The 2012 DPAO/Toyota/Car-Freshner Summer Concert Series didn’t fare as well as organizers had hoped. With a $59,383 total profit, the Disabled Persons Action Organization has had to scale back plans for the second phase of its outdoor sensory-play area.

The $100,000 playground behind the William J. McClusky Center, 633 Davidson St., was completed this summer. Additional equipment and other elements will be added in the second phase, but not to the original specifications DPAO wished.

“It’ll be equipment based on what we have for a budget now,” said Timothy Dermady, DPAO corporate development director.

The 2012 concerts brought in $75,721 less than the 2011 series, Mr. Dermady said, but much of that reduction was a result of the loss from the Journey concert Aug. 14. While revenue totaled $370,653, expenses totaled $417,337, for a total loss of $46,684. The Journey show was the only concert this year that didn’t turn a profit.

“Ticket sales weren’t what we expected; we’d hoped to sell another 1,000,” Mr. Dermady said. “It was during the week, and we prefer concerts on a Friday or Saturday. It was a phenomenal act, but we (incurred) more cost than we thought.”

A spectacular light show came at the cost of DPAO having to get a larger stage than had been rented for previous concerts held outside the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds arena. Mr. Dermady said that with recent concert-stage collapses throughout the country, DPAO could not risk using a smaller stage for Journey and opening act Loverboy.

Classic rock still is one of the four genres DPAO will work with for its summer concert series, Mr. Dermady said; the others are comedy, children’s shows and country acts.

The biggest moneymaker again was country music. The July 6 Blake Shelton performance with opener Justin Moore had a $57,739 profit, with $366,887 in expenses and $424,626 in revenue.

“Country usually is the number one draw, and still is,” Mr. Dermady said. “Our agent said Luke Bryan is touring next year.”

The young country crooner is one of many music artists the agency has considered bringing to Watertown.

Meanwhile, Mr. Dermady said he was relatively surprised at the success of the July 28 Bill Cosby performance, as it made a $38,309 profit, with $88,401 in expenses and a $126,710 revenue.

The children’s show, an Aug. 4 performance of the Doodlebops with special guest Caillou, raised $10,019, as expenses totaled $56,484 and revenue totaled $66,503. Mr. Dermady said the Doodlebops concert didn’t do as well as the 2008 performance, because the group’s popularity has declined.

DPAO fundraising coordinator Tracie J. Patchen said the difficulty in bringing relevant, big-name acts to the area is their hefty price tag — some at more than $500,000 — while trying to maintain a reasonable ticket price.

General-admission tickets sold more quickly than reserved seating, Mr. Dermady said, because the former are lower in cost for each performance.

Another challenge is new parking fees DPAO faces from the City Council. DPAO and other promoters have to pay the city $1,500 in parking fees for shows held inside the municipal arena and $3,000 for outdoor events at the city-owned fairgrounds. It will be up to the concert promoter to decide how much to charge ticket-buyers for parking. In the past, city employees collected a parking fee from each car.

“Sure, it’d affect us, but hopefully we can recoup that somehow,” Mr. Dermady said.

He said DPAO is open to people calling the agency at 782-3577 to suggest concert acts for the 2013 season.

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer