If you try to call Roger Krupa this week and he doesn't answer his phone, it's probably because he's tied up trying to sell a name. That would be sponsorship rights to the new Downtown Raleigh Amphitheater, which was to have been known as the Bud Light Amphitheater until the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission turned down the proposal last week. The deal would have earned the city $1.5 million over the next five years; but now it's back to the drawing board.
"Plan B's are in effect," says Krupa, who oversees the amphitheater as director of the Raleigh Convention Center. "I've been talking to four interested parties, and the range of interest has been wide and varied as to the availability of cash. But I don't think we're gonna have to fire-sale this. I'm hoping I can pull this off in the next couple of weeks."
In the meantime, the amphitheater will continue operations without a sponsor's name and the $300,000 it would have added to this year's bottom line -- money that, Krupa admits, "sure would have made life a lot easier." Among other things, that money would have facilitated some sort of free-concert series to replace the Raleigh Downtown Live shows that used to happen at Moore Square.
"The thing about that is, free events are not free," Krupa says. "They're expensive. They cost the city between $10,000 and $20,000 an hour to put on. And in lean budget years, it's hard for me to get that unless I have sponsors."
