Tulare council approves another $160K for Zumwalt concerts

The Tulare City Council approved an additional $160,000 to shore up the fledgling concert series at the Adventist Health Amphitheater in Zumwalt Park, bringing the total off-budget cash infusions from City Hall to $842,000 since December.

The added funding is in addition to the $400,000 earmarked for concert expenses in the city’s 2025-26 budget, and the $5 million in city funds used for construction of the theater.

Approval was not unanimous. The latest funding approval came in a 4-1 vote on Tuesday, August 4, after questions were raised about the amounts the city is contributing and how much it will be expected to pay in future to keep the concert series active.

Poor Ticket Sales Leave City Covering Costs

Tuesday’s decision marks the third city council-approved subsidy granted since December, when city leaders approved a cash injection of $550,000 to cover ongoing expenses for the concert promoter, Spade Entertainment, while also extending the company’s contract with the city through August 2027.

Then in May, hoping to generate better ticket sales, the council approved another $132,000 to fund an extra concert featuring Hispanic musicians, this time with the cooperation of local ad agency Roox. Roox specializes in marketing to Hispanics, which make up 65% of Tulare’s population.

The reason for the additional funding requests, said Tulare City Manager Marc Mondell, is poor ticket sales. During the first year of the concert series, only 11,400 tickets were sold.

“It takes a while to establish the venue, work out all the kinks from an operational perspective, effectively market it, (and to) attract the right kind of talent that’s willing to come here,” he said.

Mondell told members of the city council that the city had expected to subsidize the cost of concerts during the theater’s startup period.

“So we knew that for the first three years at least, we were going to have to subsidize it, just like Visalia does,” he said, referring to that city’s financial contribution to its convention center and professional baseball team.

“It may take longer than three years. We don’t know, but we knew it’d take three years at least to understand what we’re dealing with here,” he said.

City Now Paying Theater Operation Costs

The original agreement with Spade Entertainment paid the promoter a portion of revenue from ticket sales, the entire net proceeds of alcohol sales, along with 80% of revenue from corporate sponsorships the company is expected to solicit. In exchange, Spade would cover operational costs for the concert series.

However, midway through the first concert season, the city and Spade changed that agreement. Spade now receives a single $5,000 payment per concert for its services. Operating costs are now the responsibility of the city.

Spade and the city, Mondell said, would be unable to meet contractual obligations if the city did not act to shore up the concert series.

“Here’s sort of the numbers where we’re at as of the best guesstimate we have based on today,” he said. “Total revenue (is) about $436,000. That’s ticket sales, sponsorships and net bar (receipts).”

Total expenses so far total $418,861, meaning Spade has nearly exhausted the money it’s received from the city.

“The operator’s cash on hand is just about $17,000 and change,” Mondell said. “That’s what they have in their pockets right now to last them through the rest of this concert series.”

Five concerts remain on the 2026 series calendar, meaning the cash-strapped operator will run out of money before it can collect outstanding income from previous ticket sales. Spade is also booking acts for the 2027 concert season. Tuesday’s vote ensures the concerts will continue, but taxpayers will foot the bill.

“The remaining subsidy that we need to cover the balance of costs going forward is about $181,000 and change,” Mondell said. “The request we’re asking for tonight is $160,000, because we would use Spade’s $17,000 and change.”

Financial Goal of Concert Series Unclear

The only dissenting voice on the council was that of Councilmember Jose Sigala, who eventually voted not to award the latest subsidy. He also voted against the $550,000 subsidy awarded in December.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Sigala questioned why the city is now paying the expenses of a private business that’s found itself unable to meet its obligations. He also asked for a clearer picture of the city’s future financial responsibility for the concert series, and what level of loss is acceptable.

“I go back to some of the fundamental questions I have in regards to expectations, accountability and continued financial investment into the series,” Sigala said. “ What is the goal on the return now? What is the expectation? If it’s a $100,000 concert, if it’s a half a million dollar concert, $200,000 concert, what is the expectation the city manager feels is appropriate? Is it [a] 90%, 10%, 1% return?”

Mondell did not give a direct answer, suggesting a dollars-per-concert view of the city’s expenditure was an incomplete assessment that failed to weigh other benefits, such as bringing more people downtown.

“I wouldn’t define it that way because no two shows are alike,” he said. “For example, some of our shows are completely free, right? So there is no return on investment. We just lose money, if you’re talking about (it) in terms of dollars.”

Instead, Mondell suggested the best measuring stick would be the amount the city spends to subsidize the concerts.

“The way I look at it is more at the end of the year, how much are we subsidizing the concert series? That’s what I’m really trying to focus on,” he said. “Our goal is to get it to where there is no subsidization. That would be our ultimate goal.”

Downtown Concerts Drive Commerce

During Tuesday’s request for funds, Mondell reiterated the reason why the city has invested more than $6 million in turning Zumwalt into a center for entertainment, and why it continues to fund the concert series. He hopes, he said, to counter a negative impression about the city’s spending.

