8-29-08
Things You Should Know about the Promoters Ordinance
There is one thing we can say for sure about the proposed Event Promoters Ordinance: It will pass. The city council is bent on it. The mayor is bent on it. The city’s legal people have been working on it for years. The estimate is that it will likely become law in early September.
The other thing we can say for sure is that there will be unintended consequences.
But will it affect you?
Uh…maybe…probably not…unless somebody complains.
Clear?
Actually, what astonishes me most about the Promoters Ordinance is that many theatre people don’t know what it is or, if they know about it, they’re not sure how it will affect them.
The Event Promoters Ordinance has been five years in the making, and was a response to the E2 nightclub disaster, when 21 people were killed in a panic stampede. The owner and manager of the club were acquitted of wrongdoing. As was the event promoter. Yet, the city still feels that if the promoter, and others like him, had been licensed, the disaster wouldn’t have happened.
To get a license, potential promoters will have to be fingerprinted, have a criminal background check, and pay a biannual fee, ranging from $500 to $2000, depending on the size of the events the applicant wants to promote.
In addition, promoters will be required to have $300,000 worth of insurance—per event. That’s about $200-$400, depending on the event. According to Steve Paczolt, whose Paczolt Financial insures many theatres, there currently is no low cost insurance that for-profit companies or individuals can buy for multiple events at multiple venues. He’s looking to put together an annual package which will cost about $450 for five events.
It’s worth noting that many theatres and other performance venues already require renters to have insurance. And it’s a good idea for any business—especially one that deals with patrons—to have their own insurance.
The good news for theatres, as PerformInk previously reported, is that there are many exemptions in the ordinance. The most pertinent one is that non-profits are not required to get a license, “to the extent that the not-for-profit corporation personally plans, prepares or executes an amusement or event on its own behalf.”
That last part is what perplexes Angela McMahon of Chemically Imbalanced Comedy. They are non-profit, but they rent to a lot of improvisers and comedians who are not. Are those performers considered promoters? Do they have to kick in almost $1,000 to do their show, even before rent?
That is an issue with Paul Natkin of the Chicago Music Commission. Bands tend to not have not-for-profit status. Will a band that finally gets a gig at their local bar have to get the license?
Even though it’s not explicitly printed in the exceptions, city attorney Gregory Steadman says that those performers will not have to get a license. Being in your own show exempts you from the licensing process.
But Natkin points out that many local musicians earn extra dough by packaging bands to increase chances of getting gigs. Sometimes the band that the promoter plays in is part of that night’s performance. Sometimes it’s not. That promoter, according to Steadman, will indeed have to have a license. And Natkin says that since the license and insurance will cost more than the small promoter is likely to make, it will drive them either out of business or to the suburbs.
“What we’ve been saying all along is this is going to affect the bottom 20 percent of the music business,” says Natkin.
Steadman does not dispute that.
“If obtaining a license and insurance is going to make you not do it anymore, then unfortunately we’re going to lose some promoters,” says Steadman.
But let’s look at some more scenarios. A group of kids, just out of college, comes to Chicago with thoughts of starting a theatre. Or perhaps they just want to do that production of True West they’ve been dying to do for years. They’re not a 501(c)3. They rent a space, which is enough of a battle, and produce the show. Are they promoters?
Well, it depends.
If the people who always wanted to do the show are the actors in the show, or if they do the show at a place with seats bolted to the floor, then they don’t have to get a license. But if the person producing the show is not in it, not part of a non-profit and is renting a space that has chairs not bolted to the floor or—like CIC or ComedySportz or Second City or countless other places—has tables, then they do have to get a license.
Nobody can answer whether or not the director has to get a license.
