After the gala opening of the Performing Arts Center, even if it's delayed until February 2006, comes another gargantuan task: paying to run it. Paying for the electricity for the special elevator that can make the elephant disappear in the opera Aida (and cleaning up afterward). Running a new ticketing system that can offer single-price packages for performances by the four resident companies, Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet, Concert Association of Florida and New World Symphony. Bringing in that Spanish-language Broadway series from Buenos Aires.

So far, the people who will run the center haven't figured out how to do it.

At this point $15.2 million a year in expenses has been identified but only $12.5 million in revenue, leaving a $2.7 million yearly deficit.

''As it stands now, we figure we can break even by the fourth year,'' says Michael Hardy, president of the Performing Arts Center Trust, which will operate the center when it's finished. Not good enough, he admits.

And closing the gap will be an uphill climb in a community that presents special challenges to fundraising for the arts.

First, Miami's PAC will be the third center opening to serve the 4.8 million residents of South Florida. There's also the $57 million Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale and the $55 million Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in Palm Beach.

In Philadelphia, by contrast, the new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is the only center for 5.1 million surrounding residents.

Second, with the collapse of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, the PAC is left with only four resident companies. They're scheduled to fill only 125 nights a year of the combined total of 730 nights available in the PAC's two biggest performance halls.

That's less than 20 percent. And, since resident companies pay lower rent than commercial acts, they will provide an even smaller percentage of PAC revenues.

It's not unusual. Even at the Kimmel Center, where eight resident companies fill 75 percent of the nights, they provide only about 30 percent of the revenue.

So far, the Miami PAC expects yearly operating revenues of:

• $1.4 million from Miami-Dade County's Convention Development Tax or ``bed tax.''

• $640,000 a year in interest income from a $21-million endowment being raised by the PAC Foundation.

• Up to $250,000 from the Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs Department.

• $3 million or less from the four resident companies.

• An unknown but crucial amount from performances by commercial acts from Wayne Newton to Cirque du Soleil to the Orquestra de Sao Paulo.

Hardy says the bed tax money is already committed, so it won't be affected by the drive to build a new baseball stadium for the Florida Marlins.

ENDOWMENT ON TIME

The PAC Foundation is on track to deliver its $21 million operating endowment on time, in addition to the $42.2 million it has promised for construction of the center, says executive director Nancy Herstand.

It has raised the money with programs as big as selling the naming rights to the ballet/opera house to Sanford and Dolores Ziff for $10 million and to the symphony hall to Carnival Cruise Lines for $10 million, and as small as selling individual bricks for the PAC plaza to kids and families for $100 each. Naming rights for the entire PAC are being offered for $20 million.

Preferred seating is being sold for $50,000 per seat in the orchestra, with boxes seating six to eight patrons on sale for $150,000 to $1 million -- plus the price of tickets to individual events.

Aware of the PAC's operating deficit, Herstand said her group will redouble its efforts to raise even more money after it has provided the $21 million endowment.

''We want to be sure they get off the ground properly,'' she says.

Another crucial point to raising operating money is the number of performances by groups other than the resident companies.

Across the nation, Hardy says, the average ballet/opera house has performances on 60 percent of available nights, and symphony halls are busy on 40 percent of the nights.

Since Miami's four resident companies will fill the two halls less than 20 percent of the time, it's crucial to augment that with performances by commercial acts that pay a full rate.

COMMON PRACTICE

All performing arts centers do this in varying degrees. At the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, such upcoming acts include singer Wayne Newton, jazz artist Peter Nero and an off-Broadway spoof of nuns called Late Nite Catechism.

At the Kimmel Center more than half of the operating revenue comes from such non-resident acts as violinist Pinchas Zukerman, jazz/pop/funk singer Cassandra Wilson and Sharon, Bram & Friends, a children's show with life-size puppets and an audience sing-along.

Bringing in such acts to the Miami PAC is the daunting job of just-hired programming manager Justin Macdonnell, a former Australian arts promoter with extensive experience in Latin America.

''I have the most exciting job in Miami,'' he says. ``To balance the work of the resident companies with a whole lot of other things drawn from every art form and as many parts of the world as possible.''

UNIQUE MIX

Given Miami's audience and a new telephone survey of local audience tastes, Macdonnell envisions a different, uniquely Miami mix here, including jazz, Latin pop and rap and even hip-hop in the finely-tuned symphony hall.

''I don't see why not,'' he says. ``They play in larger venues than that.''

Macdonnell also envisions such acts as Cirque du Soleil and major Latin stars such as Argentine diva Mercedes Sosa or cabaret artist Astrid Haddad, and classical acts from Europe, Latin America, Asia, and around the world.

GAME PLAN

Beyond that, Hardy hopes to narrow the $2.7-million gap with:

• An extended Broadway Series, with at least five weeks of Broadway shows during the winter season and additional shows during the summer.

• More opera performances. The new opera hall will have two separate side stages that can be moved onto the main stage, making it possible to stage two operas at once on alternating nights.

• Shows with local and national performers produced and presented by the PAC itself.

''We need to get a share of the profits,'' Hardy says. ``We don't have that now.''

• Spinoff income from selling pay-per-view TV rights for broadcasts of shows by touring companies.

• More shows aimed at kids, which the survey said will appeal to Hispanic audiences -- by groups such as the New Victory Theater of New York, which specializes in stage adaptations of children's classics.

• Increased efforts to rent out the PAC to corporations at premium prices for gala balls, stockholder meetings, and private performances.

Says Hardy: ``At Lincoln Center only 15 percent of the use of the hall is corporate rentals, but it produces 55 percent of the rental revenue.''

Adds Macdonnell: ``We'll even rent the lobby space for office parties, weddings and bar mitzvahs.''

With just over two years before the gala opening, Miami's PAC managers have a long way to go in covering the deficit.

They vow to do it. Hardy says breaking even the fourth year isn't good enough: ``We're going to keep working until we can do it in the first year.''

Fuente: The Miami Herald
Noviembre - 2003