Diamondclaw: Piece Of Team's Master Plan -- Promoters Hope Their Experience Ensures Success Of Amphitheater

RENTON

Like all those old rock songs about the tough life on the road, Ken Kinnear was tired of living out of a suitcase after years managing the hit bands Heart and Firefall.

So, in 1984, he teamed with competing Seattle concert promoter, John Bauer, and formed a new company to build and operate amphitheaters in Oregon and Washington. The idea was to promote summer pop and jazz concerts in venues they controlled.

"You made some dough, but you had no assets at the end of the day," Kinnear says of his years with Heart and promoting other concerts in places such as the Tacoma Dome. "We saw the amphitheaters evolving and thought, if we could get into this business, we could prosper and survive."

Bauer and Kinnear took another step, last week, in their plan to open five amphitheaters in the two states. Also involved in the planning is H. Michael Gebauer, vice president of development and former head of the Tacoma Dome.

They announced their intention to build Diamondclaw Amphitheater in a wooded area near the Green River Gorge, just two miles south of rural Black Diamond. They already operate the amphitheater overlooking the Columbia River Gorge in George, Grant County.

The 18,000-seat theater will cost between $7 million and $10 million to build. If completed by 1994, as scheduled, it will host 15 to 20 events each summer, including an annual jazz festival and rock concerts.

The theater will be built on a 115-acre site owned by Palmer Coking Coal Co., a major land owner in the Black Diamond area. Arena Services Corp., a company owned by Bauer and Kinnear, has a 25-year lease on the land, with an option to extend the lease to 30 years. They chose this particular site, because it statistically gets less rainfall than many parts of the Seattle-Tacoma area.

Kinnear and Bauer hope their experience promoting more than 900 concerts since 1984, including the Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, and running two other amphitheaters, will ensure Diamondclaw's success. They run the increasingly popular Champs de Brionne concert series at the Gorge. They also run a concert series at the L.B. Day Amphitheater, in Salem, Ore. Arena Services has a 25-year lease on the theater from the state of Oregon.

Bauer and Kinnear plan to build two more amphitheaters, and have purchased a large site at a yet-to-be disclosed location in Washington or Oregon.

Financing will not be a problem for the two wealthy partners. They have spent more than $2 million of their own money developing the theater in George and will put up the money for Diamondclaw. Their companies, Arena and Bauer/Kinnear Enterprises, earn nearly $20 million in yearly revenues, and are debt-free, says Kinnear. The George theater, he says, has become very profitable, grossing $1.7 million last year.

Diamondclaw will have no problem attracting musicians, says Kinnear. The idea behind the five amphitheaters is to capture a larger share of the acts crisscrossing the country in the summer, many of which might otherwise pass over the isolated Northwest.

"I know if I provide the proper place, I'll be able to put those acts in there," he says.

Despite the vast work Kinnear says they have put into planning Diamondclaw, they may still run into trouble. Black Diamond residents have already expressed reservations about concert fans and cars flooding into their quiet locale.

And with good reason.

Officials in Grant County, where the George amphitheater is located, say crowds caused a lot of problems in the concerts' early years. The owner of the land which Arena leases from, was slow to respond to calls from the county for better bathroom and sanitary facilities, the county's director of environmental health says.

Drinking at the theater led to several fatal car accidents, says Grant County Sheriff Bill Wiester. Wiester says both his staff, and Bauer and Kinnear, became more experienced in handling the crowds as years went by.

Bauer and Kinnear have been cooperative, says Wiester. Arena led efforts to build a road to the site, easing traffic congestion, and hired security guards to manage the crowds. Still, says the sheriff, some concert-goers trespass on private property and urinate on lawns.

Kinnear defends his company's operation at George. He says alcohol is no longer allowed in the theater, although it is still sold by a winery next to the facility.

"We have faced and solved every problem attendant with doing a facility like this," he says.

Kinnear knows solving the traffic issue will be his biggest challenge in building Diamondclaw. The site is served mainly by narrow, rural roads. Some roadwork may be necessary, but he is confident traffic can be managed to lessen the impact on local residents.

Still, Kinnear has been in the concert business long enough to acknowledge the reality of such events. "You put 12,000 people in any one place, and certain things are bound to happen," he says.

"But it's a sociological problem," he continues. "No one can lay those problems at our doorstep."