“I think it’s very important because there continues to be misinformation in the community,” Mondell said. “I want to put on the record the facts.”

The Adventist Health Amphitheater at Zumwalt Park is the centerpiece of the city’s plan to reinvigorate the city’s business district, according to Mondell, who said 400 letters of support for the concert series the city has received are proof of citizen support and commitment to the idea.

“I would qualify all of them as people that are fully invested in the concert series,” Mondell said. “They’re the folks that are spending their money and their time and their energies on the concert series.”

With the addition of the amphitheater and other attractions, like the kid-friendly water feature, have boosted park attendance. Some 13,000 people visit Zumwalt each month. Eventually, that number could rise to as many as 50,000 visitors a month.

“In order to redevelop a downtown, you have to do several key things, and it’s all about people,” Mondell said. “You have to have people living downtown. You have to have people working downtown, shopping downtown, eating and drinking downtown, and entertaining and recreating downtown.”

To make those people appear, Mondell said the city will have to invest big.

Poor Ticket Sales Behind Theater’s Deficit

Dismal ticket sales are behind the lack of operating cash at Zumwalt. During the first year, only 11,400 tickets were sold. Of those, just 10% were purchased by Tulare residents. Mondell, who has worked on two similar concert schemes in other cities, said that number was unexpectedly low.

“That’s been one of my frustrations,” he said. “The other two venues that I was involved in, in my prior communities, we started out closer to 25% local attendance. The good news is that number is going up.”

Ticket sales are picking up slowly. In 2025, each concert had an average of 1,900 people in the audience. In 2026, the average is up to 2,400 per show. Those numbers have also been driven up by ticket giveaways.

The percentage of Tulare residents in the audience has also climbed to 39.8%.

The original deal with Spade was an 80/20 split on sponsorships, but the poor ticket sales stymied that plan, Mondell said. Now, the city and Spade are both putting all sponsorship revenue into funding the concerts. The city is also giving up its $1-3 per ticket income to fund the concerts.

“That money is just getting dumped back into the shows to try to keep the shows afloat for this period of time,” Mondell said.

That, however, hasn’t been enough to make ends meet, leading to subsidies from City Hall.

“Some shows, there’s not even enough money to cover the expenses,” Mondell said.

Subsidies May Continue Indefinitely

Mondell is betting the city will be able to stop subsidizing the concert series, and sooner rather than later. But it will be an uphill climb, he said, because of Tulare’s relatively low median income level. In fact, the subsidies may be here to stay. While the “ultimate goal” is ending subsidization, that may not be possible in Tulare.

“That doesn’t happen in every community,” he said. “It usually has a better chance of happening in the more affluent communities and the larger communities because you have a much bigger demographic to pull from. In this community, I would say, next year.”

The key to ending subsidies are increased ticket and concession sales, as well as locking in more corporate sponsorships.

Despite this sunny assessment, Councilmember Sigala asked Mondell to provide profit and loss statements for each future concert. Council members have stopped receiving reports on how the concerts have performed financially, he said, and he feels he’s unable to properly analyse the situation without that data.

“In other words, I have information that’s been provided to me through you, but I don’t know if it’s complete,” Sigala said. “But the information that’s been provided to me pretty much says the city is subsidizing 80 to 90% of each concert.”

Mondell said that number is likely lower due to the contribution of revenue into the concert series by Spade Entertainment.

“I haven’t looked at it from that perspective,” he said. “I think one of the things that is missing is we may not have done a very good job of clarifying for you how much of that was actually city subsidy versus Spade Entertainment subsidy.”

Council Support Strong for Concerts Downtown

Despite Sigala’s concerns, the other four members of the city council said the city should continue to feed cash into the concert series until it becomes self-supporting. While solid data is difficult to come by, indications are the concert series is drawing people from out of the area to Tulare. Visitors from at least 12 different states have attended, and the events are a large draw for residents of the entire Central Valley.

In December 2025, Spade’s contract was extended until August 2027, demonstrating the council’s support. Under this agreement, the city waived the cost of police overtime pay, agreed to waive its portion of sponsorship fees and gave Spade $75,000 to market the concert series. The city also set aside $250,000 to pay artist deposits and $175,000 to cover production, security and janitorial services for concerts.

Mondell said the city should offer those same terms in December of this year, when it will consider extending the contract with Spade Entertainment for another three years, and pushing it to 2030.

The majority of the city council appears to agree that taxpayers should continue to provide capital until the concert series becomes profitable enough to support itself. The boost to the city’s collective self-image is worth the expense.

“We made a three-year commitment to see this through, and the improvement has been fantastic,” said Councilmember Terry Sayre. “I’ve attended almost all the concerts, it’s not the Hard Rock, but the vibe, the atmosphere is positive, and the talk around that, it’s positive.”