The Coral Sky Amphitheater – Florida’s only major amphitheater and the largest concert venue in South Florida outside of sports stadiums – opens on Friday in West Palm Beach.
Thousands will gather at the forum carved into a man-made, 45-foot hill to jam to Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Survivor and Edgar Winter.
It will be a low-key debut for the 20,000-seat, $10 million theater. Children 12 and under will be admitted free, ticket prices range from an affordable $8 to $12, and there will be little fanfare beyond the music itself.
When the first shovel of dirt was turned last August, only the Miami Arena stood as competition, with talk of another arena to be built in Broward County.
Now plans are in the works for not just one but two more arenas that will probably need concerts to supplement their sports schedules. That could cause a glut in the South Florida concert scene that will leave some winners and losers.
But the people behind the theater aren’t too worried. The amphitheater fills a different concert niche from arenas.
“There’s so many events down here and the market is so active,” said Coral Sky general manager Joe Nieman, citing the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, the Broward Performing Arts Center and SunFest, Palm Beach County’s annual art and music event.
Coral Sky’s operators shouldn’t have anything to worry about – if South Floridians follow the national trend, said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert trade publication Pollstar.
“The answer is going to be dictated by the fans in Florida,” Bongiovanni said. “If they are similar to fans in the rest of the country, they tend to support amphitheaters.”
The Miami Arena already suffered a blow when Cellar Door joined the partnership of Blockbuster, Sony Music and Pace Entertainment in building the amphitheater. The Fort Lauderdale-based concert promotions company announced it would take most of the 10 to 25 shows it booked at the arena to the amphitheater.
Miami Arena general manager Rob Franklin says his operation hasn’t yet felt a bite from the amphitheater’s schedule. The only act the amphitheater has scheduled that he considers an arena act is Steely Dan.
“Ozzy Osbourne is not a slam dunk arena act any more,” Franklin said. “We’re not crying over the Coral Sky Amphitheater. We expect it will cost us a few concerts.”
While amphitheaters have been sprouting up all over the country for the past five years, it took a long time to bring one to South Florida. The problem: Summers are humid, rainy and mosquito-infested.
The amphitheater’s success could hinge on whether people buy the idea of outdoor concerts in Florida in the summer, says Jon Stoll, president of Fantasma Productions.
