Burnsville Performing Arts Center is losing a customer

The beleaguered Burnsville Performing Arts Center will lose one of its two regular clients in October.

[Brodie from Shakopee]

What a strange title for the article/ad for the comedy club.

[Burnsvilletaxpay er]

The real joke is being played on the Burnsville taxpayer and it's NOT funny!!! This is irresponsible government in action.

[Integrity Man]

Good luck Mike and I look forward to the new Venue!!

Another blow to the Burnsville Performing Arts Center. When is the city going to address these issues such as the fees, booking acts in the 1,014 seat theatre that will sell out?

"Orensteen said that he hopes to bring bigger acts to the arts center's 1,014-seat main stage at some point but the fees for the black box theater were too steep for his small club."

Wow, worst case scenario of losing $300,000 a year has nearly been exceeded in the first third of the year?

The city of Burnsville better get their act together and address this runaway train of losses now, or are they going to just sit and watch the train wreck and plead ignorance at the end of the year with a ~$1M loss and continue to hemorrhage these losses which will be placed at the feet of the tax payers of Burnsville?

I would like to see an article that addresses what the City of Burnsville and more specifically Mayor Kautz is doing to mitigate the PAC losses that are three times what was identified as the worst-case scenario. Mayor Kautz, speak up and stand front and center and address this as you pushed this boat anchor upon the citizens of Burnsville without listening to the thousands of Burnsville residents who pleaded with you to put at least put the PAC to a referendum.

[Bill Roehl]

Integrity Man,

1. The upcoming Burnsville City Council worksession will supposedly deal with a bit about the PAC and its issues. I have already requested any notes that many have been taken during city staff meetings with VenuWorks but was told there are none--I don't believe them.

2. Kautz has been laying low following coverage (begun by me) of the PAC's huge losses in the first several months. We are still waiting on the May PAC data which the public should have received on June 22nd (Burnsville has been purposefully delaying the release of this information due to it putting the PAC in such a poor light).

3. The PAC's calendar remains almost completely empty for the remainder of the year. I am not quite sure why that calendar has not been rapidly filled following the supposed meetings with Burnsville. What was the outcome of that meeting and why did it not have an IMMEDIATE impact? It would appear to the layman that it's because VenuWorks knows that this is a lost cause and has absolutely no interest in doing anything except spout off how great they are doing with their "customer" counts rather than their revenue.

[bvres]

boy, i agree with everything Integrity Man stated above!
i am, at least, happy to see something will be going into the old Benchwarmer Bob's place. i drive by there constantly wondering why no one has scooped that place up. i only wish i had the means to do something with it. i for one will be attending the new grille and wish success for this establishment.
Kautz = what a joke!

[to hard]

It doesn't matter anyway - they have the new amendment that give tax money to the Arts, maybe they should look into that.

[Dam Demthuglicrat]

The ones responsible for this should first sell this albatross to a private company who would know how to run it right and then do the right thing and step down to atone for their failure.

The PAC, just like the Fart of the City fiasco should never have been built, especially when the taxpayers repeatedly told them no.

[RIOT]

I live in Burnsville and I've yet to meet anyone who wanted this in the first place. We had a performing arts center wonderful building that is now owned by a private citizen. What the Mayor wants the Mayor gets!

[bvres]

RIOT wrote:

I live in Burnsville and I've yet to meet anyone who wanted this in the first place. We had a performing arts center wonderful building that is now owned by a private citizen. What the Mayor wants the Mayor gets!

agreed...and i have yet to meet anyone who voted for kautz! what an incompetent selfish person. she is supposed to have the people of BV in her best interest....she doesn't seem to care about the people of BV at all, only herself. doesn't listen or hear. maybe she needs some hearing aids. she should be embarrased and she needs to take action and start correcting her mistakes instead of lying low like the other poster stated. what a coward she is!

[Numbskulls]

WTF was Nurdsville thinking when they opened a fancy performing arts center?

