Published: July 03, 2008 12:37 pm            

Rosebud Theatre officials making changes

Changes are under way at The Rosebud Theatre in Effingham that aim to strengthen its chances at viability. Rosebud President Martin Hubbard resigned from his position last week among rumors the Rosebud was in financial trouble. Several attempts to reach Hubbard were unsuccessful.

At the June 18 Effingham City Council meeting, commissioners approved accelerating the final payments of the city’s $1.2 million grant to Across Tickets, a ticket selling/marketing arm of the Rosebud.

“The grant payment was accelerated at the request of the Rosebud and the consent of the Effingham City Council,” said Tourism/Marketing Director Kim Wiedman.

Economic Development Director Todd Hull said Hubbard’s resignation has no effect on the city’s agreement with the Rosebud.

When the theater was first proposed, Hubbard estimated the city could recoup about $200,000 a year through a 5 percent amusement tax assessed on ticket sales if the theater met expectations.

During its first season in operation, the Rosebud will fall short of reaching that target if things stay on the same track.

Amusement tax revenues were $89,881.20 for a seven-month period from November 2007 to May 2008.

“Martin was the initial driver of the theater, but I think what we found is that we really didn’t have any expertise on what is a somewhat complicated business to run. We didn’t do very well financially in the first year. Actually, we lost a considerable amount of money,” said Dean Bingham, chairman of the Rosebud’s investment board.

“In order to make the theater viable for the long run, we had to do some things to get it back in the right footing. We put together a plan to try to make sure the theater is viable for the near term and hopefully the long term,” Bingham added.

Among those options is finding a new president/chief executive officer for the Rosebud. Vice President Brad Koenig is serving as interim president. Bingham said he has found a candidate, whom he did not want to name at this time, with more than 20 years of experience in the theater business who might start at the end of July.

Some of the other steps the board has taken was to ask the Effingham City Council to accelerate the final payments of the grant, to raise additional capital from the Rosebud’s 36 investors, and to secure low-interest loans from a consortium of six local banks.

“In order to make sure we had the financial footing, we went to a number of different parties. With that combination, we hope to get back on good footing now,” Bingham said.

The board also is starting a platinum flex plan that will be more affordable for season ticket holders and is designed to sell more season tickets to corporations.

“The bottom line is we need to sell more seats. I think there’s a fallacy out there that all the seats are sold out. We have a few hundred seats left on REO Speedwagon, which performs July 17,” he said.

Bingham does not foresee many changes in the types of acts the Rosebud books.

“We probably won’t do that, but we will look at the type of programs the market supports. If the market wants more rock ‘n’ roll, then we’ll do more of that. We want to continue to provide a wide mix of events,” he said.

Koenig said the Rosebud currently has five acts booked for January through March 2009, including the Sleeping Beauty Ballet, National Acrobats of Taiwan, The Spencers (magic), Dublin Philharmonic and the Pirates of Penzance.

Angie Faller can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 131 or angie.faller@

effinghamdailynews.com.