Cynthia Anzalotti makes a persuasive case for all that the Springfield Performing Arts Development Corp. and the two venues it runs—CityStage and Symphony Hall—contribute to the city, starting with some hard figures: over the course a year, the two theaters employ about 180 people, and bring about 200,000 people to downtown Springfield and $4.2 million into the local economy, according to Anzalotti, the organization’s president.
Then there are the less tangible, but still important, contributions the venues make: bringing a diverse selection of arts and entertainment to the region; providing a home for civic events like school graduations and the Public Forum lecture series; serving as an important anchor to Springfield’s, and the region’s, cultural scene.
But, Anzalotti warns, all that could be put in serious jeopardy by the “resort casino” proposed just down the MassPike from Springfield in Palmer. Specifically, she and others warn, the threat comes from the 2,600-seat theater expected to be part of the casino—a theater that many worry would simply roll over the competition, putting out of business smaller venues like Springfield’s and other local theaters around the Valley and around the state.
With the Legislature expected to take up a casino bill shortly—and with House Speaker Robert DeLeo on board with the plan—performing arts organizations are pressing lawmakers to consider the effects casino theaters would have on these smaller venues, and on the economies of their home communities. If the Legislature does approve resort casinos in Massachusetts, they’d like to see significant restrictions placed on the sizes of the casino theaters, to offset their effects on existing venues.
“After years of dedication and hard work to serve our community we face a critical threat from ‘resort’ casinos and the performance venues that will be an integral part of them,” Anzalotti wrote in an article she’s distributing in support of the effort. “A resort casino anywhere in Massachusetts, save possibly the far eastern edge of the state, will almost certainly deal a fatal blow to CityStage [and] Symphony Hall.”
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Seventy miles from CityStage’s front door—about an hour’s drive— there is already a major resort casino: the Mohegan Sun, in Uncasville, Conn. Mohegan Sun has a long calendar of upcoming shows, featuring the kind of big-name performers who can be counted on to sell tickets: Conan O’Brien, Bon Jovi, Ringo Starr, Alan Jackson, Michael Buble, Carole King and James Taylor. Not much further away, in Ledyard, Conn., Foxwoods casino boasts its own formidable lineup of upcoming shows: Carrie Underwood, Norah Jones, Jerry Seinfeld, Lily Tomlin, Diana Ross.
That’s pretty stiff competition for venues like CityStage, which has just 479 seats in its largest theater, or even the 2,611-seat Symphony Hall. Resort casinos like those in Connecticut offer a host of attractive amenities to showgoers, even those with little interest in gambling: massive, free parking garages; numerous restaurants and shops; a generally clean, secure environment. Free-standing downtown venues, in contrast, can’t offer that easy, one-stop experience; theatergoers likely have to pay to park, for instance, and search out a restaurant before the show. Some communities, including Springfield, also have to contend with patrons’ fears about being safe on downtown streets after dark.
Theaters are a key element to the success of resort casinos, drawing in customers, who, it’s hoped, will then stick around to gamble. Typically, casino theaters serve as “loss leaders,” places where operators are willing to lose money for the bigger bucks they will bring in elsewhere: at the games tables and slot machines where they make their real money. That gambling revenue is enough for the casinos to fork out significant sums to book a performer like Seinfeld, or give away free tickets or other perks to draw in potential gamblers.
Smaller, independent venues like CityStage and Symphony Hall don’t have that luxury—and suffer by their proximity to venues that do. By way of example, Anzalotti pointed to two Lord of the Dance shows booked at Symphony Hall, on May 6 and 7. The show cost her $125,000, she said, but seemed like a great investment. The popular Irish dance show is a reliable hit, and looked to be a strong way to wrap up the current season. Ticket prices range from $26.50 to $57.
One problem: after those shows were booked in Springfield, a Lord of the Dance show was added to Mohegan Sun’s line-up, as a “very special performance” on Mother’s Day—just two days after the Springfield shows. The ticket cost: $20 for all seats.
“That’s the buying power they have,” Anzalotti told the Advocate. “They’re burying my show.” Her venues have already lost the opportunity to book major shows, like Seinfeld, to the deeper pockets at the Connecticut casinos, she said. Meanwhile, Foxwoods’ booking of touring Broadway shows like Hairspray pose a threat to Symphony Hall’s ability to book those kinds of popular musicals and plays.
The problem would only get worse with another casino theater that much closer in Palmer. In that case, Anzalotti said, Symphony Hall and CityStage wouldn’t even have the opportunity to compete with the casino for audience—as it at least will be able to do with the (admittedly lopsided) competition for Lord of the Dance fans. With a closer competing venue, the Springfield venues would likely be elbowed out by “radius restrictions,” contractual agreements that ensure that two closely situated theaters don’t book the same show or performer within a certain time frame. Given the large sums of money that casinos have to book and advertise big shows, Anzalotti said, smaller venues just won’t be able to compete.
