The Situation In Atlanta Continues To Degrade

In what has become one of the more confusing turn of events in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) lockout, the management released a statement on 9/27/14 @ approximately 9:00pm ET announcing that the organization and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players’ Association (ASOPA) have agreed to federal mediation.

The statement was accompanied by a similar notice at the ASO Facebook page but as it turns out, this was news to the musicians.

Typically, press statements related to mediation are issued by both sides as joint statements or at the very least, mutually agreed upon language with quotes from both representatives which are then distributed by both sides. As it turns out, the ASO’s statement was premature and the musicians issued a concise statement shortly before midnight, 9/27/14 rebuking the ASO for exacerbating tensions by releasing distorted information.

According to the musicians, they did agree to speak with a Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) representative to explore the potential for mediated negotiations but they unequivocally have not yet agreed to proceed with mediation and at the time of the statement, they had yet to hear from the FMCS.

Short of the ASO providing documentation that the musicians did agree to mediation, the gaffe goes a long way toward eroding the organization’s credibility.

Also Of Interest…

The 9/28/14 edition of NPR’s Weekend Edition featured a segment by Adam Ragusea that explores some of the historical context of philanthropic giving among Atlanta’s big money sources as well as what might be best defined as some curious statements from ASO CEO Stanley Romanstein explaining why the organization has lower than average levels of earned income. In short, he blames that on low ticket prices.

Atlanta’s ticket revenue is also lackluster, though Romanstein contends that’s not because of poor attendance.

“If you look at our average ticket prices and compare them with other cities that feature major orchestras — if you look at Dallas, if you look at Minneapolis and some others — our ticket prices tend to be substantially lower by 30 percent or more,” Romanstein says.

Romanstein apparently did not provide any supporting documentation for this statement nor was there any mention of audited ticket sale figures and/or average attendance rates since he assumed his executive position in 2010. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see if the institution releases detailed data related to earned income as well as overall marketing performance (i.e. how much of every dollar earned selling either season or individual tickets is spent on advertising etc.).

Interestingly enough, marketing performance was a crucial element that led to relaxing entrenched positions during the Metropolitan Opera labor dispute which ultimately produced a new agreement and prevented cancelling any scheduled event activity.