entice musicians to perform without worrying about the

conflicts of scheduling that have arisen in the past with using such venues as

the Hartford Civic Center or the New Haven Coliseum. Fed up with conflicts

surrounding ticket prices, venue availability, security and everything else

that can deter a band from performing in a venue, Koplik began talking

seriously a few years ago about building his own amphitheatre: a building that

would be designed specifically for the enjoyment of indoor/outdoor concerts.

On July 9, with the first ticketholders through the gate en route to seeing a

concert by rock band Hootie & The Blowfish, Jim Koplik's long-time enterprise

was finally a reality.

"The difficulty with the Civic Center is that they only have 51 days each

calendar year where I can book shows," Mr Kopkik said in a 1993 interview with

The Newtown Bee . "They have other events that fill the calendar there... It's

great that they can fill their schedule, but it creates difficulties for me.

"There have been times," the promoter continued, "four or five times a year,

when I would have liked to bring something into the state but couldn't because

of conflicting schedules." Now that the Meadows has opened, its calendar's

first object is to fill up with concerts, rather than garden shows, basketball

games or anything else the Civic Center's exhibition hall hosts.

Connecticut audiences will now be able to enjoy shows such as the Lollapalooza

tour, which tours with a number of bands in tow, this year featuring Sonic

Youth and Hole in the headlining slots, along with bands like the Mighty

Mighty Bosstones, Cypress Hill, and Sinead O'Connor on the tour's "Main

Stage." This summer will mark the first time the multi-act festival will play

the Nutmeg State.

The Meadows will also bring in acts like Jimmy Buffett, Carly Simon with Hall

& Oates, Diana Ross, The Dave Matthews Bands... acts which have in the past

been unable to perform in Ccnnecticut due to schedule conflicts or the

necessity of a venue larger than the 15,000 seats the Civic Center possesses.

The New Haven Coliseum is even smaller. In total, the Meadows will host nearly

80 concerts in its first year of operation alone.

The concert by Hootie & The Blowfish was considered by organizers to be a

"shake-down" concert, a dry run for Friday night, July 14, when Connecticut's

latest claim to music fame, Michael Bolton, will rattle his golden pipes for

the theatre's official opening. By the time Darius Rucker, lead singer of

Hootie & The Blowfish, and the rest of the band took the stage on Sunday, the

stars were out, vendors were hawking everything from food to the myriad

souvenirs the band had brought into town, and most importantly, the crowd was

ready for the great performance the band delivered... the Meadows had opened,

officially or otherwise.

Hardly An

Overnight Sensation

Plans for the $30 million Connecticut Centre for the Performing Arts were

first unveiled by Metropolitan Entertainment and the Nederlander Organization,

co-owners of the Meadows Music Theatre, in late 1993. Although the idea of

building a new amphitheatre was Jim Koplik's brainchild, the project is far

from a solo project.

To build the Meadows, he toyed with the idea of different partners, and

eventually settled on working with the Nederlander Organization, a New

York-based concert promotion company that owns and operates about 30

amphitheatres across the country. The organization, in fact, was a pioneer of

the modern outdoor music theater revolution, with Nederlander-designed

buildings and operations setting the standards for other facilities.

The plan was to create a venue that would be unique in that even with an

indoor/outdoor setting, this theatre will operate year-round. The principals

involved in the building of the amphitheatre had hoped for a July 1994

opening/unveiling, but legislative holdups and construction delays postponed

the opening by one year.

Unveiled for the first time to the media and the public Sunday night, the

building is a remarkable accomplishment. The main pavilion area seats 7,500,

while the lawn holds nearly three times as many - 22,500 more music lovers.

Retractable walls will enclose the theatre in colder months.

Nosebleed seats inside the pavilion are nonexistent. The seats incline from

the stage, so no one's view will theoretically be blocked by the people in the

row in front of them.

The lawn's steep slope offers a great view from any position, another smart

move by the promoter who knew what he was doing from Day One of this venture's

planning. Additionally, the theatre was designed with superior acoustics, so

even if you can't be close to the stage, you're going to hear everything

coming from it. And with the way the lawn has been landscaped, the sound

remains within the confines of the stage to lawn area, without disturbing

businesses outside the amphitheatre's property.

Outside the main pavilion, manicured lawns give way to wide paved walkways,

where ticketholders can wander between booths offering refreshments and

concert souvenirs in a park-like atmosphere. Restrooms are plentiful, the menu

is varied - from the traditional hot dogs, pretzels and soda/beer offered at

all concert venues, to a Chinese food stand, tortilla shell garden salads in

another booth and a Ben & Jerry's ice cream & frozen yogurt cart - and the

prices are about average when it comes to overpriced concert foods.

Parking is included in the ticket price. A network of parking lots surround

the theatre, and the number of lots in use for each concert will be determined

by attendance projections for each day's performance. Shuttle bus service will

be provided for very large capacity concerts, and signs identify all Meadows

parking lots.

In addition to providing more concerts for southern New England music fans,

the 30,000-seat amphitheatre boasts economic gains for the city of Hartford.

For starters, the theatre cost approximately $30 million to build. Hartford

floated $20 million in bonds to help build the theatre, so excited was it at

the prospect; Metropolitan and Nederlander kicked in the other $10 million.

The $20 million is expected to be paid back over the next 30 years through

ticket sales.

Hartford will receive two percent of the theatre's gross concession and

merchandise sales, as well as ten percent of the gross ticket sales. This

comes in lieu of paying annual property taxes. Jim Koplik expects the venue to

gross $8 million in ticket sales alone this year.

The Meadows will also provide more than 600 jobs over the course of the year,

with 75 percent of the jobs offered to Hartford residents and area high school

students who maintain a certain grade point average.