The seats bolted to the floor is a big issue. Any venue that has fixed seats is exempt, and anyone who rents a fixed seat venue is also exempt from having to get a promoters license. Great. So, if you rent from, say, Theatre Building Chicago, you’re cool. Uh, well… If you rent the south theatre at TBC, you’re great, because those seats are bolted to the floor. But the other two theatres have the old chairs from Goodman’s Owen Theatre, which are tethered to each other, but not the floor. If, say Brian Posen’s old company, Broutil and Frothingham—a for profit, non-Equity company that produced shows at the Theatre Building—got either the north or the west theatre, Posen would have to get a promoters license. But if they got the south theatre, he wouldn’t. (Posen has since formed a non-profit, which produces Sketchfest.)
However, if a non-profit theatre were to rent the non-fixed seat theatres, they would not have to get a promoters license.
Steadman concedes the inequity in this. But, he points out, most event promoters aren’t out to do theatre, or even play in a 100-seat bar. And he cites studies that show that a venue with fixed seats is more conducive to crowd control.
“The non-fixed seating venues are more dangerous, because if a panic were to occur and someone stumbled over a chair, they can start an avalanche of chairs…and people can be trapped,” Steadman said.
But many theatres, not just the Theatre Building, have chairs that are tethered together. Steppenwolf’s garage, Chicago Shakespeare’s studio and the Goodman’s Owen are three examples.
“There are certainly scenarios where a row of chairs bolted together or tethered together would be less safe,” says Robert Shook of Schuler Shook, a theatre planning firm based in Chicago. But, adds Shook, “In reality it would be highly unusual for an entire row of chairs to get folded over on top of each other.”
Gary Rudoren (nee Ruderman) a former Chicago theatre architect and Annoyance Theatre member, agrees, though he can see a scenario in which tethered seats, in a panic atmosphere, can be pushed forward, restricting walking space in front of the seats. He points out, though, that there are strict occupancy codes that are different for non-fixed and fixed seats venues, which take into account possible emergency situations.
But E2 was supposedly over its occupancy code limit. Yet, neither the promoter nor the owner were held responsible.
Let’s look at one more scenario, commonly referred to as, “We’ll take the bar, you take the door.” Second City, ComedySportz, CIC and others often have this deal. They rent out their spaces relatively cheaply so that they can make money on liquor. In that situation, would the person renting the space be a promoter? And would they have to get a promoters license?
Second city vice president Kelly Leonard has talked to his lawyers, and they don’t seem to think the renters would need to do anything, other than rent.
“It excludes organizations that have full time employees running the events,” writes Leonard in an e-mail. “Even when we have renters in the Skybox, Second City handles all the elements of the actual venue—from box office to seating to stage management.” He also said that Skybox renters are covered under Second City’s insurance.
But, says Steadman, Leonard’s “statement is true only if the organization that owns the venue has a PPA or PAV license and is promoting its own event or is promoting the renters’ event. If the renter is promoting the event, then the renter would need the promoter license unless they fell into an exempt class, such as a not-for-profit organization.” And, he said, theatres would have to specifically add the renter to their insurance for it to be covered.
This brings up another question. How would someone know that the show at Second City or CIC or the Theatre Building is not an in-house production or is not being done by a non-profit organization? Part of the new ordinance requires promoters to display their license. Great. But if they don’t display anything, what’s going to tip off the city or anyone that they should have a license?
This question makes Chicago Music Coalition’s Natkin laugh.
“That’s a good question. I wish somebody had an answer.”
Natkin’s concern is that the ordinance is so vague that people are going to violate it without knowing.
“I’m guessing if you had everybody read the ordinance and you put an eventuality on the table, you would get five different answers.”
Steadman said enforcement rules in Chicago are complaint driven. In other words, unless something happens—or someone’s out to get you—it’s unlikely to be enforced very hard at the theatre or small promoter level.
There’s also another loophole for smaller promoters: if you’re part of the show, you don’t have to have a license. Let’s go back to the small music promoter scenario. The promoter might not be playing music in the show she packaged that night. But if she gets up on stage and introduces the bands, or even just gets up at the start and welcomes everybody, technically, she’s exempt.
So, will it affect you? Probably not. But you never know.