Concert costs 'trade secrets'

This year the Ohio Union Activities Board spent students' money to bring big names such as Drake, Kings of Leon and Cobra Starship to campus. Although some students are satisfied with the artists OUAB brings to Ohio State, others might wonder exactly how much they are paying for concerts they don't attend.

But OUAB won't reveal how much it pays performers to come to OSU, calling the information a trade secret.

OUAB receives a portion of the mandatory Student Activity Fee, which it uses to fund its campus entertainment events, said OUAB President Kayln Eyer in an e-mail.

In September, the Board of Trustees approved a hike in the activity fee, from $15 per quarter to the current $25 per quarter. This increase, which took effect in January, expanded the OUAB budget for Winter and Spring quarter events.

Before the increase, OUAB received 55 percent (about $1.21 million) of the Student Activity Fee, and after it will receive 52.75 percent (about $2.11 million), a February Lantern article reported. This year, the OUAB budget was $1,736,694.34 for the entire 2009-2010 school year, according to OUAB's budget summary in May 2010. This budget should increase next school year with the higher fee during all four quarters, Eyer said.

And though this increase is likely to translate into more popular and expensive performers, students will not know how much more these performers cost.

"OUAB often competes with other entertainment venues in the area and other schools for the same acts," Eyer said. "Competitors having knowledge about the amounts we pay for performers would adversely affect our ability to negotiate the lowest possible rates and therefore reducing the buying power of the student activity fee dollars."

She also said OUAB could not disclose amounts paid to performers when contractual obligations with the bands or booking agencies forbade it from making the information public.

Fred Gittes, a Columbus attorney with expertise in Ohio's public records law, said a trade secret must be information that is "treated as confidential by the company or organization involved." In this case, it must be treated as confidential by the bands OUAB books as well as any booking agencies involved.

However, many performers make their prices known publicly on college booking agency websites. Upon request, some public universities' activities boards, including those of the University of Iowa and Michigan State University, also disclose booking costs.

Main Stage Productions and White Leaf Entertainment Group, two major college booking agencies, both list prices for high-demand artists on their websites, including some who have visited OSU this school year.

Main Stage Productions prices Drake, who filled the Schott with students in April, between $50,000 and $70,000. Other performers include Andy Samberg at $50,000, Cobra Starship between $25,000 and $30,000 and Bob Saget between $40,000 and $50,000.

White Leaf Entertainment, which has booked music artists for the University of Tennessee, Michigan State University and Oregon University, lists prices similar to those of Main Stage.

Third Eye Blind, who came to OSU during Autumn Quarter, costs between $50,000 and $60,000, and 3OH!3, who played at Big Free Concert on May 14, costs between $25,000 and $30,000, according to White Leaf's website.

"It just reeks of bad taste if they're (OUAB) claiming that booking bands is a trade secret if those very bands post what they charge," Gittes said.

But Mike Geremia, founder of Main Stage Productions, said these costs and whether they can be made public are negotiable.

If the performer is coming to campus on a planned tour stop, you can often negotiate the price; but if the stop at campus is unplanned or the performer isn't touring, "then pretty much you have to stick to the price," Geremia said.

And although standard prices are listed on Main Stage's website, if a university doesn't want to disclose the amount it paid to book a music artist, the agency will agree to keep the information private, he said.

Michigan State's Activities Board willingly discloses the amount of money it pays visiting artists. At the Sparty's Spring Party event, Cobra Starship came to the MSU campus under a contract of $30,000, said Tami Kuhn, manager of the University Activities Board. Cobra Starship also came to OSU for its spring concert.

OUAB isn't the only student activities board that keeps its costs under wraps, though. The Campus Entertainment Board at the University of Tennessee also does not reveal how much it pays performers that come to campus because of contractual obligations, said Brian Stevens, chair of the entertainment board.

Stevens said entertainment events at Tennessee's campus were funded through an activity fee similar to OSU's.

At Michigan State, however, there is no student activity fee, and the activities board has a substantially smaller budget. The total budget for the board this school year was about $600,000, Kuhn said. Most of the organization's money is fundraised through arts and crafts shows, she said.

But OSU's large student population and generous Student Activity Fee allows OUAB to bring in bigger name artists.

For the Big Free Show alone, OUAB had a budget of $250,000, according to its budget summary in May 2010. Spring Quarter events were allotted a separate $255,716.67 in the summary.

With its hefty budget, OUAB strives to satisfy as many students as possible with the performers it brings to OSU.

"OUAB seeks input on events in various ways, from surveying at events and in various high populated areas around campus, seeking feedback through Twitter, Facebook, and other online means," Eyer said. "We have a suggestion form on our website and we encourage students to share their ideas with the OUAB executive board."

Eyer said OUAB used attendance numbers to determine which shows are most popular.

Seven thousand students flocked to see Drake, Eyer said in an e-mail. She said that 3,000 students attended the Big Free Concert event featuring Cobra Starship and 3OH!3.

"Attendance numbers for the concerts vary because each concert was held in a different venue," Eyer said. "All of our concerts this year reached maximum capacity, and all tickets were released."

Concert attendance numbers are determined by the number of tickets released to students by OUAB. This attendance number is predetermined because OUAB only releases a certain amount of tickets to the student body on a first-come-first-serve basis.

However, Big Free Concert was not ticketed, and its outdoor venue, the South Oval, had no definite capacity. This makes determining attendance difficult.

"Big Free Concert was a successful event and it was a very well-attended event," Eyer said. "We received positive feedback on the Facebook wall and Twitter and no negative feedback was directly received to the OUAB website or the concert's chair."