Cincinnati Symphony assures county leaders it would book hip acts at The Banks

Young, hip acts that sell tickets would play at The Banks concert venue built by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra's management assured county leaders Monday.

"There's no motivation to book older acts," said Mike Smith, the head of the CSO's music management firm, Music and Event Management, Inc.(MEMI). "We're going to book artists that sell tickets."

The CSO renewed its push before the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners on Monday to build the concert venue on Cincinnati's riverfront at The Banks.

The term electronic dance came up more than once at the commissioners meeting in reference to acts that would be booked.

The orchestra's $19 million proposed concert hall has jumped ahead of the other two proposals after the Joint Banks Steering Committee recommended the CSO's proposal by a 4-1 vote.

Live Nation's proposal for an approximately $73 million, 6,000-seat indoor-outdoor facility was dismissed largely because it was the only bid that would require public money - about $36 million.

PromoWest proposed a fully funded $15.3 million indoor-outdoor facility, while CSO's plans called for a $19.25 million, three-story building with adjacent outdoor concert space. CSO's venue would seat up to 4,000 indoor and up to 8,000 outdoor while PromoWest's would seat 2,500 indoor and 5,000 outdoor.

Among the concerns about the CSO has been the organization's ability to book current acts.

The CSO operates Riverbend and Taft. At least with Riverbend, the acts tend to skew older: ZZ Top, John Fogerty, the Monkees, are among acts in recent years booked there.

That's because of Riverbend's size, Smith said. Riverbend's main stage seats about 20,000. The CSO won't book an act that would only draw 1,500 for that stage, Smith said. The smaller stage at Riverbend, PNC Pavilion, seats 4,500.

Smith contends they do book acts young people want to see there and used as an example a sold-out show from electronic dance band Odesza this past weekend at PNC Pavilion.

Their concert venue at The Banks will provide a niche for acts that skip Cincinnati, Smith said. He said there's a need for a 2,000-4,000-seat venue in the region. The CSO-owned Taft Theater is 2,500 seats. The next largest venue is Bogart's in Clifton, with a capacity for 1,500, Smith said.

"The goal here was to strategically grab the market of 1,500-seats plus," Smith said. "And get us to a point where we have 4,000 seats. So those bands that people are potentially in love with or the niche of shows they want to attend are now going to play the market."

The CSO's concert venue would be built right against the southeast corner of Paul Brown Stadium on Lot 27.

It would allow for a seasonal outdoor stage facing the Ohio River that could accommodate 8,000 people on a nearby lawn at Smale Park.

"It really gives Cincinnati, Hamilton county a true festival space we haven’t had before," said Tom Gabelman, Hamilton County's attorney for The Banks project and a member of the Joint Banks Steering Committee.

The CSO's proposal also saves real estate on The Banks, Gabelman said.

It would take up one-third of the space of the concert venues proposed by Live Nation and PromoWest. That means millions of dollars for The Banks, he said. Each acre on The Banks is worth $4 million, Gabelman said. PromoWest's and Live Nation's concert venues would have taken up $9 million to $10 million worth of real estate. Whereas the CSO's concert venue would take up $3 million worth of land.

"There's about a $6 million difference in the cost of the land that would be necessary to be dedicated," Gabelman said.

The county commissioners didn't act on Monday. The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners and the City of Cincinnati will have to approve the developer.

Mayor John Cranley said he supports PromoWest's proposal because it called for a true indoor-outdoor facility that would take full advantage of The Banks river views and encourage visitors to patronize other businesses there.

"An indoor-only facility, which it may be a nice design, could be placed anywhere in the city,'' Cranley wrote. "It would be a waste of the beautiful banks space to not take advantage of the view with an outdoor venue.''