CENTER DROPS SECOND CONCERT IN WEEK

Show Me Center Director David Ross has never had a worse week in promoting entertainment events.

Both The Pointer Sisters concert, scheduled for Tuesday, and the Kenny G concert, scheduled Oct. 13, were canceled.

The cancellations could cost the Show Me Center $25,000.

"I have only been involved with three cancellations," Ross said. "Unfortunately two happened in one week."

With only 300 tickets sold for The Pointer Sisters, Ross was forced to begin talking about canceling. The decision to cancel the show was reached by mutual consent with the band management and the William Morris Agency in Los Angeles.

"I saw the Pointer Sisters in 1985 when I was bringing events to Chattanooga (Tenn.) and it was a good show," Ross said.

The band had been off the road for "too long," he rationalized, blaming himself for making "a poor decision" to book them.

The band had just released a new album and had been doing well with corporate dates at triple the guaranteed price "I paid them," he said.

On Thursday, the four sisters were given their stars on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in Los Angeles.

"But there simply was no demand for that band here," he said.

Early indications shows are headed for trouble can be seen when ticket prices are too high, the show isn't good, the promotion isn't aggressive or the site is bad.

"When one of those factors gets out of sync, you've got problems," Ross said.

Tickets for Kenny G were $45.50, $35.50 and $25.50. A limited amount of patron tickets for a benefit concert for the St. Louis Symphony cost $50.

Ross said, "We went over and over with Kenny G's promoter about the fact that we thought ticket prices for the concert were too high."

But the promoter said he was hearing that from everybody.

Ross said he wanted to rent the building but didn't want to turn away the business.

"So," he said, "it was a case of letting someone take a chance on committing financial suicide and still trying to take the business."

Although Ross will likely lose money from the Kenny G show, he said the promoter will take a bigger financial loss.

"Kenny G went with another promoter and got his act booked at the Fox" in St. Louis, Ross said. "The promoter he dropped will probably lose $200,000. I'm sure he's using more Rolaids right now."

Tickets for the Kenny G show at the Fox were reduced by $5.

In an attempt to boost ticket sales for the Pointer Sisters concert, Ross this week slashed prices from $20 to $10.50. After he reduced the price, he sold 45 tickets. Overall 300 tickets were sold by Thursday, forcing the cancellation of the concert.

Ross thought he did everything possible to save the show and noted that there were times he had gone with shows even though he knew the shows might lose money. At those times the effort was to keep the schedule intact and the fans happy.

Of the Pointer Sisters, he said, "This was simply too great of a loss to absorb."

Ross said he would have suffered a financial loss of $40,000 if he would have held the concert.

"As distasteful as a cancellation is, we were able to substantially reduce our loss by not continuing with the date," Ross said.

Ross said recent cancellations won't change the way he does business with promoters.

"You treat promoters like kings because they're the ones who take the biggest risk," he said. "We deal with these people all the time. They have been able to bring us good entertainment in the past and there is no reason to think they won't in the future."

Ross said upcoming events aren't in trouble at the box office.

Some events that were doing fine were The Royal Lipizzaner Stallions and the Alan Jackson concert. The Jackson concert has sold as many as 5,000 tickets. Ticket prices for the Royal Stallions were $16.50 and $12.50 and for the Jackson concert $21.

And, at $16 tickets, "The Wolfman Jack '60s Party is doing fine.

"If anything," Ross said, "I think we probably saturated the month with too many acts and that gave the public too many choices."

Ross said he tries to provide a variety of entertainment for the region.

Because there isn't a crystal ball to evaluate decisions, Ross consults trade publications, other promoters, record stores and radio stations to predict demand for particular shows.

"Obviously we missed the target on this show," Ross said.

Refunds for all Pointer Sisters tickets will be available at outlets that sold them beginning Tuesday. After 30 days, refunds will only be available at the Show Me Center.