Heading into 2024, Bruce Tyler is optimistic about the future of Weldon Mills Theatre.
“I feel pretty optimistic considering the first three shows we had out there. They were all in the black,” he said today. “That’s a great thing. I don’t imagine every show will be that way. I imagine we will take hits on some shows but the one thing that the guidance of BarnBurner (Promotions) has is that we need to have activity out here.”
He said of BarnBurner’s Julie Powell and Allison Askew, “They’ve been running and trying to get activity and booking where they can.”
For the upcoming year Tyler said, “We hope to have one to two shows a month at a minimum. That would be great for the theater to have. Obviously if we can get more than that and eventually build towards more than that we will.”
There are other things that can be done, he said, including events. “But 2024 is looking good. Shows are being booked. We’ve got great acts already booked. We’re talking with a lot of great acts, a lot of diversified acts. I’m pretty optimistic about 2024 for that theater. I can’t wait for 2024 and all the changes because it’s going to be great, I think, and it’s only going to get better and better with each year.”
BarnBurner’s role
Tyler, who owns Weldon Mills Distillery, closed on the theater the first of August and has been using BarnBurner to book talent. “The challenge with purchasing a theater and getting it started is you have to book the acts so far in advance,” he said. “What BarnBurner has been able to do is they’ve been able to scramble and get some acts in the theater. I felt like those have been the right acts for the time — the Christmas shows.”
Procuring the Oak Ridge Boys and having the group include Roanoke Rapids as part of their farewell tour was a nice touch, he said. “That’s pretty neat being a part of the last tour they’re ever going to do. All in all these shows were all in the black. I feel like we’ve had a good start considering we really haven’t had enough time to really book acts.”
BarnBurner, Tyler said, “has shown that they know how to manage a venue’s act. I think they’ve done a great job. Even the ones they have booked for March and April, they had to scramble to get those. I feel like now that they’ve locked in some dates, they’re working toward a diversity of acts, some different kinds of shows that maybe you haven’t seen there in the past. They’re just getting started and they’re doing a great job. They’ve come out of the gate running.”
While Tyler and BarnBurner both are not discussing acts other than Clint Black, Travis Tritt, and .38 Special, Tyler said of the other shows being booked: “I think it’ll be a good surprise. The theater has kind of had a history of zeroing in to one or two genres. BarnBurner’s plan is to bring a diversification of genres and a diversification that most folks will appreciate. I think that’s key to be able to have a diversification of shows that aren’t going to be the same thing all the time. Variety is the spice of life and that’s the same thing in music. Not everybody will like everything but I think all in all the majority of the folks will like this variety.”
Buying the venue
Tyler is satisfied with deciding to buy the struggling theater.
“It needed to be done,” he said. “I’m still nervous. This is way outside of my comfort zone but this theater needed to be utilized. We need to bring people to the area. That’s the bottom line — we’ve got such a small population that any attraction we have we’ve got to utilize it to its fullest potential so that we can bring revenue from outside into the area.”
A lot of things tied to the future of the theater are contingent on legislation regarding casinos.
In military lingo he said the plan for now is “continuously improving your foxhole, make your fighting position better. It’s the same thing with the theater.”
A theater is expensive to run, he said. “That’s why your drinks are going to be a little higher priced than you’re used to. You go to any theater or any stadium or any sports venue — everything’s just a little more because it’s really expensive to bring sports teams and acts for the folks to be able to enjoy.
“That being said, we’re going to continuously make upgrades as we have more and more shows. The plan is to slowly improve, like you slowly improve your fighting position, we’re going to continuously improve the theater.”
The plan is as the venue has more shows and brings in more revenue the ownership is turning it back into the theater and acts. “We’re not taking any money from the theater. We’re investing into the long run, that venue, throwing back into the venue and into the coffers to continue to book acts for folks. That’s the plan — to use it as it should have been used all along and hopefully that will be successful. If other things happen on the legislative side then we’ll adjust from there.”
Tyler said it was always the plan to open the theater and turn it into a successful venue. “The other things that have come about, those have come about after the acquisition. We had been looking at the theater for a while. If you go back into the records, two years ago is when I really started trying to purchase this place.”