[Scott Simon]

First of all, there are many observations to offer.

1. Jessica Fleming is determined to keep the heat on. Who do you think contacted her with this info? She sure puts a negative spin to everything she writes about BPAC, doesn't she?

2. Loss of comedy club is no big deal. It was more of a comedy club wanna-be. It will get killed by the new comedy club in the MOA that opens later this month. Besides, most comedy tickets are heavily discounted or even given away. The real money in comedy is in drink sales. He was never going to get this at BPAC and he probably will get a little kickback or rent adjustment at his new place. Legally, since he does not own the liquor license, he is not supposed to sell, serve or share in the profits from the liquor sales, but there are ways around this. But as I said, this really isn't a big deal.

3. The far bigger deal is the lack of action by VenuWorks to attract performers for the big room. But if you look at the 7 or 8 theatres that they manage, you will see that they have trouble in all of them booking A-List or even B-List talent. They don't have the connections or the right business model for running a major metropolitan facility like this. It is one thing to persuade Wayne Newton to play in Davenport, but it is a whole new game in a place like Burnsville. In a nutshell, they are out of their league and in over their head.

As I said before --both here and elsewhere-- I think they will be given the opportunity to resign and walk-away from their contract.

4. But that won't be a guarentee that the room will succeed. First of all, the city will need to take more risk and put more money in play in order to try to turn this around. The building is overstaffed and poorly managed from what I can tell.

And to the guy who suggested that this $20 million facility be sold to a private company ... How much should the city be willing to lose if that were to happen? If they could find a sucker, I'm guessing that the city will need to write off at least 2/3rds of the money spent so far. And remember, there is much more to be done in order to bring it up to expected industry standards. So I don't see someone stepping forward to bail them out of this mess.

[Burnsvilletaxpay er]

Scott Simon wrote:

First of all, there are many observations to offer.
1. Jessica Fleming is determined to keep the heat on. Who do you think contacted her with this info? She sure puts a negative spin to everything she writes about BPAC, doesn't she?
2. Loss of comedy club is no big deal. It was more of a comedy club wanna-be. It will get killed by the new comedy club in the MOA that opens later this month. Besides, most comedy tickets are heavily discounted or even given away. The real money in comedy is in drink sales. He was never going to get this at BPAC and he probably will get a little kickback or rent adjustment at his new place. Legally, since he does not own the liquor license, he is not supposed to sell, serve or share in the profits from the liquor sales, but there are ways around this. But as I said, this really isn't a big deal.
3. The far bigger deal is the lack of action by VenuWorks to attract performers for the big room. But if you look at the 7 or 8 theatres that they manage, you will see that they have trouble in all of them booking A-List or even B-List talent. They don't have the connections or the right business model for running a major metropolitan facility like this. It is one thing to persuade Wayne Newton to play in Davenport, but it is a whole new game in a place like Burnsville. In a nutshell, they are out of their league and in over their head.
As I said before --both here and elsewhere-- I think they will be given the opportunity to resign and walk-away from their contract.
4. But that won't be a guarentee that the room will succeed. First of all, the city will need to take more risk and put more money in play in order to try to turn this around. The building is overstaffed and poorly managed from what I can tell.
And to the guy who suggested that this $20 million facility be sold to a private company ... How much should the city be willing to lose if that were to happen? If they could find a sucker, I'm guessing that the city will need to write off at least 2/3rds of the money spent so far. And remember, there is much more to be done in order to bring it up to expected industry standards. So I don't see someone stepping forward to bail them out of this mess.

Is this the Scott Simon who is a member of the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce? I have been following your postings from several Burnsville stories. First if you are that Scott Simon you appear NOT to be a Burnsville resident taxpayer. This "art center" was built against the wishes of the resident taxpayers just for the reason why this article was written. You DON'T live in Burnsville, YOU DON'T pay our city taxes. Yet WE as taxpayers are chained to this white elephant which WE didn't NEED or WANT. It materialized by the Burnsville city council troika consisting of mayor Kautz, council members Gustafson and Workman and supported by the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce. Don't defect the blame onto VenUworks but on the self serving myopic visioning of Kautz, Gustafson, Workman and the Chamber!!!!

