Aerosmith's Steven Tyler gets up-close and personal with fans in the new GA Pit in the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Conn., July 10.
Sometimes, you just need a little room to move. That's why Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Conn., reconfigured its MGM Grand Theater with a general admission pit for a recent Aerosmith concert. By opening up the floor, creating 60 more front row spots, the venue increased its seating capacity by 150 percent in an effort to give fans a better chance to see bands up close and personal.
"We discussed it internally in the department about molding our theater shows that require it," said Foxwoods Executive Director of Entertainment Monique Sebastian. "The industry is changing fast and many artists want a GA pit and thrust [stage] so they can be more accessible to the audience."
The theater-style venue has long taken some seats out for the frequent boxing matches it hosts and experimented with the GA arrangement during a free concert series several years ago.
The venue's capacity without the new pit and the eight-foot walk-out thrust stage is typically 3,956, but Sebastian said Foxwoods went conservative with the Aerosmith show to make sure the new configuration would work.
"Aerosmith being the big band that they are, they had certain requirements for their performance and this was a great way to introduce [the changes] to the audience," she said of the July 10 gig. "Their show rider required a thrust stage and we thought taking out the seats would give it a more intimate feeling that you can't find in arenas. It was the best of both worlds: an intimate setting with an arena twist, thanks to the pyro and the runway stage."
The new GA Pit area in the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Conn.
She said the setup got rave reviews from the band, as well as the house ushers and crew, guests who'd been to shows at Foxwoods before and new patrons who appreciated being up-close-and-personal with the band. The pit accommodated 509 for Aerosmith, but Foxwoods is aiming for up to 750 for an upcoming show (Aug. 9) by heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold.
The pit area normally holds approximately 500 seats bolted to chair wagons, and Foxwoods production manager Don Costello said it takes a full day to remove them for the concerts and HBO/Showtime boxing matches. That time can be reduced to half a day in a pinch, but it's a logistically difficult job that requires that the chairs be carted out by fork truck, brought up to the stage and then stored.
With a 32-foot-long thrust for the Aerosmith show, Costello said there were 80 linear feet up against the stage for fans to crowd around, meaning that patrons 3-4 deep could get close enough to practically touch singer Steven Tyler's custom veil-wrapped mic stand. "Steven Tyler commented near the end of the show, right before 'Dream On,' that the band has played in 20,000-30,000-seat venues, but that [Foxwoods] was so intimate, so wonderful," said Costello of the gig, which had ticket prices in the $175-$300 range. "He was really excited about being here and the intimacy of the crowd."
Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry rock out at the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Conn., July 10.
The seats are taken out by in-house crew members, with additional contract labor brought in for support. In a further effort to create a classy closeness that you can't find in an arena, Costello said Foxwoods also carpeted the pit, which he noted also drew raves from everyone from the band's crew to internal fire command and insurance staffers. He said the typical rate for the switch-over is around $48,000-$52,000, including removal and storage of chairs, as well as rehearsals and other support for the show; that rate is two-thirds more than the prep cost for an all-seated gig.
Asked if the change might also raise revenues, Sebastian said it definitely will, but the amount depends on the cost of the artist and ticket prices. "Overall, any time you increase capacity you're always looking at a nice profitable margin," she said, predicting a potential 25-40 percent increase in ticket sales, with hard figures difficult to calculate because of the widely varying booking costs of the acts.
"We're in an especially competitive market and we're not worried about competing casinos, we're worried about TD Garden, Comcast Center and the Civic Center, who all compete with us for artists and tours," she said. "Taking out our regular seating makes it close to what you'd find at Comcast or Mohegan Sun [casino], so we're throwing our hat into the ring and making artists who would never normally play here because of production requirements, take a second gander."
Foxwoods averages 60 shows a year and Sebastian said she's hoping to stage anywhere from 6-8 pit concerts a year, including some EDM bookings with popular DJs.
"When this theater was being built [in 2008] we tried to have contingencies for everything we could think of at that time," said Costello. "We can do any kind of television, which most theaters don't have the technical capabilities for and we have more power than most arenas. That's why when the pit thing started to become the norm it was easy to incorporate it."
Contacted for this story: Monique Sebastian and Don Costello, (860) 312-3000
