Where did the music go?

While the A.J. Palumbo Center has hosted the likes of O.A.R., Keith Urban and Maroon 5 in the past, the venue now rarely sees concerts.

"It's the market that we're in right now," said David DiPetro, Director of Auxiliary Services at Duquesne. "The Palumbo Center has been focusing on in-house events. There are a number of other concert venues in the city right now, and that's not helped us."

Cheryl Knoch, Assistant Vice President for Student Life, cited budget limits as a deterring factor.

"The main reason is funding," Knoch said. "To get a big-name concert, you need big dollars."

Costs extend beyond the contract fee required to host concerts and include technology, utilities and a large number of paid personnel that must be involved.

"There's consideration of production cost, sound, lights, security, hospitality, rider requests, plus the opener," Knoch said.

While students could fill some volunteer roles for the planning and production, Knoch said, the cost of big-name concerts on campus remains overwhelmingly expensive.

"Their contract fee might be bigger than the entire concert budget," she said.

DiPetro said similar problems are affecting many colleges, not just Duquesne.

"If you looked at other cities of our size, you'll see a similar decrease," he said. "Penn State's numbers have gone down, and they're bigger than Pitt."

The University of Pittsburgh hosts more events than Duquesne does, DiPetro said, because their event-planning staff is larger and the Petersen Events Center is larger than the Palumbo Center.

"The Petersen is run by the same people who run the Consol Energy Center," but the Palumbo Center has no venue planner, DiPetro said. "We do everything in-house."

Other large concert venues in Pittsburgh include Consol Energy Center in Uptown, Stage AE on the North Shore, the Trib Total Media Amphitheatre in Station Square and venues right outside the city, including the First Niagara Pavilion in Burgettstown—none of which the Palumbo Center seems to be able to compete with.

"We're not on their level at all," DiPetro said. "They do have small setups where they turn the Consol Energy Center into a 4,000 seat arena; they're trying to do things to compete with a smaller venue."

While DiPetro did not want to rule out the possibility of a future increase in the number of concerts making their way to the Palumbo Center, his prediction was bleak.

"I don't see the concert business growing very much," he said.

DiPetro cited the purchase of DiCesare-Engler Productions, a local promoter for concerts in Pittsburgh, as the cause of less events coming to the Palumbo center. Purchased in 1999 by SFX Entertainment, a nationally known company, it later became part of Live Nation.

DiCesare-Engler was "a local promoter who was famous throughout the country for being able to promote concerts," DiPetro said. "There is no such talent in Live Nation for what DiCesare could do. They were a good thing for Pittsburgh."

Because Duquesne has not recently hosted concerts, the Duquesne Program Council is seeking alternative solutions. While currently in the conceptual stages, the DPC is hoping to allow students to purchase tickets for local events and concerts in Downtown. By working directly with the venues, this program would allow students to purchase tickets at discounted rates.

"The Consol is right here. It's kind of like an extension of our campus," Knoch said.

Outsourcing events to venues such as the Consol Energy Center would allow for Duquesne to potentially offer students special rates on tickets without the complexity of hosting the concert.