Baylor Stadium at Baylor University in Waco takes full advantage of the terrain. The stadium opens next year.
More than $1 billion is earmarked for venue construction and renovation in the state of Texas over the next three years. And like everything in Texas, the plans are grand.
The $203-million Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, San Antonio, is on track to open September 2014, offering flexibility and Riverwalk access to potential users. A new CEO is being sought now and will be named by spring.
Across town, the $325-million rebuild of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center is in schematic design phase, with a 2016 opening, though business will continue throughout renovation. The rehab will result in the biggest ballroom in Texas and a convention complex, which includes the Alamodome, also right on the Riverwalk — an atmosphere that has to appeal to convention planners.
Elsewhere in Texas, the Tower Amphitheater at Circuit of the Americas in Austin opens April 5 with Kenny Chesney. This is yet another phase of development of the Grand Prix racetrack that aims to turn itself into a sports and entertainment destination within five years. Owners foresee a future park footprint with retail, restaurants and more, much more than a track and an amphitheater.
At Baylor University, the $250-million Baylor Stadium is under construction and will open in 2014. Built on a 93-acre site, the new football stadium replaces Floyd Casey Stadium.
Enthusiasm is strong, with 85 percent of the premium suites sold.
In addition, Texas A&M has hired Populous to design a $420-million renovation of Kyle Field, which will turn it into a destination stadium for college football. Fundraising has just begun.
And plans for the Arts Center of North Texas in Allen, a 2,100-seat performing arts center that was being funded by three cities, are apparently dead. The years-long effort will be revived as a nonprofit, private enterprise, according to Bob Baggett, who resigned his post with the public/private partnership board effective March 31, which gives them time to wrap some things up. Baggett said the vision is still valid and the population in Collin County needs and can support a regional arts center, so stay tuned.
In San Antonio, the vision is quickly becoming reality. The Tobin Center for the Performing Arts is the most visible of the projects, well out of the ground and almost totally funded.
Jim Devlin, who handles public relations for the Bexar County Performing Arts Center Foundation which owns and operates the venue, said $36 million of $54 million in private financing has been raised and the project is “on track and no worse than on budget.” There may even be additional money added to the goal of a $10-million endowment fund, he said. The county passed bonds for $100 million and the city donated the land and the existing Municipal Auditorium, which is being rebuilt as a performing arts center, and the neighboring fire department headquarters, which will be offices.
The building sits on the Riverwalk and will have two front doors. The Riverwalk door will open onto a 600-capacity area for outdoor events. There is also a 250-seat studio theater.
Besides location, and boasting rights that you can arrive by river taxi, the Tobin Center’s claim to fame is a very flexible 750-seat performance hall which has the ability to change from raked seating to a flat floor configuration in 15 minutes, literally with the touch of a button.
“It gives us tremendous flexibility. We can raise the flat floor to be at stage level. We can also create cabaret and tiered-seating settings, so we can have various kinds of events in the main hall,” Devlin said of the potential.
The Biggest Ballroom in Texas
When complete in 2016, Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio will include a 52,000-sq.-ft. ballroom, the biggest in Texas, and 518,000 sq. ft. of contiguous exhibit space.
The original building opened in 1968 and was expanded in 1999, but when renovations are complete this time, nothing will be left of the original building but the artwork, said Mike Sawaya, director.
It’s fully financed and currently under design. Hunt Zachary’s design/build team includes Populous and Marmon/Mok Architects. They were selected last July.
The 2,400-seat Lila Cockrell Theatre was refurbished in 2010 for $26 million and everything else that wasn’t renovated in 1999 is being redone from the ground up. “We’re a historic city, 300 years old in 2018, but we’re also progressive,” Sawaya noted.
The venue is in schematic design phase now, with groundbreaking planned for September. With the river on one side and a highway on the other, the only limitations are the size of the footprint. They are even moving an interstate ramp off Market Street to make this happen. And there will be a new pedestrian connection to the Alamodome next door.
“When we demolish the old west side of the building it creates a new civic park, a rebirth of Hemisfair Park,” Sawaya said. “On the northwest corner of the building we vacate will be a civic park, which is fronted on the river. It will be fabulous.”
