The question of whether or not the impoverished city of Niagara Falls should be in the concert promotion business has already been answered – by Mayor Paul Dyster, whose idea it was, and the City Council, which has continued to provide funding for the Hard Rock Concert Series here.

In a city that cannot afford to keep its Department of Public Works office open  all day on weekdays, where the streets are a disgrace and the number of vacant, abandoned buildings will soon surpass the number in which the dwindling population chooses to live and do business, the concert promotions have cost the city somewhere between $800,000 in recent years.

And this year, our city fathers – in their infinite wisdom – have taken the first step toward promoting shows that don’t even take place in the city, but in the state park.

Think about it. The whole point of the concert series was to bring people into downtown Niagara Falls, where revenues from parking would more than make up for the cost to the taxpayers, Dyster said.

Even when the concerts were held downtown, parking revenues were flat. Now, with the popular Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra show being held on Goat Island, any money that might have been made will go directly into the coffers of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, located a bit more than 300 miles to the east of the city.

At the falls themselves, massive parking lots will make it possible for Buffalo Philharmonic fans to see the show without ever setting foot in Niagara Falls, despite the fact that Niagara Falls taxpayers are asked to foot the bill for the extravaganza.

Last week, the City Council turned down a request from Dyster for an additional $5,000 to help the poor old state of New York further subsidize an event it will make a tidy profit on.

But that doesn’t spare them the shame of authorizing $150,000 for the summer concert series along with an extra $50,000 for a New Year’s show in the first place.

Other municipalities such as Lockport and North Tonawanda have free concerts during the summer but there’s a big difference. In those municipalities, a real concert promoter is brought in.

The promoter pays the city for the privilege of staging the shows, books the bands, pays their guarantees, buys advertising and hires security, hoping that beer, food and souvenir sales will more than offset these costs and earn him a profit.

In Niagara Falls, the taxpayers pay for the bands, buy the advertising and provide security with police officers being paid time-and-a-half or double overtime. Meanwhile, the Hard Rock Café, which doesn’t invest a dime in the concerts, is given exclusive rights to the beer, food and souvenir concessions.

For the Hard Rock Café, part of a billion-dollar multinational corporation wholly owned by the Seminole Nation of Indians, it’s all free money.
“Places like mine do very few concerts in the summer,” said concert promoter and Rapid Theater owner John Hutchins. “Why would you come and pay me $35 for a ticket when you can go to free public concerts. The state is in the concert business, the county and the cities are in the concert business. They use my tax money to compete against me.”

Hutchins invested millions of dollars building the Rapids and did get a grant from the city of $150,000. Over the last 2.5 years he has done in the neighborhood of 100 concerts -- none of them funded by the city.

Because of the government funded free concerts, Mr. Hutchins said he does “weddings and reunions and corporate events in the summer.
“It is very difficult for us to put on concerts in July and August because we can’t charge for tickets when the government has free concerts everywhere from Art Park to Hard Rock,” he added.

Still, the mayor of the poorest and most crime infested city in all of New York defends the Hard Rock series.
Why not? He enjoys himself tremendously!

Following a 2010 appearance by Sugar Ray at the Hard Rock, lead singer Mark McGrath told the audience that the Niagara Falls show was the only one on the tour where the band had the opportunity to pound shots with the mayor backstage.

That same night, on the way to Darien Lake after the show, the band's tour bus was reportedly pulled over by state police and the driver charged with drunk driving. Mayor Dyster, we must assume, on his way home, employed a designated driver.

Interestingly, Sugar Ray was allegedly paid $30,000 for the Hard Rock concert. Last week, the Reporter put in a call to a source at Grabow of Beverley Hills, a booking agent that has the band.
Grabow – whose motto is “Putting the show biz into your biz” – specializes in corporate events, and also represents comedians, magicians and motivational speakers.

The base asking price for Sugar Ray when the band is out on tour and going to be nearby anyway?
$15,000.

This year’s Hard Rock concert lineup is particularly grim. Other than the aforementioned Buffalo Philharmonic, the premier acts are the Guess

Who, or at least the bass player and drummer from the Guess Who, and KC and the Sunshine Band, a 1970s disco group that has had 36 different members over the years, according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

Other headliners include bands you’ve never heard of like Sloan, Talas and Finger Eleven, all of whom will be leaving Niagara Falls with wads of your cash in their pockets and smiles on their faces.

The remarkable thing about the great rock and roll swindle known as the Hard Rock Café concert series is that it hasn’t managed to attract bigger acts, who would presumably be as eager for the easy money as the cast of has-beens and never-weres that have characterized the event since its inception.

The Nik Wallenda high wire walk that will take place this summer is an example of an event that will cost the taxpayers of Niagara Falls nothing, provide spectacular entertainment and help restore some of Niagara Falls ’ lost luster.

This is because it was handled by entertainment industry professionals looking to make a profit.

The Hard Rock concert series is an example of an amateur hour embarrassment.