Got a Live Nation email regarding Silver Spring Fillmore

[Mobius]

Originally posted by Julian, certified WEBLEBRITY:
 
 What's most hypocritical about this rant is the "I'm all for competition, but..." Yeah, you're all for competition as long as there isn't actually any competition. IMP having the only 930 Club-size/mid-size venue in the area isn't competiton; 9:30 Club and SS Fillmore both existing is competition. That's good for consumers. That's good for the area. It's not good for Seth as evidenced by his scaremongering about how prices will magically jump through the roof. It's not good for 9:30 Club fanboys who hate LiveNation and have judged the venue quality before a blueprint has even been drawn up. But for the rest of us, in the real world, competition and having choices are a good thing.

I don't understand your point.  Should Live Nation build an Arena in Silver Spring to compete with the Verizon Center in the name of competition and what's best for Montgomery County?  Do we know the area can support it?  Why does the area need a new venue UNLESS its a 3K - 5K venue. What specific value would a 1000K venue in Silver Spring add?  I can't think of ANYTHING.  And what benefit to the people of Montogery County is awarding the venue to a non-local megacorporation? through a crooked process?
 
 I think locally owned venues is a HUGE benefit to DC

[Shadrach]

Originally posted by Julian, certified WEBLEBRITY:
   

Originally posted by Shadrach:
  You make absolutely no point here other than there is a lack of a mid-sized venues to support these types of shows you mention. And that is somehow 9:30's fault? WTF? Must be IMP black ops going around and sabotaging all the venues that spring up around the area... oh wait, there hasn't been anyone eager to build and open a place like this until recently. Give me a break. You have no clue what the hell you're talking about. I'm all in favor of competition and another local venue, but at what cost? Georgia Ave. through Montgomery Co. is lined with potholes, how about they fix that for starters?

No one said it's anyone's fault. But the fact remains, at current, your company is the exclusive provider of services for bands of that size in the metro DC area. You're also the people who stand to lose the most if you actually have competition for once. You and Seth can praddle on about taxes all day long, but its so incredibly duplicitous to pass off your concerns as "taxes"
 when in fact it's "IMP's bottom line."
 
 What's most appalling is people eat this crap up. People like Sweetcell who live nowhere near Montgomery County -- and therefore have no reason to be concerned about how MoCo spends their revenue -- are writing emails in deference to the project at the prodding of you folks. What a bunch of fans boys. Even if you have a point about the public financing, how ridiculous it is coming from IMP employees. It's like believing Barack Obama really thinks John McCain is the wrong choice for America, as opposed to his real motivation for saying things about McCain being that Obama wants to President himself (or vice versa, same applies to McCain's comments about Obama).
 
 What's most hypocritical about this rant is the "I'm all for competition, but..." Yeah, you're all for competition as long as there isn't actually any competition. IMP having the only 930 Club-size/mid-size venue in the area isn't competiton; 9:30 Club and SS Fillmore both existing is competition. That's good for consumers. That's good for the area. It's not good for Seth as evidenced by his scaremongering about how prices will magically jump through the roof. It's not good for 9:30 Club fanboys who hate LiveNation and have judged the venue quality before a blueprint has even been drawn up. But for the rest of us, in the real world, competition and having choices are a good thing. [/b]

So then by your logic my opinion as a registered voter in Montgomery Co. is tainted by my affiliation with the club. In other words you know me well enough to judge that I am clearly not a person capable of separating the two things in order to look at the situation with unbiased eyes.
 
 The simple fact is that this is a bad deal for Maryland and Mont. Co. I could give a damn about how this helps the concert goers who live in the District or Northern Virginia, they aren't the ones footing the bill.

[godsshoeshine]

whats the capacity of state theatre. isnt it like 1000 vs 1200 for 930?

[StoneTheCrow]

As a Montgomery County taxpayer who is not affiliated with the club I agree that my tax dollars should not be used to subsidize construction of a live music venue for Live Nation.  Nor am I happy with the way the deal was made.
 
 Don't get me wrong - I love the idea of having another venue within the county's borders.  But not like this.

[azaghal1981]

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
  whats the capacity of state theatre. isnt it like 1000 vs 1200 for 930?

900 standing, 600 seated, I think.

[sweetcell]

Originally posted by Julian, certified WEBLEBRITY:
 What's most appalling is people eat this crap up. People like Sweetcell who live nowhere near Montgomery County -- and therefore have no reason to be concerned about how MoCo spends their revenue -- are writing emails in deference to the project at the prodding of you folks. What a bunch of fans boys.

julian, it's refreshing to know you don't hold yourself up to the same standards you expect of others:    

Originally posted by Julian, certified WEBLEBRITY:
  Thanks. As a fan of competition, I will absolutely email them in support of the end of the de facto IMP monopoly in the metro DC area.

since when is Richmond part of MoCo?   !?  i spend the week in DC and regularly attend shows around the region, so i do have an opinion to share.  and FYI, i clearly identified myself in my e-mail as not being a taxpayer of MoCo.
 
