The Aspen City Council directed Wheeler Opera House leadership to book more marquee acts in the coming year, a proposal that Executive Director Mike Harrington said will help build upon the Wheeler’s current programming.
There is a desire in the community for high-profile, world class artists, Harrington told the city council during an April 21 work session.
“Commitment to programming is really an investment, it’s an investment that’s quite layered,” Harrington told the city council.
Artists the Wheeler pursues can be categorized into four different tiers. Fees for artists in a higher tier are more expensive, and will mean increased ticket prices. The artists that often perform at the JAS Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Experience would fall into those higher categories, Harrington said.
A majority of the Wheeler’s artists fall under tiers one and two. Their fees cost between less than $15,000 and $50,000 and ticket prices range from $5-65 for tier one and $35-175 for tier two artists. More expensive acts would cost the Wheeler at least $50,000, and would likely require a subsidy to present, even when the shows sell out.
But sprinkling in higher caliber performances in its annual slate of presentations would boost the Wheeler’s reputation as a world-class venue, Harrington said.
City council members lauded the recent performances by Jerry Seinfeld, an artist the caliber of which falls under the tier three and four categories. Seinfeld performed for two nights at the Wheeler in March as part of the opera house’s annual Laugh Festival.
The public praised the Seinfeld performances as well. Harrington proposed pursuing high caliber artists for about 10% of the Wheeler’s proposed 80 to 100 shows per year. The council said he should look for more.
“I just want to give you that wiggle room, that if there’s an artist that you can get to come here and you’re at that 10%, I’d say go get that artist rather than say it’s a hard cap,” Councilman Sam Rose said during the work session. “I just want to make sure that you feel a little loose with these numbers, that if there’s good opportunities you go get them.”
But competition within the industry often requires fees for such artists to remain undisclosed. It is an industry practice to not disclose artist fees, Harrington said, because the information is confidential and proprietary. It is why he declined to provide Seinfeld’s fee for his two sold out performances in March.
The city is also declining to release payment details for the two Seinfeld performances.
The city attorney’s office declined two separate requests made through the Colorado Open Records Act regarding financial information for the performances. One request made to the city by the Aspen Daily News asked for a contract between the city of Aspen and Major League Booking LLC — the booking agency that represented Seinfeld — including compensation details, payment schedule and electronic payment details.
The contract referenced an “Exhibit A” when citing “compensation details, payment schedule and electronic payment details.” The public version of the contract, which the city council approved as part of the consent calendar on Nov. 12, does not include Exhibit A.
The city declined to release those details because “the information in Exhibit A is deemed to be trade secrets, and confidential commercial and financial information.” The city attorney’s office cited protections under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act as further justification for denying the request.
It declined a second request that was made after Seinfeld’s performances at the Wheeler for electronic payment transactions made to Major League Booking, citing the same CORA exemptions.
The city council discussed “contract negotiations regarding a Wheeler Opera House artist contract through Major League Booking, LLC” during an executive session on Nov. 4. Council can convene in executive session for the purpose of negotiating terms of a contract.
All procurements made by the city must be approved by the city council if they are more than $100,000, according to the city’s municipal code. Harrington said while the fee was not disclosed, the Wheeler’s annual revenue and expenditures are always publicly available. Disclosing artist fees could work against the Wheeler’s attempts to book artists, he said.
“I’m trying to be very transparent and public with information that is not going to work against us in terms of booking high profile artists,” Harrington said in an interview with the Aspen Daily News. “If it gets out that high-profile artists, that their fees and everything are going to be disclosed publicly by performing here, we’re not going to be able to get them.”
While the contract did not disclose payment details, it did outline the revenue potential from ticket sales.
If the Wheeler sold 501 tickets at different price levels, its gross potential for two performances was $413,300. Both of Seinfeld’s performances sold out.
There were 20 box tickets sold for $280 each, 14 obstructed seats sold for $75 each, 106 seats sold for $75, 81 for $150, 154 for $350 and 126 for $1,000 each.
The Wheeler has disclosed artist fees in the past. In 2022, it paid about $70,000 for two sold-out performances for stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan to headline that year’s Laugh Fest.
Pursuing marquee artists
During the April 21 city council work session, Harrington requested support from the council to pursue more tier three and four artists, even if it requires more funding to do so.
Council members emphatically supported the proposal.
“I can’t wait to see what you continue to do here with this program,” Councilman Bill Guth said. “I’m supportive of it, I’m supportive of all the comments coming from this table so far.”
Between January and April this year, the Wheeler held 35 days of presentations. Ten of the events were sold out, more than 11,000 audience members attended shows and the Wheeler has reached 197% of its revenue projection for 2025.
A little less than half of that revenue came from the two Seinfeld performances, Harrington told the city council. The Wheeler projected $464,920 in revenue from presented events in 2025, according to a 2025 budget presentation. Its total projected revenue for the year was $954,160.
The Wheeler earns its revenue through presented events, rental events, box office sales and rental fees from Aspen Public House and the Aspen Collective art gallery. It is also supported by the arts and culture real estate transfer tax, a 0.5% tax that is estimated to generate $7.1 million in 2025 and also supports the Red Brick Building and the city’s arts and culture grant program.
Harrington wanted guidance ahead of the 2026 budget process to begin conversations with artists he already has in mind. Higher profile acts will require higher ticket prices, he told the council.
“As the artists become more expensive, they generate more excitement, they are certainly more appealing to many people. However, they do become more expensive,” Harrington told the council. “So then the question becomes, how do we balance those expenses against reasonable ticket prices that are appropriate for the market, also with one eye towards accessibility for locals?”
The Wheeler Insider Program, which was relaunched last fall, will be one of the main means of keeping ticket prices low for locals, Harrington said.
The program will ensure insider tickets are priced comparable to ticket prices in a larger venue. Those tickets will be offset with a higher ticket price, probably catered to a more tourist audience, he said.
Harrington has already been in conversations with a number of high profile artists, he told the Aspen Daily News.
“We gave you the flexibility you need to use your strengths, and I look forward to seeing especially all the events that you bring forward and the marquee ones, and knowing that we have your back as far as going out there sometimes and trying to experiment with some big-name artists and up-and-comers and all the above,” Rose told Harrington during the work session.
