The leader of the student group that brought Kanye West to McKale Center says the concert broke even, boosting the chances of bringing more big names to campus.
Tommy Bruce, president of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, said he hopes the rapper's sold-out concert last week starts a tradition of annual concerts at McKale Center or even at Arizona Stadium.
"We definitely busted down some huge doors," he said Monday.
The spectacular show, which attracted more than 8,000 fans, was the first concert at McKale Center since country star Garth Brooks packed the place in 1996.
Bruce said the campus newspaper inaccurately reported last week that ASUA expected to lose about $150,000 on the concert.
ASUA will end up breaking even, he said.
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The show cost roughly $503,000, and ticket sales brought in around $440,000. ASUA netted another $8,000 from its cut of merchandise sales.
In addition, ASUA offset costs by using about $60,000 from its special-events budget stemming from concerts this academic year by Ghostface Killah and Plain White T's.
Some of the additional expenses, including custodial and those for security, were not final as of Tuesday. But Bruce said he's anticipating those costs to be less than ASUA's "worst-case" estimates.
The concert didn't present any major problems for McKale Center, according to Stephen Kozachik, the UA's assistant athletic director for facilities and capital projects.
Kozachik said he doesn't oppose booking concerts at McKale, but because the building is constantly in use, primarily for athletics, it's tough to find an open date.
"It's totally logistics," he said.
Sarita Ray, a spokeswoman for Live Nation, one of the country's largest promoters, wouldn't discount McKale as an option for concerts in the future.
"We are always looking at venues all around Tucson," she said.
Bruce, who was re-elected student body president for the next academic year, said he was already thinking of options for the next concert.
Last week's concert, which also featured Lupe Fiasco and N.E.R.D., was part of the Glow in the Dark tour.
Fans who missed the Tucson concert will have another chance next month. The tour, with Rihanna in the lineup, stops June 8 at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
