Harden, who has been an architectural designer in Nashville since 1981, whipped up drawings for a new concert hall within a month after the blaze.
“ I don’ t know how many hundreds of times I proposed bringing back the Opry, to anybody who would listen to me,” he said with a laugh.“ I just want there to be a future here, and I felt desperate that we needed to replace it.”
The key to pushing the project from dream to reality was the idea of financially backing the building with Brown County’ s innkeeper’ s tax, a five percent charge on overnight stays. The tax’ s revenue currently supports marketing for the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Harden said organizers are optimistic that the nonprofit venue will be financially self-sustaining within its first few years, with ticket sales fully funding the loans for the $ 12.5 million county-owned building. The venue’ s team based financial projections on the Opry’ s worst year of sales.“ And the math still works,” Harden said.
Any profits from the Maple Leaf, he said, will go to the Brown County Community Foundation, which awards grants and scholarships to local individuals and organizations.
Harden was as skeptical as anyone about whether a venue similar to the Opry could financially survive in
Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center groundbreaking in July, 2018. photo by Cindy Steele
the music industry that’ s evolved over the past few decades. With a recording studio in the basement of his Brown County home, he knows all too well that consumers no longer pay to own music. The music industry is, however, seeing growth in concert revenue.
To maximize ticket sales, Harden helped seek out the best agencies in the business to work with. Maple Leaf organizers are finalizing a contract with events promoter Live Nation Entertainment that calls for Live Nation to book half of the venue’ s shows and its director to book the other half. The Maple Leaf’ s team also is in the final stages of hiring a director, Harden said.
He called the Opry’ s business model“ genius” and said the Maple Leaf likely will target a similar level of musical talent. Decades ago, he watched bands at the Opry including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Chely Wright, and even George Strait. Harden said while up-and-coming and past-their-peak bands
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Sept./ Oct. 2018 • Our Brown County 17