Seattle Symphony Wants You To Move Closer

One of the endlessly amusing things about arts orgs is how desperate they are all for cash -- big or small, there's no amount of money-grubbing that's beyond them. It's normal. You go to a show, pay $$ for a ticket, and then a little while later you get a letter or a phone call "informing" you that, you know, what you paid was "really" half-price and could you stand to kick in a little, well the other half, no it's okay we take credit cards.

People do crazy things when they're pressed for cash. Knock over 7-11s. Car-jack. File initiatives. But they always justify it somehow, no matter how twisty and scrambled the argument gets. The Seattle Symphony has been bleeding red ink (and staff) the last few years, announcing last September a $3.2 million deficit, but telling patrons that they wouldn't see much of a price difference. Define "much." 10%...300%? What kind of wiggle room are we talking about here?

The Seattle Times and P-I are reporting that the Symphony is raising prices fortissimo on some of its cheapest seats, in the back of the Third Tier, the top back of Benaroya Hall. Where the past season there were two prices for Masterpiece series subscribers in the Third Tier, $279 and $387, next season everything up there will cost new subscribers $999. (Current subs won't have to pay more than $500 per seat.)

To appreciate the level of crazy we're talking about, you have to realize that both the Symphony (and the Opera, in McCaw Hall) like to sell the nosebleeds as the "best seats in the house" acoustically. That may be; it's a matter of opinion. But most people only buy them when they can't afford to sit closer. Yet areas of the Symphony's main floor had tumbleweeds blowing between seats. When the Symphony did a pricing analysis, and found that its audience had moved en masse into the cheapest seats they could find, their thought was to raise prices. Sane? No. Desperate? Yes.

"Our subscribers are the last people we want to offend," said Champion in the Times. "But we have to keep playing, and that means we need ticket income." In the P-I, she said: "We take our patrons very seriously, and we make sure we communicate with anyone who is unhappy. Every time you make a change, people get upset. We need to do a better job to be clearer. We haven't done a good job of that. By Friday, we will have communicated with every one of those people."

Why does that last part sound like a threat? We imagine maybe a phone call that goes: Hey, we don't mean to have to extort this money. How do you think we feel? It's not personal. Don't be offended. We just need cash. Look...we're going to lose our line of credit soon. Can't you see tha-- JUST HAND OVER THE FUCKING WALLET!!!

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By MvB in Arts & Events, News on March 2, 2007 9:00 AM

Comments [rss]

Christopher Smith

A great example of why the Seattle Symphony is continuing to loose money is clearly incompetent management at all levels. Take me for example. I worked for the Symphony since they moved into Benaroya Hall and I made 50k a year plus benefits to place the chairs and stands as well as open the door to the stage. A Little excessive? I thought so.

I took that great money and free time and earned my MBA with hopes of rising to a management job. I completed my MBA three years ago. Did they promote me? No... So while they have been losing around 2 million a season they continued to pay an MBA 50k a year to place chairs and stands. Does not seem to make much sense does it.

Third Tier Guy

So are the acoustics in Benaroya actually not very good on the main floor? That's the implication of what Seattle Symphony is doing: they're now charging top price for the Third Tier (same as dead center orchestra), saying that even though these seats are much further from the stage, the sound is better. I doubt a lot of the wealthier folks who pay top price will really like the distant view, especially the partly obscured view you get from the Third Tier side boxes.

The other thing that the Symphony needs to realize is that there's a connection between ticket price and the number of concerts that patrons purchase. We bought 15 concerts at Benaroya this season, which we could only afford because we went for the cheap seats. Next year, the "same price category" (SSO's words) on the main floor will be 50% higher than this year's Third Tier Box prices. That's a real budget buster, even if you like the new seats and aren't too offended by the SSO's mishandling of this situation.

They sure make it easy for us to cancel our subscription. And it's not like we won't be able to buy the odd single concert tickets, because there is going to be plenty of room at Benaroya next year.

FinishTag

When my parents were young and poor, they splurged on the cheapest subscription they could for the Chicago Symphony. 30 years later, my mom has "moved closer" probably a half dozen times, even though my dad is no longer around. If the Seattle Symphony doesn't encourage people to make a commitment to subscription, allow people who are NOT rich to make a move, they'll lose a huge contingent of music lovers (and future generations as well! I sat in those nosebleeds with my mom, too.)