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Wolgamott: Arena will get concerts
By L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Monday, January 16, 2012 3:00 pm

Want proof that the Pinnacle Bank Arena will have no problem drawing shows to Lincoln?

Take a look at Saturday night’s Blake Shelton Pershing Center concert.

That show drew 6,200-plus to the 55-year-old city auditorium, a number that was slightly reduced by the show’s expansive staging. But an additional 300 or 400 seats wouldn’t have filled the demand for a concert that sold out quickly.

Had the arena now under construction in the north Haymarket been open, Shelton likely would have drawn about 10,000 people there. That would be well shy of a sellout in the new building, but still a viable, profitable show.

Shows by rising stars not quite at the 15,000-20,000 seat range, such as Shelton, have become a Pershing staple of late, and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. To steal a line from Paul Simon, “every generation throws a hero up the pop charts,” and those new pop (and pop country) heroes and heroines will still need a place to play on the way up, especially in a welcoming market like Lincoln.

But that’s just the start of what appear, a couple of years out, to be promising concert possibilities for the new arena.

Lincoln is an untapped market for major shows. At somewhere in the 16,000-seat range, the arena will accommodate all but the biggest tours, and promoters are eager to bring acts to the building when it opens in late 2013.

It’s impossible to predict who will play the first concert at the arena. But it will be a big name, and it will be followed by two or three others. In fact, the problem for the arena may not be too few concerts, as those who opposed its construction argued, but too many.

Without question, the Lincoln arena and Omaha’s CenturyLink Center will compete for some shows, but that’s good for both. Many tours have multiple legs and could play both cities with months between performances.

There is, however, one advantage for Lincoln, at least for some shows. Lincoln has about 30,000 college students, the majority attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which is just a few blocks from the new arena site.

In the past, artists like John Mayer have expressed a desire to play the college town, but no venue was big enough to hold the show. With the new arena, that won’t be a problem.

Saturday night’s show revealed another source for concertgoers for the new arena. Sitting next to me was a young couple who drove in from Broken Bow and a group of their friends who live in Lincoln.

Shelton was the first concert they’d come to Lincoln to attend, simply because he was the first big act they wanted to see to come to Pershing.

The new arena will draw similar if not bigger names. Those sitting near me agreed that those artists, particularly of the country variety, would bring in fans from west of Lincoln, who, they were quick to note, would have an hour shorter to drive than if they were going to concerts in Omaha.

It likely will be two years before the Pinnacle Arena hits its stride as a concert venue. It’s scheduled to open in the fall of 2013. But with Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball taking up many of the dates in late November and December, a string of concerts probably won’t happen until early 2014.

That those concerts will come is a certainty. Shelton’s Saturday night show is evidence of that.