OCEAN CITY — Roland E. Powell Convention Center Director Larry Noccolino can spend quite a bit of time pointing out all the idiosyncratic wonders of the town’s 1,200 seat Performing Arts Center. From the stellar acoustics to the sleek and award winning design, Noccolino calls the PAC a jewel that the resort has long been waiting for.
Yet, while the convention center is booked solid throughout the year, PAC is still finding its footing as far as finding the right kind of show to book in the beautiful room, and building up the programming in the venue that is independent from how the existing convention center clients use the room.
Noccolino sat down with The Dispatch to discuss the plans moving forward to bring top notch shows to the PAC and how that plan could quiet the so called “if-you-build-it-Sting-should-come” naysayers of the PAC’s early bookings.
Q: In just your first few years in this town as the Convention Center director, as you look at the growth of events like the Seaside Boat Show and you look at the growth of this building, do you see a concurrent growth between the building and the shows that book the building?
A: When I arrived here four years ago, we were at the beginning of Phase 1 of the expansion of the Convention Center, which was the bayfront ballroom and the dockside exhibit hall. If you look at both of those areas, before they were Phase 1, they were loading docks and you couldn’t see the vista outside of either expanse. We did cut down the space in the bayfront ballroom with the start of phase 2, which is the performing arts center, but with that expansion in Phase 1, what it did besides enhancing the view, was it gave us the opportunity to renovate both spaces, which we hadn’t done in a long time and we really needed.
Then came phase 2 of the project with the performing arts center. which fit in Hall C. Hall C was about 15,000 square feet. Dockside exhibit hall is a little bit better than 14,000 square feet, so that’s a pretty even trade. There’s no trade for the performing arts center. It’s beautiful. It’s won awards and everyone that has seen it thinks it’s magnificent.
Q: Much of the conversation about whether or not Ocean City needed a performing arts center and much of the negative thoughts about having one focused around that use of space. Many critics said that existing groups that used the building, like the Seaside Boat Show, may not have any use for it. Articulate how shows that have been coming here for years have evolved or used the space that is now available. Simply put, has anyone that books this room had a problem that the performing arts center is there?
A: There was so much apprehension when I first arrived about not so much phase 1, but the performing arts center phase and that concern over losing space. Well, we didn’t really lose space, we traded space. Let’s talk specifically about the boat show. The boat show has grown exponentially from year one, which was 41 years ago, to now. Charlie Dorman is the show promoter and also happens to be the Mayor of Snow Hill. He’s a great guy to work with, but there’s not a week that goes by where he doesn’t ask me when phase 3 is going to happen, and I don’t have an answer for him. He is anxiously awaiting that additional 25-35,000 square feet. He says he can fill it, and when he says that he snaps his fingers, and I know he has a waiting list. Another group that it has affected in a positive way, despite a lot of apprehension back in 2013 is the cheerleaders. They use (the performing arts center) all the time, and they love it. We made modifications to it, and built the stage out, and they love it.
Q: So, you are in this building every day, and you deal with the people who are using this room. I know the bookings aren’t down, and people are continuing to come back. So were those apprehensions unfounded in your opinion?
A: Yeah, they were totally unfounded. People don’t really like change, but I like change, and this is a change for the better. I mean, for being here as long as I’ve been here as a property owner, not just the director of this building, I think it was time. When I look at certain groups, like Starpower, they had one show. Since the performing arts center, we now how three weeks for Starpower instead of one with the American Legion filling right in between them in July. Our entire month of July is booked.
Q: Try and quantify just how busy this building is on a weekly basis.
A: I’ll give you some sure numbers, and these numbers go from Sept. 15, when we have the Realtors and Bikefest in, until the end of June which closes out with the Maryland Municipal League. We may have four timeslots (Thursday-Sunday) open during the time we are talking about. I just told you that July is closed out. August, we have one weekend left, and in September, we have a few weeks open and we have a lot of feelers out there to fill them. Recently, when we had a major weather event on the weekend of Jan. 24, we had 3,500 people in here. They didn’t cancel their event and they only had about 55 no-shows. The weekend after, we had Church of God, they had about 4,000-4,500 people in the building over the weekend. Last weekend, we had Youth for Christ with numbers approaching 5,000 people in the building between Friday and Sunday. This weekend, as you know is the boat show, I’m going to venture a guess, because I’m not privy to the exact numbers, but I think we’ll have upwards of 15,000 people through here this weekend.
Q: Convention centers around the country are trying to focus on the Monday through Wednesday bookings. Just like the city is trying to increase visitors and bookings in town during the early part of the week. What are some of the ideas and strategies to fill this building during the early parts of the week?
A: Our sales folks are on the road all the time. We have a regional sales manager and a national sales manager. The regional manager is all over Maryland, DC, Virginia and Southern Pennsylvania, and our national manager goes everywhere east of the Mississippi (River). Our biggest drawback is the lack of an airport. Of course, we have the Salisbury airport, but that’s very limited.
Q: There are people in town who were very excited about the room, but some are less than thrilled with the amount of shows that have been held at the performing arts center. Talk about the behind the scenes plan to further grow this room, not just in the number of shows, but also the types of shows.
A: I went to the City Council a few weeks ago and asked their permission to form a partnership with TEAM Productions. They are a local show promoter that does many things in Ocean City and beyond. They are viable, they have a track record, and that track record goes over a long period of time. I needed someone like that to promote this building because of, most importantly, buying power. We have $40,000 in our budget for fiscal year 2016 and FY17. What this does is increase our buying power from $40,000 to $80,000 in both years. With that added buying power, we can get better talent in our building and that’s what we are looking to do. At the same time, we share the profits and the expenses. Now, hopefully if I get the blessing of the Maryland Stadium Authority, it will be a win-win for all of us here. It will put improved talent in the performing arts center and it will really put us on the map a little bit. We are still in the crawling stages, and now we are looking to start walking. Then we want to start running. We are booking shows in here through 2017 and I’ve even had a few inquiries for 2018.
Q: I know you have had initial conversations with the Maryland Stadium Authority, but are you confident that they will be as supportive as the Mayor and City Council was in moving forward with this plan?
A: The Maryland Stadium Authority has been very supportive of us not only this building, but also the town. I can’t see why they wouldn’t be supportive of this.
Q: There’s a certain type of performer that you can book in a room like this that ends up being profitable. We’ve seen a lot of shows that have been target toward an older demographic. There has been hesitation to book so called “up and comer” bands because, to be frank, the younger audience has not shown up for shows at the Performing Arts Center. So, how do you build up interest in the building from the younger demographic and how important is it to have balanced programming in the PAC?
A: What goes well here now is this young adult/children plays. I’ve seen some of them come in here and have to have multiple shows because they would have sold the place out in one night. I think comedy could work and also musicals.
Bryan, we aren’t trying to make a ton of money on this performing arts center. A break even would be good for us as long as we put heads in beads, folks at the dinner tables, folks at the gas stations, people on the Boardwalk, and people spending money in the town. If we break even, that’s fine. People love to criticize, but I would say is before you criticize, come in, take in a show, see the room, but please don’t compare (the PAC) to the Freeman Stage or the Grand (Opera House) in Delaware. I don’t know if people know this but those facilities have what is called endowments or benefactors, and I’m not talking about a few hundred thousand dollars, it’s in the millions at both of those places. So, come out, give us a shot, and in fact, the next chance you have is to see Bill Haley Jr. and the Comets on March 26.
(To listen to the full conversation, click over to www.mdcoastdispatch.com/podcasts.)