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By Kevin Hawkins, CFE
When I came to work at Trinity University way back when, it was a small
private school, nestled on a hill overlooking downtown San Antonio.
However, throughout the 1980s, the university embarked on a campaign to
evolve from a well-known regional institution into a national and
internationally recognized university. The student population has remained
somewhere around the 2,300 mark, with about 250 faculty members and another
400 or so full-time staff. However, that’s where the similarities end and
the evolution begins.
Out of the Ordinary
Thanks to supportive, generous alumni and friends, Trinity has
created a significant endowment that allows it to remain small while
providing a high-quality education on a first-rate campus. Trinity has
recently completed a major renovation of its art, music and drama
facilities. What makes us a little out of the ordinary, or a lot out of the
ordinary, is that we also have Laurie Auditorium, a 2,709-seat venue that
will seat every student and professor on campus.
Over the years we have hosted or booked shows like Duran Duran, Bill Cosby,
BB King, Lincoln Center Jazz and even Fleetwood Mac way back before Rumours.
We have several endowed lecture series that bring in internationally
acclaimed Nobel Laureates and virtually every major political leader from
around the world.
Like any university, large or small, the bills have to be paid — so we rent
out the auditorium. Sometimes though, the university will provide the
auditorium at no charge, but other times the university gives away part of
it and charges for the rest.
How often have we as university venue managers been faced with an on-campus
client who wants to provide your facility free of charge to an off-campus
user?
Like many of you, we’ve developed a sliding scale fee structure that
attempts to accommodate all our users’ needs. Most on-campus users, directly
related or sponsored by the university, get the building and frequently all
expenses waived, while some are charged “at cost” fees.
There are also potential clients with a very close connection to the campus
who must be accommodated. Sometimes they are sister institutions without a
place big enough to meet, or local high schools who can’t afford the larger
municipal facilities. This is where a flexible fee structure can be useful
to all parties. The client gets the use of our facilities at a nominal cost
while we continue to develop one of the most valuable commodities around,
good will and community involvement.
Making it Pay
Commercial clients are also a valuable asset to a venue like
Laurie. The ticket-buying public pays full price for admission, food and
beverage, and merchandise, and it provides the auditorium with a valuable
facility use fee. Are these the really demanding constituents or the ones
who pay the bills? A good portion of our “real” revenue comes from concerts
and paid event sales, either directly from rent, box office fees, F&B,
merchandise sales or parking. Labor costs are marked up, along with catering
and facility fees, which help to improve revenue streams — just like
commercial buildings. This is an important source of revenue that helps to
offset the real expenses of the building.
However, in reality at a small private like Trinity this can actually be
only a small portion of what it takes to operate a 20,000-sq.-ft. building.
Laurie will always be dependent on the university for its overall budget.
Ultimately the bottom line is defined not just by a financial return but a
return in positive community relations.
Like all universities, Trinity is an important community asset. Small
private schools like us have a unique position to play in our community
because of our accessibility. We tend to be less complex and more open to
our users. We are thankfully less encumbered by state or municipal
regulation and, dare I say, faster on our feet. This does allow us to
provide at low cost — or no cost — special event services that larger
schools or privately managed venues can’t provide.
The important factor to schools like Trinity isn’t necessarily revenue or
paying for what is an inherently expensive space but the ability to provide
the intangible — the space where a child from the San Antonio community can
see a play or a symphony for the first time, or the place where our students
and the community can come together to hear a Nobel Prize winner or a former
head of state discuss important matters affecting us all.
We too walk that fine line so many in our industry do, between the
commercial and the community. But in reality it is our constituents that
make us tick. No matter how easy or demanding they are, without them this
would just be another job. Where’s the fun in that?
Kevin Hawkins, CFE, is
director of the Laurie Auditorium at Trinity University in San Antonio. |
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