Casinos in Oklahoma Are Competing With North Texas For A-List Entertainment

[Harry]

Clauses that stipulate when and where entertainers perform are nothing new, but one that seems to be siphoning off Dallas’s road shows recently made headlines in the Dallas Observer. As the alt weekly reported, the Choctaw Casino Resort and the WinStar World Casino Resort — in Durant and Thackerville, Oklahoma respectively — have fine print that extends across state lines. Many of the artists who perform at Choctaw or WinStar must adhere to a clause that prevents them from performing within 100 miles of the casinos within a specific period of time, usually three months before an event. Essentially, this forces North Texas venues to compete with Oklahoma casinos for concerts, comedy sets, and other entertainment.

Obviously, such clauses are a headache for concert bookers in the Metroplex. Robin Phillips, senior talent buyer at AEG—which books the Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie and Majestic Theatre and the AT&T Performing Arts Center in downtown Dallas—expressed concern about the casinos’ massive cash offers to the Observer. They’re able to pay roughly 20 to 25 percent more than most venues.

As vexing as this is for the suits in Dallas and sometimes Fort Worth and Arlington, it can also be annoying for the average fan.  Take a gander at comedian Lewis Black’s tour, and you’ll see that he’ll scream up political commentary in Austin, San Antonio, and Houston in September, but Dallas is nowhere to be found in his itinerary. Yet in November, he’ll hit up Thackerville. Beloved outlaw country singer Willie Nelson has a show at WinStar in November and zero gigs set for Dallas, Fort Worth, or Arlington.

read more:  http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/casinos-oklahoma-competing-north-texas-list-entertainment/

[greenminer]

Radius clauses...usually by the largest venue in a target area/audience.  They have the budget to lure the artists, and want to maximize the potential audience for a specific show.  Artists in general don't care for them; they want to play where and when no matter what.  All too often, however, the pay and/or exposure at the venue in question is too good to ignore.

Billy Bob's comes to mind.

Edited August 3, 2016 by greenminer

[oldguystudent]

I've never seen Willie Nelson.  I should maybe take advantage of that Nov. 11th date while I still can.

As for acts that compete for Winstar, they're generally much, much larger than I go to see, so no skin off my teeth.  I've been to one show each at Gexa and AAC.  Hated them both.  Might as well go sit on the grass in my back yard and throw a CD in.