[Cliff Volkmann Bville]

Scott Simon wrote:

First of all, there are many observations to offer.
1. Jessica Fleming is determined to keep the heat on. Who do you think contacted her with this info? She sure puts a negative spin to everything she writes about BPAC, doesn't she?

Jessica is a journalist and journalists are not good at making silk purses out of sow's ears. For that you have to go to the Mayor's professional spin meister at City Hall

[Cliff Volkmann Bville]

Burnsvilletaxpayer wrote:

<quoted text>
Is this the Scott Simon who is a member of the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce? I have been following your postings from several Burnsville stories. First if you are that Scott Simon you appear NOT to be a Burnsville resident taxpayer. This "art center" was built against the wishes of the resident taxpayers just for the reason why this article was written. You DON'T live in Burnsville, YOU DON'T pay our city taxes. Yet WE as taxpayers are chained to this white elephant which WE didn't NEED or WANT. It materialized by the Burnsville city council troika consisting of mayor Kautz, council members Gustafson and Workman and supported by the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce. Don't defect the blame onto VenUworks but on the self serving myopic visioning of Kautz, Gustafson, Workman and the Chamber!!!!

Congratulations, you have connected the dots to the Burnsville Chamber. Remember you have a right to vote with your dollars in addition to the ballot box.

[Pragmatist]

Scott Simon wrote:

First of all, there are many observations to offer.
1. Jessica Fleming is determined to keep the heat on. Who do you think contacted her with this info? She sure puts a negative spin to everything she writes about BPAC, doesn't she?
2. Loss of comedy club is no big deal. It was more of a comedy club wanna-be. It will get killed by the new comedy club in the MOA that opens later this month. Besides, most comedy tickets are heavily discounted or even given away. The real money in comedy is in drink sales. He was never going to get this at BPAC and he probably will get a little kickback or rent adjustment at his new place. Legally, since he does not own the liquor license, he is not supposed to sell, serve or share in the profits from the liquor sales, but there are ways around this. But as I said, this really isn't a big deal.
3. The far bigger deal is the lack of action by VenuWorks to attract performers for the big room. But if you look at the 7 or 8 theatres that they manage, you will see that they have trouble in all of them booking A-List or even B-List talent. They don't have the connections or the right business model for running a major metropolitan facility like this. It is one thing to persuade Wayne Newton to play in Davenport, but it is a whole new game in a place like Burnsville. In a nutshell, they are out of their league and in over their head.
As I said before --both here and elsewhere-- I think they will be given the opportunity to resign and walk-away from their contract.
4. But that won't be a guarentee that the room will succeed. First of all, the city will need to take more risk and put more money in play in order to try to turn this around. The building is overstaffed and poorly managed from what I can tell.
And to the guy who suggested that this $20 million facility be sold to a private company ... How much should the city be willing to lose if that were to happen? If they could find a sucker, I'm guessing that the city will need to write off at least 2/3rds of the money spent so far. And remember, there is much more to be done in order to bring it up to expected industry standards. So I don't see someone stepping forward to bail them out of this mess.

Maybe the city does need to invest more, but it shouldn't be taking direction from people that don't pay taxes to the city. Lets put it to a referendum like it should have been in the first place.

[Sam]

I find this similar to what North Saint Paul (NSP) attempted to do by implementing a city wide Fiberoptic network that was going to offer TV/WEB/voice at speeds not offerred by the private sector to houses in NSP.

However because of the type of bonds to be used to fund the project required a vote the voters of NSP killed the project with a 2-1 margin.

However the city continues to persue the project in spite of the voters disapproval.

