High expenses lead to no profit for CAB on Timeflies concert

Despite selling over 1,800 tickets to Timeflies in the DakotaDome, high expenses led to the University of South Dakota Campus Activities Board not making a profitfrom the March 31 concert.

“While we did make more on ticket sales for this show than we did on any other show in the past, expenses for the show were greater than they have ever been for a concert, so CAB did not make a profit on the show,” CAB advisor Nathan Hofer said.

CAB is still waiting on the total revenue generated by the concert, Hofer said.

However, CAB public relations coordinator Arianne Wunder said the lack of profits does not phase the organization from it’s intended purpose.

“CAB’s overall mission is to not make a profit off our events, but rather to bring diversified entertainment to the students and community so they can have an opportunity to have fun on campus,” she said.

Timeflies was  first major concert hosted at USD since rapper Mac Miller in Oct. 2011, a concert that drew approximately 1,100 to Aalfs Auditorium.

Hofer said while he felt the campus reaction to the concert was strong, organizing a concert of the same scale might have to wait.

“(CAB) is very happy about the student response to the show and I personally felt that the show ran very smoothly from every administrative aspect in the DakotaDome,” he said. “ These things do give us a strong base to hold events of this magnitude in the future, although, financially, it will likely be a few years before we can reach this point again.”

Last Monday’s concert was the first time USD hosted an artist inside the DakotaDome since 2003, when Incubus came to town.

Senior Laine Greblunas said she has been attending concerts in each of her years here, with Timeflies being the most impressive.

“I liked it a lot more because it was in the Dome and it was really cool that they were able to put a stage up with tons of lights and big screens, so it felt big without having to pay that much,” she said. “If they can do this every year, I’d attend. At the same time I wouldn’t look to spend more than I already did. I would prefer something like this every year, but I understand the budget could be tight.”

As far as revenue is concerned, tickets for Timeflies ran from $10-20 for USD students and $20-30 for non-students.

Revenue made from the concert’s 1,800 plus ticket sales is returned to a “on-campus account created to provide for a major concert” Hofer said. They are also planning to experiment with presale tickets vs normal tickets to determine which will generate the most revenue for these two options.

“The money to put on this show took about five years to build to get to a point where we could hold a show like Timeflies,” he said. “ Our budget comes from SGA, so a bigger show does not necessarily determine a larger budget as all of the student organizations are funded from the same pool of money.”

CAB will begin a process of planning for next year’s events, and concerts will begin as soon as SGA has appropriated funds.

Being made up of students involved in university organizations and communities ranging from fraternity and sorority life to theater, Hofer said CAB’s ability to represent the students’ wants is something he is proud of.

“They have a wide range of interests and passions and interact with a multitude of students across their varying activities so they are very connected to what the student body is interested in,” he said.  “I believe that Timeflies is an excellent example of this.  While there is no single event that can be planned that will hit every student’s interest level, the Timeflies concert was well received and attended by our students as a whole and our CAB members were the driving force behind bringing that show to campus.”

CAB holds a wide variety of on-campus events all-year round, including comedian Pete Lee who performs Friday in Aalfs Auditorium at 7 p.m.

“In some ways, it is unfortunate that there have been many events that CAB has held that have had minimal attendance and Timeflies is the one event that people did take notice of,” Hofer said.

Photo: The hip hop duo Timeflies performs for students during their March 31 performance in the DakotaDome. (Rebecca Kroeger/The Volante)