The casino issue
With the state General Assembly expected to address the casino matter in its spring short session, Tyler said, “What we had to do locally and what we’ve mostly done locally is to get the area prepared and in a position to receive one of these casinos if the legislation gets passed. We can’t get to the point where we could receive a casino if we hadn’t taken care of everything locally.”
The ability to have a casino in the Carolina Crossroads Entertainment District would be transformative to the area, he said. “The great thing about this district is it was specifically designed for receiving something like this. That was the whole point of creating this entertainment district many years ago. Out of all the areas that have been looked at in the state, it’s the one area that was specifically designed for it. It’s not next to a church, it’s not next to a kids camp or anything along those lines. It is a carved out area that was specifically designed for bringing in things of this nature.”
If Carolina Crossroads should be designated as a casino site, Tyler, who believes Roanoke Rapids has a good chance of being selected, said, “This area would receive such a huge benefit in the tax revenue and tourism revenue. It would not only create a bunch of jobs in the entertainment district, but around the entertainment district. You get something like that in and now every place like the bird park (Sylvan Heights), Medoc Mountain, different things around the local area now have the opportunity to come out and advertise and create for the lack of better terms excursions.”
He said there are “just all kinds of opportunities that come from the base casino being in that entertainment district.”
The theater and expanding the distillery brand
Currently, Tyler said, the impact the theater has had on the distillery brand is hard to measure. “If we do it right it should help expand the brand. I don’t feel there’s been enough time passed to see that effect yet. We’ve had only three shows and those shows were of a specific nature. As different acts, bigger acts start coming in and folks start coming in from outside the area, you’re going to start to see more notice of the distillery because of the association between the distillery and the theater. It should serve as an expansion of our brand to capture more customers that are also fans of music because, let’s face it, booze and music go hand in hand. I feel like it should have that effect.”
The right team
Tyler is keenly aware of the past missteps which have occurred at the venue. “The scary part is the history of that theater. It can go the opposite way too but having the right people in place is everything. We’ve been fortunate enough to build an incredible team out at the distillery. The distillery’s success is a direct reflection of their efforts and I feel as if we’re doing the same thing over at the theater — putting the right team in place has set that area up for success as well.” He says time will tell. “That’s a tough venue, it’s a tough area, it’s really expensive to run. We need the support of not only the local population but the surrounding population to be able to keep it going. It starts with a good foundation and that’s putting the right team in place. I feel like we’re there and we’re only going to build on it.”
NC Bourbon Festival
There will be another festival in 2024. “We’re hoping to expand that each year. We want to build off of that. I would love to see the Bourbon Festival grow to a major event each year. It was pretty big. We had 5,000 people this year. But I’d love to see that number at 30,000 or more.”
There is the reality of five-figure crowds, he said. “I think we’re able to do that and that’s going to depend on what acts you can book and where you have the festival. We took advantage of the indoor-outdoor festival this year but we can blow this thing out and make it a huge outdoor festival on that property out there.”
He believes as people start recognizing the event, as it’s marketed to more people, they have the time to sell more tickets and book talent, “That we can grow the scale of the talent and the size of the crowd coming each year. The theater business and this festival business they’re high risk. It’s all about baby steps — booking the right acts.”
He believes that was part of the mistakes of the past and there were times that previous ownership didn’t want to take the losses. “Part of this business is it’s just not every win you have to take but you have to take the losses too.”
Outdoor venue
Tyler is hoping to get the nearby outdoor venue prepped to use that as it was done in the early days of the Carolina Crossroads concept. “That’s why we have it under control and that’s why we’re going to go out and move towards it because that outdoor venue we can have a festival out there with 30,000 people. It’s been done in the past. It’s been done successfully. You can have Bourbon Festival out there, other festivals or concerts and you can bring in big, big acts and bring in big, big crowds and now all of a sudden you go from a 1,500-seat theater to 30,000 people.”
There is no timeframe, he said. “It’s baby steps. Each move that we make requires a significant investment. You don’t want to get too far in front of your skis. You want to take baby steps towards your end goal. What we don’t want to do is have so much risk out there that the entire operation fails. The bigger the risk the bigger you go. The smaller mistakes are way more costly so we want to slowly work our way towards that so that we give ourselves the best opportunity for success.”