IMHO the main reason these projects are pushed by cities is the city employees or elected officials are somehow making money or other favors as a result of the project.

It may be the city elected or staff end up building the project as a contractor or maybe relatives or themselves end up working on the project or staffing the project.

In any case there is no justification for government competing with the private sector in any business.

Taxes end up going up and the offerred product or service ends up being a monopoly with all the negatives associated with NO COMPETITION!!

[Scott Simon]

Burnsvilletaxpayer wrote:

<quoted text>
You DON'T live in Burnsville, YOU DON'T pay our city taxes. Yet WE as taxpayers are chained to this white elephant which WE didn't NEED or WANT.....

Don't defect the blame onto VenUworks but on the self serving myopic visioning of Kautz, Gustafson, Workman and the Chamber!!!!

Sir,

Who is the WE you mention? Would that be the same people that made up the MAJORITY who re-elected the Mayor --knowing full-well that she was behind the BPAC project and was determined to see it through to completion? I think you already voted for the BPAC when you re-elected her. Give it a rest. You are all whiny losers who are NOT in the majority. I can't possibly say it any clearer. Even you can understand this.

And besides what would you want an election to do now? Should there be a public hanging in the town square? Would that satisfy you and your friends? And incidentally, where is the Town Square in Burnsville? Would that be the park in front of the theatre that the Mayor also supported and led the charge?

So if you'll allow me as an outsider to interpret your wishes, you want to hold a vote in hopes that the results will end up with a public hanging of a Mayor that won the majority of support for her ideas and leadership and you'd like to do this on property in or near The Heart of The City project that she also developed? And you don't think this is just a tad hypocritical?

I know I'm an outsider, but I'm only too glad to make purchases in your city and pay sales taxes there. Do you want me to take my spending elsewhere until after the hanging? I bet you were against the government adding floride to your city water, weren't you? My suggestion is to relax. Go back to your trailer park and turn the air conditioning up full blast. You and your friends need to chill, brother.

[Scott Simon]

Cliff Volkmann Bville wrote:

<quoted text>
Jessica is a journalist and journalists are not good at making silk purses out of sow's ears. For that you have to go to the Mayor's professional spin meister at City Hall

I know you enjoy venting on this site. It is your right. But I happen to think journalists and public relations practitioners are both among the most vile and deception careers in existence. Making silk purses out of sow's ears are ALL they do. That is what they are trained to do. Do you ever watch Almanac?

[Scott Simon]

Cliff Volkmann Bville wrote:

<quoted text>
Congratulations, you have connected the dots to the Burnsville Chamber. Remember you have a right to vote with your dollars in addition to the ballot box.

There have certainly been some mistakes made on this project. The biggest one is the hiring of VenuWorks. As I've said in the past, they are in over their heads. It will cost more money to repair the damage they have done. A PAC is a gamble, especially in a Metro suburb when built from the ground up as in this case. It is the competition for 1,000 seat venues that keeps the BPAC empty. The city will need to incur more risk in hopes of turning it around. Think of it as Burnsville's version of GMC. You've got to spend more money in hopes of breaking even. Sorry, the truth hurts. No one will buy that building for anywhere close to $20 million, so wipe that idea out of your collective heads and roll up your sleeves and prepare to get involved with saving the BPAC. It is easy to sit on the sidelines and take shots. Why not turn your anger into a positive force to solve the situation?

[Scott Simon]

Pragmatist wrote:

<quoted text>Maybe the city does need to invest more, but it shouldn't be taking direction from people that don't pay taxes to the city. Lets put it to a referendum like it should have been in the first place.

Too little. Too late. Read my other comments. Get off the horse. Your nagging is getting exhausting.

And because I don't own real estate in Burnsville does not mean I don't have intelligent ideas and opinions on this subject. I happen to know quite a bit about it. Would you rather hear ideas and options from someone like me? Or do you want to rely on your government officials to tell you what they are prepared to do?