The Anschutz Entertainment Group is looking to build a new 2,500 to 6,000 capacity live-music venue in Denver as it tries to gain a larger share of the area’s market, industry insiders said Tuesday.
It would be the first big move from the newly formed local office of industry behemoth AEG Live, the company’s concert promotion arm that is now the main competition to Live Nation, the country’s largest concert promoter.
News of the company’s plan to build its own venue, which would probably be completed no sooner than 2008, comes amid a whirlwind of staffing swaps.
One of Live Nation’s top local staffers, Don Strasburg, joined AEG a few months ago. Chuck Morris, who heads Denver’s Live Nation operation, is expected to jump ship to AEG in early 2007, sources told The Denver Post in late September. In addition, Live Nation booker Brent Fedrizzi will join AEG as soon as a noncompete clause in his contract with Live Nation expires.
While acknowledging the glut of concert space in the metro area, legendary former concert promoter Barry Fey said it would make sense for AEG to build its own concert hall.
“In this town now, you need your own space,” said Fey, pointing to Live Nation’s contracts with the Paramount Theatre and the Pepsi Center, and its ownership of the Fillmore Auditorium. “In a year or so, (AEG will) have Chuck, who’s absolutely brilliant, and they’ll also have Brent, but you still need real estate.”
According to local and national industry insiders, AEG is looking at land in several central Denver neighborhoods for the construction of a new state-of-the- art development that would rival Live Nation’s Fillmore Auditorium, known as one of the hottest venues in the country.
“From the outset, we’ve made it clear that our intentions are to look for viable opportunities for the Colorado music community,” Strasburg said Tuesday.
“As of yet, we have not found the appropriate opportunity to build,” he said, “but I would hope there will be an AEG venue in Colorado in the next two to three years.”
The news of an AEG venue comes amid widespread speculation in the local music business that the Anschutz firm and Nobody in Particular Presents will pursue some sort of exclusive arrangement for booking the Bluebird and Ogden theaters. The Gothic Theatre, formerly a NIPP venue, recently aligned itself with Live Nation.
NIPP’s Doug Kauffman refused to comment on that possibility.
Outgoing NIPP partner Jesse Morreale said he had no inside information on a potential deal but added: “(AEG will) have to have a way to develop bands. Whether it’s building something or having an agreement with existing buildings, they’ve gotta have that pipeline because that’s the core of the business.”
Dan Steinberg, founder of Seattle’s Square Peg Concerts, is familiar with the Colorado market and agreed with Morreale’s assessment.
“Denver has had more growth in venue size in the last 20 years than any other major market,” he said. “With AEG, money’s not a question, and the credibility’s huge. The next step is securing a venue where they hold the calendar because that’s always been the basis of those guys’ business.”
Expanding in U.S., Europe
AEG spokesman Michael Roth did not deny the reports of a new concert venue in Denver but said: “We are a company that does build venues. I am not aware of any sites the company plans to build an entertainment venue on in Denver.”
AEG has been rapidly expanding its entertainment/lifestyle presence in cities from Los Angeles and Kansas City to Berlin and London. Developments in those cities combine rock clubs and arenas with mixed-use commercial and residential properties. The developments demonstrate the company’s dedication to expanding this aspect of its business plan.
All of this comes in the wake of the announcement in July that Live Nation will buy its longtime rival House of Blues Concerts, a deal that is still pending U.S. Justice Department approval.
Staff writer Tom McGhee contributed to this report.
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
