Crains New York - March 4, 2013 - (Page 22)

Circus comes to Brooklyn Continued from Page 21 in New York City because its usual home, Madison Square Garden, has been under renovation. The company expects to sell about 250,000 tickets during its Brooklyn run, hoping to benefit from the borough’s image as a destination for the young and hip—many of whom now have children. “Barclays is new and generating lots of buzz, so [Ringling Bros.] wants to be there,” said Ernest Albrecht, editor of Spectacle magazine, a circus trade journal. The circus, and all the other properties that Feld Entertainment produces—such as Disney on Ice, Disney Live! and Monster Jam—are now in the hands of the three Feld daughters,the third generation of Felds to run the company. Nicole, 35, and her sister Alana, 32, are in charge of the circus. The third Feld daughter, 29-year-old Juliette, produces Disney on Ice. Though Nicole and Alana are based in New York, they grew up traveling with the circus, so the world of clowns and animal trainers is in their DNA. Standing out in a crowded field of family entertainment implemented the biggest reformatting of the show since her grandfather Irving Feld moved the circus from the big top to indoor arenas more than 50 years ago.She did away with featuring a variety of acts and instead created a single theme. The acts now follow a narrative and are completely reinvented each year jenny vidbel More competition In addition to managing a 90city tour and moving 110 performers by train to a different city a few times a month, the Feld sisters have to find ways to stand out and keep bringing in large audiences in an increasingly crowded market for family entertainment. “There is more competition than ever,”Alana said.“It’s not just Broadway or other shows,either—it can be anything from a video game to even just a child’s really busy schedule.” They also have to walk the tightrope of staying true to circus tradition without becoming obsolete. Attempts to modernize the circus began in 2006, when Nicole BIG APPLE HONES NEW ACT THOUGH IT’S NOT AS BIG as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, New York’s beloved hometown circus is working on a new act of its own. The Big Apple Circus is jumping through hoops to build up fundraising after a few tough years from the recession and management turnover. In July, the 35-year-old nonprofit circus hired an executive director, Lynn Stirrup, who had spent 17 years at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in various development positions. When Ms. Stirrup arrived, the circus had recently lost its administrative head, Gavin Berger, after just six months on the job. And most of the management positions were unfilled. Ms. Stirrup is working to boost fundraising—especially from corporations and individual donors. Right now, only one-quarter of the circus’ budget comes from contributions, while the lion’s share is earned income. She also wants to rebuild the organization’s annual budget to its 2008 high of $22 million. This year, it’s $19.5 million. The nonprofit recently hired a vice president for development and a vice president for marketing, and is looking for a director of community programs. “We’re rebuilding, strengthening and trying to make sure we’re making investments,” Ms. Stirrup said. The circus has a healthy dose of good news. Ticket sales for 2012’s show, Legendarium, were in excess of 80% of capacity during its run at Lincoln Center. Though that’s about equal to 2011, Ms. Stirrup said it was a big success considering the hurricane and other bad storms this winter. Meanwhile, the circus is touring eight cities this year, up from seven in 2012. —MIRIAM KREININ SOUCCAR 22 | Crain’s New York Business | March 4, 2013 with new performers from around the globe. In addition, audiences are now invited to come an hour early for a preshow, where they can go down to the floor and try on costumes,see the animals up close and get autographs. The Felds say that in the past five years as these changes have been rolled out, attendance has increased 12% a year, though they declined to give numbers. Interestingly, this year’s narrative for the show is itself a story about the show’s reinvention. The circus’ theme takes the audience through the actual creation of a mock circus while staging a battle of the sexes as boys compete against girls to build “the greatest show on earth.” ‘More theatrical’ Some of the special acts include Ringling Bros. newcomers like the Tower Tumblers, a troupe of competitive aerial athletes from Ukraine who launch themselves from trampolines to scale, rappel and pass through a three-story translucent tower; and the Russian animal-performance duo Alex and Irina Emelin, who make magic with an eclectic group of pets, including 16 black-and-white poodles. “Since the Feld daughters have taken over, the shows have become even more theatrical than they have been in the past,” Mr. Albrecht said. The Felds have talent scouts who scour the world for new performers vying to be a part of the biggest, oldest name in the circus business. “Everyone tries to get to Ringling,” said Andre McClain, who started with Ringling Bros. 11 years ago as a freak-show host and animal trainer and is this year’s ringmaster. “It’s older than CocaCola, older than baseball. It’s the cream of the crop.” Despite the circus’ cachet, the Felds aren’t betting on it alone.They have worked to diversify the company in recent years. In 2008, they acquired Live Nation’s motor sports business. Monster Jam, Supercross