Time will tell if Smith Center keeps winning numbers game

When the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas opened in 2009, there were 6,700 Broadway season subscriptions sold before the first performance in the Margot & Bill Winspear Opera House.

Right now, there are 10,400 season subscribers for the Broadway series at the Smith Center’s Reynolds Hall.

Terry Jones, vice president of development, said public support for the Smith Center has surpassed expectations.

“We’re golden,” he said. “We’re in the incredible enviable position of meeting our campaign goal.”

Don’t forget, the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s population of more than 6 million is triple Clark County’s nearly 2 million.

In Dallas, the capital campaign is $40 million short for the $354 million multiple-venue center, even though 120 individuals and corporations donated at least $1 million each, said Chris Heinbaugh, external affairs director for the AT&T Center.

The Smith Center’s directors sought 50 founders willing to donate a minimum of $1 million. They found 56 founders who gave a total of $76 million and one sugar daddy, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation’s Fred Smith, who has allocated $150 million so far from the foundation.

In Las Vegas, the $470 million cost is a public/private partnership, roughly half public, half private.

The gaming industry had participated to a lesser extent, but seven of the 57 founders are either gaming companies or from families of gaming companies.

In Dallas, most of the money has been privately donated.

“We’re on track to break even in the next fiscal year,” Heinbaugh said.

In the third Broadway season, “We will hit 8,500 subscribers. This is particularly noteworthy in that most mature Broadway series in the country are seeing subscription sales contract as consumers are taking fewer outings and are reluctant to commit to a whole season.”

Heinbaugh’s suggestion to Las Vegans: “Be patient; it takes time.”

I’ve heard from plenty of naysayers who predict Las Vegans won’t buy as many tickets as hoped, that folks in Green Valley and Summerlin won’t want to drive downtown.

In some ways, that parallels the Mob Museum critics, who doubt that 300,000 people a year will visit the $42 million downtown museum financed by tax dollars.

The Smith Center is primarily for locals, while tourists will make or break the Mob Museum.

At a recent speech, I asked how many people had tickets for something at the Smith Center. To my surprise, out of about 40 people, only three had tickets for anything, and these folks were the center’s target audience, educated retirees.

There’s no question it’s a quality facility. Anyone ending a preview tour will swear to that.

“It’s better than the dream ever was,” said Martin, the center’s top cheerleader, who choked up as he finished a tour Feb. 13.

Wealthy Las Vegans have stepped forward to become part of a performing arts center designed to last for generations, something that will outlast them and their children and their children’s children.

Will the rest of us pay to fill those seats? Will the second season be as successful as the first?

That will take at least a year to determine, much like the Mob Museum.

By the way, the Mob Museum drew more than 10,000 paid visitors in its first seven days, nearly double the 5,768 people a week needed to achieve the anticipated 300,000 visitors a year. Museum Executive Director Jonathan Ullman said that includes a healthy mix of locals as well as tourists.

Those are good figures, probably helped by a federal holiday and the fact that Las Vegans are an independent lot who like to judge any hullabaloo for themselves, as well they should.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison.