Canceled concert cost Fling

Despite rumors that the Social Planning and Events Committee profited from ticket sales from the canceled Spring Fling concert, SPEC lost money on the rained out event, Fling organizers said yesterday. Some students holding non-refundable tickets to the Living Colour concert said they believed that, since the concert was insured, SPEC had pocketed their money. But the concert was not fully insured and the insurance purchased only covered the difference between the cost of the concert and a Fling Committee estimate of advance ticket sale revenue made prior to the start of ticket sales, Fling financial director Matthew Jacobson said yesterday. "We make a guess of how many tickets we will sell before the event and we fully insure the concert to the extent that we think ticket sales will fall short of the cost of the concert," Jacobson, a College senior, said. "The bands get paid for showing up regardless of if they perform," he added. "We have to protect ourselves, but if we were to fully insure the concert tickets would be outrageously expensive." Jacobson said this year Fling organizers overestimated advance ticket sales by "thousands of dollars," leaving SPEC with a loss for the concert. "There is a perception that we are sitting pretty with a lot of money," said Wharton senior Leila Graham-Willis, one of the Fling Committee's three directors. "People think that 'They have our money and that they have made so much money already,' but its not really true." "We did not make a big profit [from the concert] at all," Jacobson said. "The amount of tickets sold before the show and the insurance which we will collect went to pay the band." But both Jacobson and Graham-Willis said that Fling as whole, which is budgeted to break even, will probably make a small profit this year. "Although we estimated [advanced Living Colour ticket sales] too high and lost some money there, we made it up in other areas," Jacobson said. "Fling as a whole probably made a small profit, but in the area of the concert we didn't." Graham-Willis said that SPEC has already filed their claims with the insurance company. She added that SPEC is still tabulating its financial balance from Fling and should know by early next week whether Fling as a whole made a profit. Jacobson, citing the need to keep financial records confidential, refused to say which insurance company SPEC used, how much their policy was for, how much money was lost on the concert, how much SPEC had to pay Living Colour and how much SPEC might have made on Fling.