COLORADO SPRINGS — The award-winning pop rock band OneRepublic takes the stage Friday for opening night of the new Ford Amphitheater in Colorado Springs.
“It's been an aggressive build,” said Ford Amphitheater, founder, owner, and CEO, JW Roth.
Construction of the project happened in less than year.
As the build was happening bands were being booked and tickets sold.
“You know, when we started, one show sold in about five minutes, put up a second show sold about eight minutes, put up the third show, so on and so forth,” said Roth, “And we have just sold tickets at a rapid speed.”
Roth envisioned an outdoor intimate venue.
High end box seating includes fire pits.
There is also a standing room area for those with tighter budgets.
Fans enjoy outdoor unobstructed views and the venue is an opportunity for bands to better enjoy a smaller crowd.
Roth said, “Bands love playing stadiums, because they're getting paid a tremendous amount of money to play a stadium, but at the end of the day a band would rather play an intimate setting with their fans. And here you got 8000 people that are in a setting as intimate as you can get.”
Roth points to audio and video system that is state of the art and world class.
There is also an investment to counter claims by neighbors who tried to stop the venue fearing it will be a noise nuisance.
There's a handful of folks that are not happy with us, and they sued us, and the judge dismissed it, and they're appealing it.”
The venue must comply with city noise ordinances.
Roth knows neighbors and the city will be checking decibel levels.
He is fine with that because he is doing the same.
“We have noise detection systems set up all along Voyager, all along Northgate, every 15 minutes it's monitored, and so at the end of the day, we're going to live up to what we promised City Council when we did this. We're going to be good neighbors.”
If levels get to high the solution is turning down the volume.
When you invest $100 million in something, the last thing you're going to do is do anything that's going to hurt your business and that we won't do,” said Roth.
The sound at the amphitheater is now ready to be tested by both venue sceptics and concert lovers.
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