Ruth Eckerd ranks high among the world’s smaller venues

Posted Oct 27, 2009 by Kevin Walker

Updated Oct 27, 2009 at 03:12 PM

I know, I know—this has nothing to do with “staying in.” In fact, just the opposite. But I have difficulty with rules. Also, I just thought this was cool and wanted to share.

Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater’s performing arts center, ranked seventh among venues with 5,000 seats or less *in the world” in terms of gross ticket sales between Aug. 15 and Sept. 15 of this year. It also ranked first in that category for venues in the southeastern United States. The study was conducted by Venues Today, an entertainment industry magazine.

So, good for them but so what, right? Well, not so fast. Places like Ruth Eckerd, Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg and The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center face a challenging environment. Outside of perhaps Michigan, no state has been harder hit by the recession than Florida, and these art venues compete for a dwindling amount of disposal income among Tampa Bay’s residents.

So yeah, I think it’s cool that this area—which doesn’t exactly have a reputation for being big on the arts—continues to support places like Ruth Eckerd Hall, even better than the support they are getting in places like Boston, Orlando and San Diego.