I really appreciate your extensive “consultant’s” analysis of this important subject and its very important public policy implications for the City. Unless I am missing something, it sure sounds to me that there is little justification for renovating Keller or for building a new theatre complex at PSU.
Odd to comment on my own article, but I find a statement that bears correction. According to a September 2025 report, Live Nation's new venue, once complete, will be a 62,000-square-foot building and will have 1,280 seats with a maximum capacity of 3,500 occupants. The article above quotes 1,200-1,500 - it's a misstatement or a typo. From the report, we may presume that this is 1,250 permanent seats, but with flexibility, one must assume, to add more - up to potentially 3,000. It is for this reason that I count this as one of two new venues coming on-line in mid 2026 and early 2027 to compete with the Keller Auditorium and Schnitzer seating. From a practical sense, it would be foolish for a tour producer like Live Nation to remove bookings from the 3,000 seat Schnitzer and not build a replacement venue of their own that meets similar occupancy needs. In the absence of contrary proof, we should assume their venue should hold events equal to both Keller and the Schnitzer properties. As the last two articles will discuss, the new competitive venues were likely known to create additional booking and management problems for the Portland'5 properties leading to METRO's timely decision to withdraw as manager of these city properties. At least I award them that business foresight, even without any evidence.
I really appreciate your extensive “consultant’s” analysis of this important subject and its very important public policy implications for the City. Unless I am missing something, it sure sounds to me that there is little justification for renovating Keller or for building a new theatre complex at PSU.
Odd to comment on my own article, but I find a statement that bears correction. According to a September 2025 report, Live Nation's new venue, once complete, will be a 62,000-square-foot building and will have 1,280 seats with a maximum capacity of 3,500 occupants. The article above quotes 1,200-1,500 - it's a misstatement or a typo. From the report, we may presume that this is 1,250 permanent seats, but with flexibility, one must assume, to add more - up to potentially 3,000. It is for this reason that I count this as one of two new venues coming on-line in mid 2026 and early 2027 to compete with the Keller Auditorium and Schnitzer seating. From a practical sense, it would be foolish for a tour producer like Live Nation to remove bookings from the 3,000 seat Schnitzer and not build a replacement venue of their own that meets similar occupancy needs. In the absence of contrary proof, we should assume their venue should hold events equal to both Keller and the Schnitzer properties. As the last two articles will discuss, the new competitive venues were likely known to create additional booking and management problems for the Portland'5 properties leading to METRO's timely decision to withdraw as manager of these city properties. At least I award them that business foresight, even without any evidence.
The story has been updated to correct the larger capacity projected at Live Nation.