Irvine is the latest municipality debating how deep it wants to be in the entertainment business.
The city is currently home to a temporary amphitheater, built on Great Park developer FivePoint’s land, that’s one of the hottest outdoor concert sites in California. But it’s time to make 2017’s interim venue a more permanent place.
So, who would say “no” to replacing a facility that drew 300,000-plus music fans last year?
Well, does that same place have spare tens of millions in tax dollars?
The deal Irvine made last year with giant concert promoter Live Nation to jointly build a 14,000-seat amphitheater on land at the city’s Great Park seems to be dead. The company, worth $18 billion by Wall Street math, would chip in $20 million. The city’s share could run $110 million to $130 million on construction. The partners would share various income streams from the venue.
Yet as the two parties continue to haggle, the city’s staff commissioned a study to look at building a less-ambitious amphitheater. It’d be roughly half the size (6,000 to 8,000 seats) with construction costs of $80 million to $90 million.
Come Valentine’s Day night, the city council will debate what’s next.
Deep pockets
Peek across Southern California and you’ll see it helps to have really deep pockets behind any entertainment project.
Several recent arenas were built with little or no taxpayer cash.
In Inglewood, billionaire football owner Stan Kroenke spent roughly $5 billion to build the landmark 70,000-seat Sofi Stadium for his National Football League Rams and its No. 1 tenant – the Los Angeles Chargers.
Across the street from SoFi, billionaire basketball owner Steve Balmer is building the $2-billion, 18,000-seat Intuit Dome for his Los Angeles Clippers to open in the summer of 2024.
In the Coachella Valley, entertainment investors Oak Valley Group and partners – including Live Nation, wink! – just spent $300 million to build Acrisure Arena in the desert. The…
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