SC Venue Crisis

On Tuesday, October 10, 2023, the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium announced that their show, Killer Queen, would be alcohol-free due to ongoing liquor liability issues. A day later, the auditorium’s CEO, F. Roger Newton, shared the post below.

I want to provide some more clarity and explanation to our social media post yesterday regarding our inability to sell alcohol at a concert we had last night. What follows is an email I send this morning to a couple of industry folks. I am posting to educate and explain our particular issue with the hope that our state leaders can better understand the urgency to fix this problem with liquor liability insurance.

From: Roger Newton <rnewton@crowdpleaser.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2023 9:31 AM

Subject: SPARTANBURG MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM ALCOHOL SALES

To recap:

Aug 4-we received cancellation notice from our liquor insurance company.

Oct 6-cancellation date

Oct 10-Received the Notice of Intent to Cancel from state of SC.

I spoke with the state this morning. This notice is not a revocation or suspension of our license. We have until Jan 2 to secure insurance or face a suspension or possible loss of our license. From now until then or until we get insurance, we cannot sell alcohol.

We have been trying to get insurance since Aug 4. Because we are a public assembly venue and not a bar or restaurant, I am being told that the pool of possible insurers is even more limited. I guess they view us as a higher risk. I would argue that we are actually a lower risk. We charge more for beverages, our fans don’t sit at a table or bar and drink one right after another. We shut sales off when the main act goes on stage. Etc. You get the point. Yet, I am told there are only 3-5 available companies willing to give us quotes.

I have surveyed other theaters and arenas in the state and they all have some type of arrangement with a third party contractor. That party holds the liquor license and secures the insurance. To my knowledge, we are the unique publicly owned public assembly venue in the state who does our own f/b. I have tried explaining that to Columbia to no avail.

All I have so far after over two months of searching are a couple of verbal quotes. I have yet to have anything in writing. One is for $100k in premium. One is for $50k in premium. Last year we had a RECORD YEAR SELLING ALCOHOL. WE DID $202K IN ALCOHOL SALES. Our liquor premium last year was $1,200 dollars. It doesn’t take a genius long to figure out that paying $100k for a policy and doing $200k in sales makes no business sense. Yet, if we don’t sell alcohol to events, the promoters bringing us events have no incentive to bring us shows and the public expecting to enjoy an adult beverage will be less likely to buy tickets.

To be blunt, and not a slight to our other events that we value greatly, but we will again be the home of dance competitions in the Spring, the occasional home and garden show, the occasional banquet, etc. Our Broadway shows, our concerts, will probably go away.

Ironically, our momentum over the past year has been headed in the right direction. People in the community are excited to come to events. We have had several sellouts this past year. Just yesterday, a major Spartanburg economic development person told me that what we are doing is helping Spartanburg attract industries and businesses to the county.

Our next alcohol event is a Broadway show on Nov 3. I remain hopeful that some company will write us a policy by then.

I have contacted and talked to everyone I know except my elected officials. They are next on my call list.

My apologies for the ranting but you can get a sense of my frustration.

F. Roger Newton

CEO

Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium

South Carolina is truly in the midst of a crisis.

Our legislators MUST act. We need lawsuit reform and we need it now. Visit scstatehouse.gov to find your legislators. Ask them to support the SC Justice Act and the SC Save Our Venues Act.