The venue will be fully functional throughout renovation. In fact, in 2015, San Antonio will host the Seventh Day Adventists International Conference, which draws 100,000 over 11 days and will involve the convention center and the Alamodome. “You can’t do a general assembly for 50,000 and it be walking distance without the dome. We have connectivity, or you can walk along the Riverwalk if you want,” Sawaya said. “We have over 5,000 hotel rooms. Add the civic park and the new convention center, we have a great destination.”
Destination Austin
The Circuit of the Americas in Austin is much more than a Formula One racetrack, though that is its initial claim to fame.
On April 5, the next major element of the year-old venue, the 15,000-capacity Tower Amphitheater, opens with a Kenny Chesney concert.
Paul Thornton, TAG Presents, who is booking and operating the shed and booking musical events for the entire complex, said the longterm goal is to turn Circuit of the Americas into a major sports and entertainment destination venue. Located eight miles outside of Austin, the track has already produced its first Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix Nov. 16-18. Thornton helped produce a concurrent festival in downtown Austin that drew 200,000. The race drew 300,000, he said.
The Tower Amphitheater boasts a covered stage that can hang 140,000 pounds. It has room for 1,700 seated or 2,300 GA on the floor in front of the stage, 5,200 fixed seats in the bowl and a 7,000-plus capacity lawn. Thornton said the construction crew was to turn the venue over to management March 1, giving them a month to prep for the grand opening.
Live Nation is the preferred promoter; Sodexo is the concessionaire.
“We came into it saying we would shoot for 12 concerts on the low side, 15 on the high side,” Thornton said. “Now it looks like we’ll end up in the 16-20 range.”
Chesney was booked through promoter/manager Louis Messina, who calls Austin home. Thornton said the venue bought the show and is acting as promoter. Tickets, priced $150-$45, have moved well since the Jan. 26 on-sale, Thornton said.
Other bookings announced so far, all with Live Nation and C3, include the Zac Brown Band, April 18, tickets priced $67-$27; The Lumineers, April 26; Jimmy Buffett, May 2; Jason Aldean, May 5; Dave Matthews Band, May 21; The Avett Brothers, May 31; and Train, Aug. 4.
The plan is to turn every concert into a festival, Thornton said. “When you come into this amphitheater, you enter through a great Grand Plaza grass area. We will open the doors to the Grand Plaza an hour early. For Kenny Chesney, we’ll have a band out there for the first hour and a half and sponsor activation. We want every concert to feel like a festival.”
It helped that they were able to work with sponsors in advance on some deals to make festival-ground activation part of the package. “We said this is what we want you to provide as part of this. They loved it, too.”
The amphitheater not only benefits from track sponsors, it will have access to racetrack concessions equipment and personnel, so food and drink service will be much more upscale than the usual shed fare, Thornton said. Because Formula 1 draws an international crowd, food service for the races includes food one wouldn’t normally see at a track. Those will carry over into the amphitheater and the Grand Plaza, he said. “We have a full liquor license, so there will be some neat bars. We also have a great deal with a spirit company putting in a topnotch setup, which I can’t reveal yet.”
The rule of thumb will be one point of sale for every 84 patrons. Besides permanent concessions stands in the Grand Plaza that the shed and track share, there are also “several mobile kiosks they use at the track we can utilize.”
Parking is another bonus for this shed, with 22,000 spaces for the track. A 680-car premium parking space in front of the amphitheater will be sold in advance only for $25. Lots A and F, also nearby, will sell for $12 in advance, $20 on site. While they are trying to encourage people to buy parking in advance, they nixed adding it to the ticket price. Austin is a very environmentally sensitive town and a lot of people bike or carpool, Thornton said. It wouldn’t be fair to charge every ticket for parking.
Interviewed for this story: Mike Sawaya, (210) 207-8553; Paul Thornton, (208) 447-8435; Jeff Cook, (210) 207-5762; Jim Devlin, (210) 227-0221, ext. 236; Bob Baggett, (972) 759-8742