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If CityStage and Symphony Hall were to close, Anzalotti said, the effects would ripple far beyond the number of venue employees put out of business. The theaters, she noted, hire police details for big events, buy ads in local newspapers, hire local graphic designers and printers, attorneys and accountants and other professionals, and draw in visitors who patronize Springfield hotels, restaurants and bars, even parking lots and garages.
By contrast, she noted, resort casinos are, by design, closed systems. Once visitors enter the casino grounds, great pains are taken to keep them there, so they will spend their money at the theaters, shops, restaurants and hotels. “It is ironic that the case being made for resort casinos in Massachusetts is based on the economic benefit they will allegedly create, when so much evidence points to exactly the opposite effect,” Anzalotti wrote. “How can we be expected to believe that a resort casino will bring one dollar of economic activity to the surrounding area, when that casino’s business model is built around keeping people from leaving the building? No windows, no clocks—nothing to remind gamblers that there’s anywhere they might want to be other than at blackjack tables or slot machines.”
And, she added, much of the money made by casinos would leave Massachusetts, going to out-of-state owners who wouldn’t necessarily hire local firms to handle their business.
Evan Plotkin, president of the Springfield real estate company NAI Plotkin, believes that a strong cultural scene is the key to the city’s revitalization. He envisions Springfield finding a new energy through an influx of artists and creative professionals, drawn by the city’s beautiful architecture and affordable rents.
“I really think the rebirth of the city [will come] by attracting artists to the city, creating somewhat of an artists’ colony in the city,” Plotkin said. In turn, he predicted, the newcomers would attract new businesses: bookstores and music stores, coffee shops, boutiques, galleries. And performing arts venues would play an important part in that scene.
“If we’re pursuing artists, and we’re trying to attract that segment of our population to Springfield, it would be devastating to have venues like CityStage and Symphony Hall and the Paramount Theater, which is coming back … be crippled or severely disadvantaged because of the casino that is to our east,” Plotkin said. “We need more people coming downtown, not fewer.”
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Springfield isn’t the only city whose arts community is keeping a wary eye on the casino proposal. Anzalotti is working with a coalition of representatives from other venues around the state that would be affected by a large casino theater. That list includes Lowell’s Memorial Auditorium (which not long ago underwent a major renovation, funded by a $1 million grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Commission), Worcester’s Hanover Theater, and Pittsfield’s Colonial Theater, regarded as a linchpin in that city’s revitalization efforts.
Anzalotti stresses that the group isn’t taking a position on the larger question of whether casinos should be allowed in Massachusetts. Rather, the members are simply asking that if casinos are allowed, lawmakers take steps to make sure they don’t do irreparable damage to the smaller venues that already play an important role in the economy.
Together, the theaters have been lobbying lawmakers to support a provision, to be included in any casino bill, to limit the size of theaters attached to a resort. One draft version of that amendment would limit each casino to no more than four entertainment venues with no more than 100 seats per venue. An alternative version would allow casinos one larger theater with no more than 350 seats. In addition, the proposal would ban the casinos from using exclusivity clauses that restrict the shows or performers they book from also booking at other theaters in the area.
Last month, a legislative task force on performing arts, put together by the House Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development, released a report that underscored many of the concerns voiced by independent theaters. “Gaming and the performing arts are competing for some of the same discretionary spending of consumers while operating under significantly different business models,” the report noted. “Gaming venues offer headline performances to draw patrons to their facility, under the assumption that once they are there they will spend money gambling.
“Since the main source of revenue from the event is not the sale of tickets but from gambling, these gaming venues are able to pay more for these performers and often set lower ticket prices than non-gaming organizations,” the report continued. “This makes it difficult for existing performing arts organizations to compete for recreation dollars and for performers, and is cause for concern for the health of the cultural sector, which creates local jobs and stimulates the local economy.”
The report included several recommendations to offset the potential damage to smaller venues, including requiring that 10 percent of gaming revenue and licensing fees paid to the state go to the Mass. Cultural Council, which gives grants to arts organizations. The report also suggested limits on the sizes of casino theaters and a ban on exclusivity agreements.
Given the importance of live performances to the casinos’ business models, such restrictions are likely to meet with strong resistance from casino operators and their lobbyists. Still, Anzalotti said she’s gotten a receptive audience from the legislators she’s contacted about the proposed amendment. While not all have agreed to support the proposal, she said, they’ve been open to hearing the theaters’ argument. Some of the legislators, she added, were surprised to learn just how big the proposed casino theater would be.
State Rep. Angelo Puppolo (D-Springfield) told the Advocate that he supports the effort to protect the local venues. “My main interest is protecting CityStage and Symphony Hall and ensuring they remain vital and self-supporting,” said Puppolo, who describes himself as a big fan of the theater. “To lose that would be not only a huge void for downtown, but a huge, huge void for culture in the city of Springfield. We can’t have that.”
While Puppolo said he still hasn’t reached a decision on the larger casino issue, he wants to make sure that any proposal includes the interests of western Massachusetts—and, in this case, the interests of its cultural scene. “We’re trying to do what we can in a fair and reasonable way to keep [CityStage and Symphony Hall] alive,” he said. “I don’t want to see them go dark, to use a theater term.”