     

Originally posted by Julian, certified WEBLEBRITY:
 Even if you have a point about the public financing, how ridiculous it is coming from IMP employees.

yes, anyone who has a vested interest and whose opinion doesn't match yours is automatically disqualified from sharing it.  how democratic of you.
 
   

Originally posted by Julian, certified WEBLEBRITY:
 What's most hypocritical about this rant is the "I'm all for competition, but..." Yeah, you're all for competition as long as there isn't actually any competition.

what's most hypocritical is fanboys like yourself who claim to love competition - as long as it doesn't involve the bidding process.  competition through subsidization... you really a GOP good-old-boy in the making, aren't you?
 
   

Originally posted by Julian, certified WEBLEBRITY:
 It's not good for Seth as evidenced by his scaremongering about how prices will magically jump through the roof. It's not good for 9:30 Club fanboys who hate LiveNation and have judged the venue quality before a blueprint has even been drawn up. But for the rest of us, in the real world, competition and having choices are a good thing.

and by "real world", you of course mean Julian's America      :p

[godsshoeshine]

so what youre saying is that if seth wore $500 shoes and watched the hill that julian would be with him?

[hutch]

i agree with julian..
 
 now that live nation wants to build the fillmore suddenly IMP has a problem? why haven't THEY built a mid size venue.. i've written emails to dc city council members and they want a mid size venue.. BUILD THE FUCXXING VENUE .. instead we get shows at DAR which is not a concert venue..
 
 there would be some credibility to IMPs position if they had tried to build the mid size venue before live nation did but they did not.. now that they see they might have a competitor they dont like it
 
 we all know the 930 club is too small for too many bands.. dc needs a bigger venue for a lot of these bands.. why is IMP not building it and instead trying to torpedo someone else trying to build it?
 
 for me the silver spring fillmore is not what i want.. i want it in DC! build it! the market is there.. you can have wilco play 3 nights at the 930 or 1 night at the new venue (or you can rent dar and we can all get screwed..that is not a music venue)...you do the math

[hutch]

and last time i checked 930 concert prices and merrieweather aren't chopped liver..
 
 in fact they are by far on the high end..so we do need competition.

[Roger Music]

There was an article in the Washington Post on Monday about this.  You can read it here.  
 
 Frankly, I think the entire deal is BS.  If you are annoyed by this type of corporate welfare, you should sent the county council an e-mail:
 county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Originally posted by sweetcell:
   

Originally posted by Julian, certified WEBLEBRITY:
 What's most appalling is people eat this crap up. People like Sweetcell who live nowhere near Montgomery County -- and therefore have no reason to be concerned about how MoCo spends their revenue -- are writing emails in deference to the project at the prodding of you folks. What a bunch of fans boys.

julian, it's refreshing to know you don't hold yourself up to the same standards you expect of others:      

Originally posted by Julian, certified WEBLEBRITY:
  Thanks. As a fan of competition, I will absolutely email them in support of the end of the de facto IMP monopoly in the metro DC area.

since when is Richmond part of MoCo?   !?  i spend the week in DC and regularly attend shows around the region, so i do have an opinion to share.  and FYI, i clearly identified myself in my e-mail as not being a taxpayer of MoCo.[/b]

If anything, you're highlighting my point. Shadrach discredits me earlier because "I'm not a MoCo resident" when he said...
 
 

Originally posted by Shadrach:
  You are clearly not a Montgomery Co. resident or this insane amount of tax payer money going to line the pockets of a company that is ALREADY a nationwide monopoly would piss you off to no end.

...but when Mr. Princeton writes an email in support of his vested interest, there's no demanding only email from MoCo residents then.
 
 And for the record, in my email, I also said in the second sentence that I was not a MoCo resident and it'd be inappropriate for me to comment on the partial public financing angle of the proposition.
 
 I can, however, see how MoCo officials have probably seen the "tourism" dollars spent by people such as myself and yourself to stay in hotels, eat at restaurants, and go shopping before and after shows at 9:30 Club and decided they could get a piece of that as an economic boon to their county and that the potential increase in "tourism" would offset their costs over time. People are acting like Live Nation showed up in MoCo, said "Hey, we're going to build a terrible venue with bad sound who hates their customers and treats them like crap, so please give us money for this FOR NO GOOD REASON," and they Leggett or whoever went, "uh, ok."

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Originally posted by hutch:
  and last time i checked 930 concert prices and merrieweather aren't chopped liver..
 
 in fact they are by far on the high end..so we do need competition.

