Celebrity Attractions Exits Lubbock for Now
After 22 great years of providing Broadway-quality shows to Lubbock, Celebrity Attractions has decided to pull the plug on Lubbock -- for now, anyway.
According to Celebrity Attractions CEO Kristin Dotson:
Regretfully, we had little choice once we heard the Lubbock City Council had plans to ask the citizens to vote to abandon the Municipal Auditorium
In 2004, Lubbock voters approved a $30 million dollar bond issuance of which $6.4 million was supposed to be set aside to repair structures such as the Municipal Auditorium and Civic Center. However, maintenance was deferred, and eventually all funds for the Coliseum/Auditorium repairs were sent to the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.
The final blow for the facility came in September 2017, when the City Council decided it was the end for the facility.
Randy Cole with Celebrity Attractions had this statement about the situation:
...as the years continued without building repair, its conditioned worsened and we began to lose our audience. We hoped we could serve the Lubbock audience better by moving our series to the Civic Center but due to the limitations that building has, we were not able to bring the big shows that we bring to our other cities in Texas – Amarillo and Abilene. After a few more years we determined that the only venue available in Lubbock for now was the auditorium so we booked two big Broadway productions and took the steps to move our season subscribers from one hall to the other.
But don't count this as the end for Celebrity Attractions in Lubbock. The group, along with Lubbock Entertainment Performing Arts Association (LEPAA), have been in talks to possibly bring shows to the Buddy Holly Performing Arts Center when it opens in 2020. In addition, they plan to have other non-Broadway type shows at the Civic Center in the future.
Celebrity Attractions has done an incredible job bringing quality shows to Lubbock, and we certainly hope that they will consider coming back to the Hub City in the future.
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