“The Nashville Symphony closed its fiscal year with record-setting ticket sales, cutting its operating loss and beating budget expectations by more than $150,000,” writes E.J. Boyer in Thursday’s (8/13) Nashville Business Journal. “Steady financial improvements logged over the past two years show a much different operation than that of 2013, when the organization was facing bankruptcy or foreclosure…. For the 2014/15 fiscal year, which ended July 31, symphony ticket sales totaled $9 million, exceeding last year’s sales by $250,000. In total, 36,340 ticket buyers purchased a total of 174,994 tickets during the year. [Nashville Symphony CEO Alan] Valentine attributes that ticket sale revenue jump to three things: ticket price adjustments, more concerts on the calendar and a higher fill-rate per concert. While select ticket prices did go down, tickets averaged about $1.50 more this season, said Valentine…. First-time patrons accounted for 51 percent of all ticket buyers. While the symphony increased fundraising 12 percent over last year, it fell short of its budgeted internal goal. The symphony raised $6.7 million during the fiscal year, shy of the amount it was aiming to raise, $7.4 million. That 12 percent increase came from across the donor board, including increased corporate giving.”
Posted August 14, 2015
