Dead & Company — the Grateful Dead offshoot featuring guitarist John Mayer — brought the University of Colorado more than a touch of green last summer, netting the school’s Athletic Department nearly $700,000 in profit during two July concerts at Folsom Field.
Though details of the deal CU struck with concert promoter AEG Live are a secret, a campus spokesman would share that the CU Athletic Department made $695,373.52 after expenses for the shows on July 2 and 3.
The profit includes a $250,000 rental fee for the use of the stadium.
Lance Carl, CU’s associate athletic director for business development, community partnerships and non-game-day events, said he was pleased with the profit margin for the two shows. His plan is for Folsom to host concerts every summer moving forward, so that’s money the Athletic Department can count on.
“That’s a number we can build into our budget every year,” Carl said.
The university is planning for $80 million to $85 million in expenses in 2016-17, including nearly $10 million for debt repayment.
This year, the university will start making payments on money it borrowed to fund a $160 million athletic facilities renovation and expansion project crews wrapped up in 2016.
“All net revenue from the concert will be applied toward our debt service and/or overall operating budget expenses,” said Cory Hilliard, associate athletic director and the department’s chief financial officer.
Trade secrets
The university declined to share any documents with the Daily Camera that explained the financial workings of the two concerts, citing a section of the state open records law that allows proprietary or trade secret information to remain confidential.
Carl did share that the university and AEG Live split expenses for the two shows evenly, though it’s not known what those expenses were beyond the $100,000 the athletic department spent to buy out three CU Shakespeare Festival performances scheduled during the concerts.
The band — which includes Grateful Dead singer-guitarist Bob Weir and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, plus Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti — ended a 15-year live-music drought at CU’s football stadium.
Prior to the 2016 concerts, Folsom hadn’t hosted a concert since 2001, when the Dave Matthews Band visited Boulder.
Concerts were a summer staple at Folsom Field in the 1970s and 1980s. But the university has only staged a few since then because concertgoers sometimes drew raucous fans who used nearby lawns as restrooms, drank too much, took too many drugs and caused massive traffic jams.
Dead & Company drew 26,000 fans on the first night and 24,000 on the second night. On the first night, police said they issued two summonses for trespassing, ejected people involved in two fights and took three people to the hospital. On the second night, police recorded one arrest for assault and 12 hospital transports.
‘Bob Weir loves Folsom Field’
School officials deemed CU’s foray back into rock ‘n’ roll a success and the band will return to Folsom Field on June 9 and 10.
“I was backstage with (Dead & Company’s) manager on Sunday night and he mentioned to me during the concert, ‘Bob Weir loves Folsom Field like no other venue they’ve ever played,'” Carl said. “That meant a lot to me and that’s why they’re coming back this year.”
Carl applauded the hard work of CU and AEG Live staffers who made the 2016 concerts possible.
“We were very happy with the overall outcome of the concert and the ease with which everything went through,” he said.
Dead & Company will be the only group to play Folsom in 2017, but music fans can expect at least two acts in 2018, according to Carl. He said he’s also exploring winter event possibilities for the stadium.
One of the goals for the Athletic Department’s newly renovated facilities was to generate new revenue by hosting events. Already, that dream is coming to fruition. Carl said the facilities have hosted corporate events, weddings and other gatherings.
“When people — event planners or wedding planners — come and see the event space we have here, they are blown away,” Carl said.
Sarah Kuta: 303-473-1106, kutas@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/sarahkuta
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