Rosemont raises the curtain on $1M deal with Garth Brooks
How village officials used public money to pad the pockets of one of the most successful artists of all time, and tried to keep it a secret.
Rosemont, Illinois, officials revealed on Feb. 24 the village paid country musician Garth Brooks more than $1 million to perform at Allstate Arena last year.
After refusing to provide the Chicago Tribune with financial details on the contract for months by passing an ordinance that kept village financial information secret, and sitting on their hands for weeks after Attorney General Lisa Madigan ruled they were in violation of state law in doing so, village officials have finally relented.
Brooks’ 11 Rosemont shows in September 2014 grossed an estimated $12 million, selling more than 180,000 tickets and breaking the North American sales record for a single city at the time, according to the Tribune.
The Tribune detailed the bizarre response from city leadership upon the documents’ release:
“Town spokesman Gary Mack defended the deal, saying the village still made more than $2 million from the concert stand after the rebate. The village, however, did not provide documentation to support that figure.
“‘Rosemont knows how (to) operate government effectively and efficiently, like a business,’ Mack said in a statement. ‘Any day that the village can trade a million dollar investment for more than a $2 million return to its taxpayers it will do so. That’s not only prudent governing, it’s smart business.’”
Praising a local government for a million-dollar entertainment investment is like applauding a mayor’s golf game – it’s not their job, and taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill.
Speaking of the mayor, Brooks brought Rosemont Mayor Brad Stephens up on stage at a preshow press conference, lauding him as “the reason we are here,” according to the Daily Herald.
“[Brooks recalled] it was Stephens who, after viewing only two minutes of a promotional video that Brooks’ team released to five cities, asked, ‘What do we have to do?’ to bring the world tour launch to Rosemont …” reported the Herald.
Making such a large investment after watching a two-minute video clip sounds more like Shark Tank than “prudent governing” or “smart business.”
Herein lies the problem with government-owned entertainment venues: Elected officials spend money on preferred acts with no risk, then take credit for any hint of financial gain that may come from it.
Rosemont has much more pressing financial concerns than the size of Garth Brooks’ wallet. Last year, the village issued $37.5 million in bonded debt to bring public-safety pension funding levels up to 62 percent. Moody’s Investors Service frowned on the decision. And rating agency Standard & Poor’s has said it considers the village’s economy weak due, in part, to economically sensitive village-owned enterprises.
Using more than $1 million in public money to finance the success of one of the best-selling artists of all time is plain wrong. And it’s made especially discomforting by the fact that it happened in a village infamous for public corruption.
Entertainment isn’t a public good. Government shouldn’t be in the business of providing it. If nothing else, Rosemont officials have proven this.