This is another point that everyone seems to want to ignore. Seth has said on here that if the evil Fillmore comes in and promoters have to "bid" against each other for shows, prices will go through the roof.
 
 I find that really hard to stomach. I attend shows and check venue websites in DC, Richmond, Norfolk, Baltimore, and Philadelphia with some regularity. Since, until recently, my own town didn't have legitimate music venues, I often traveled to shows, and my decisions where to attend a tour was usually predicated on (a) what day of the week it hit each city, and (b) how much it cost.
 
 While I have no charts or statistical analysis, I can say without reservation that if there was ever any price disparity in excess of a dollar or three on a tour, it was 99.9% of the time with 9:30 Club being more expensive. I cannot tell you the number of times I've seen a tour hit three of those cities only to be $15 in two of them and $20 in DC. Incidentally, DC is the only of those 5 where the 1000-2000 person market has only one choice. I've never noticed it at Merriweather, though.
 
 But Seth is probably right, and tickets will double if people have more entertainment opportunities fighting for their precious dollars. No doubt.

[Sir HC]

Originally posted by hutch:
  i agree with julian..
 
 now that live nation wants to build the fillmore suddenly IMP has a problem? why haven't THEY built a mid size venue.. i've written emails to dc city council members and they want a mid size venue.. BUILD THE FUCXXING VENUE .. instead we get shows at DAR which is not a concert venue..
 
 there would be some credibility to IMPs position if they had tried to build the mid size venue before live nation did but they did not.. now that they see they might have a competitor they dont like it
 
 we all know the 930 club is too small for too many bands.. dc needs a bigger venue for a lot of these bands.. why is IMP not building it and instead trying to torpedo someone else trying to build it?
 
 for me the silver spring fillmore is not what i want.. i want it in DC! build it! the market is there.. you can have wilco play 3 nights at the 930 or 1 night at the new venue (or you can rent dar and we can all get screwed..that is not a music venue)...you do the math

Maybe because it is not finacially viable without getting the venue for free?  Hell I am sure the Black Cat (700 cap if I remember correctly), would build a 3-5k place if they got it for free, same with Seth, same with a bunch of others.  So lets have all these groups bid on it in a fair manner.

[hutch]

Originally posted by Sir HC:
   

Originally posted by hutch:
  i agree with julian..
 
 now that live nation wants to build the fillmore suddenly IMP has a problem? why haven't THEY built a mid size venue.. i've written emails to dc city council members and they want a mid size venue.. BUILD THE FUCXXING VENUE .. instead we get shows at DAR which is not a concert venue..
 
 there would be some credibility to IMPs position if they had tried to build the mid size venue before live nation did but they did not.. now that they see they might have a competitor they dont like it
 
 we all know the 930 club is too small for too many bands.. dc needs a bigger venue for a lot of these bands.. why is IMP not building it and instead trying to torpedo someone else trying to build it?
 
 for me the silver spring fillmore is not what i want.. i want it in DC! build it! the market is there.. you can have wilco play 3 nights at the 930 or 1 night at the new venue (or you can rent dar and we can all get screwed..that is not a music venue)...you do the math

Maybe because it is not finacially viable without getting the venue for free?  Hell I am sure the Black Cat (700 cap if I remember correctly), would build a 3-5k place if they got it for free, same with Seth, same with a bunch of others.  So lets have all these groups bid on it in a fair manner. [/b]

how can it not be viable? 930 club is selling out an overwhelming percentage of shows.. we all see this! they are leaving a lot of money on the table.. its too small or the acts that are playing it... when a venue is selling out such a high percentage of shows and when they are being forced to rent another venue (dar) for a bunch of them (ween, mmj, wilco, kings of leon, etc.) its clear that they need a bigger venue
 
 you have to make an investment of course..that requires some up front capital i suppose
 
 i also suppose that in 1995 people thought there was no way dc could support the 930 club in the location it went up.. it didn't sell out that often at the beginning.. i remember.. i was here...
 
 moreover imp argues that it would built the concert venue in silver spring without resorting to tax dollars right? so the market , unless i'm on crack, is there! they have admitted that they would do what live nation is doing without "subsidies" (of sorts).. so why don't they do it???
 
 I'm sorry.. IMPs position makes no sense and i think it amounts to not wanting to let live nation into the market...i hate live nation as much as the next guy but i also don't care for the high priced tickets IMP is charging or $5 buds at the 930...
 
 bottom line: IMP should build the mid size venue to serve the dc market.. they have profited most handsomely from the dc market and we need this so lets plow some of that money accruing from the 930 club into the midsize venue we need.. renting DAR is a lame solution that shortchanges the citizens of DC... that is not a good concert venue and should not be accepted as such.

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

none of this is going to matter when great depression #2 hits. you're not going to be able to charge your $70 oasis tickets or $125 mbv t-shirts when you have no credit.