and the theatrical motorcycle stunt show called Nuclear Cowboyz are among the properties in the division, which annually stages more than 50 shows in 80 cities before more than 5 million people. Overall, the company sells about 30 million tickets each year worldwide, with 10 million just for Ringling Bros. In its deal with the Barclays Center, Feld is expected to stage at least 48 performances a year in Brooklyn, including its motor-sport and Disney shows. Though motor sports help Feld reach a different audience—men and teens—the Felds say all their properties share a common theme of being able to entertain people all over the world regardless of what language they speak. “The motor-sports business, like the circus and Disney on Ice,isn’t about the dialogue,” Alana said. “They are universal. Anyone can enjoy them no matter where you’re from.” Ⅲ SOURCE LUNCH: HOPE COHEN by Andrew J. Hawkins A stormy beginning to Battery Park job H ope Cohen started as chief administration and financial officer at the Battery Conservancy on Oct. 29, the day Superstorm Sandy made landfall. Rather than deal with mundane firstday details of managing the nonprofit charged with operating and maintaining the 25-acre park in lower Manhattan, Ms. Cohen launched immediately into disaster recovery. Since the storm,Ms.Cohen,a former director at the Regional Plan Association,has been focused on finding new office space and helping to keep the park’s capital plan on track. The conservancy in 18 years has raised $120 million for capital funds for the development of the master plan and rebuilding of the park.In addition to raising money for the park, we pretty much maintain the park. Our staff, which is privately funded, cleans and operates and maintains it, and does all the gardening and horticulture. The baseline staff is about 15 but increases seasonally. So how will the repairs be paid for? Things are very much in flux. There will be a huge citywide FEMA application. So we’re just not sure how exactly it’s going to work. One of the few things we think we know is the Describe your first day on the job. fountain should take about $90,000 I first heard that the storm was com- to rebuild. But then there are these ing the Thursday before, which was questions:Do we need to raise private actually my last day at RPA. They funds? Will the Parks Department go were talking about the storm coming for FEMA funds? That’s what we right for the Battery. I started think- think is going to be the case. But it’s ing, “Oh my God, is there still not entirely clear. It’s going to be a park there? even less clear when you get Am I going to have my job to the question of the garcome next Thursday?” dens, and we have essenSo everything was lost. tially taken responsibility We did have, thank goodfor that almost by default. BATTERY ness, computer backup. So We’re fundraising for the GARDENS Between the park we have our electronic files fountain, too. We’re trying and the Staten from before the storm. But to cover all the bases. Island Ferry everything else is gone. terminal, WHERE THEY DINED How bad was the damage? We’re still in a startup mode. Our telephone system got lost in the flood. We’re still limping along with cellphones. The park itself made out pretty well. We lost five mature trees, including the last American elm [in the park], which took out a big chunk of playground equipment. One of the remaining projects that we have is a new playground. That’s in design and will be completed this year.We suffered significant damage to the fountain. Basically all the controls for that have to be completely rebuilt. That’s a major project. opposite 17 State St. www.battery gardens.com (212) 809-5508 How can NYC better prepare for storms like Sandy? Zone A is Zone A. In fact, probably Zone B is Zone A at this point.There’s been a AMBIENCE: lot of talk about storm barFloor-to-ceiling riers. I just don’t see that as windows offer practical. I think there is a gorgeous views of menu of things that we the park and the bay. In warmer need to do.There are going weather, the to be storms. The key is to outdoor seating is recover quickly from them, unparalleled. rather than think we’re goWHAT THEY ATE: ing to prevent them. Ⅲ Risotto with bay Buildings that were descallop, rock shrimp, calamari signed with this kind of and cockle clams storm in mind did just fine. Ⅲ SmokedThe really green buildings salmon Cobb in Battery Park City were salad; iced tea fine. The ’50s-, ’60s- and TAB: $81.51, ’70s-era buildings—places including tip that had subsurfaces—got smashed. It’s possible to build resiliently. We’ve been in the habit of not thinking What was the price tag of the storm? about this systematically when we We know that there’s damage; we build things. Just like the South Ferdon’t know how much. And there are ry subway station. It’s just a huge things we absolutely don’t know, in hole in the ground; it cost more than terms of saltwater damage to things $100 million, and it’s just gone. It like the railing along the esplanade. doesn’t have to be built that way. Ⅲ INSIDE TIP: In the summer, the restaurant hosts an outdoor beer garden. http://www.batterygardens.com http://www.batterygardens.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - March 4, 2013

Crains New York - March 4, 2013
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
SMALL BUSINESS
REAL ESTATE DEALS
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REPORT: 2013 ELECTIONS
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - March 4, 2013