The city wants Lowndes County and the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau to pitch in toward finishing the Sen. Terry Brown Amphitheater at the Island.
Councilmen Rusty Greene and Stephen Jones, of Ward 3 and 5, respectively, met this week with City Engineer Kevin Stafford and Chief Financial Officer Jim Brigham to hash out details of a new working plan to resume construction at the amphitheater. The group agreed the city could pony up at least half of the roughly $4 million and ask the county and CVB to help pay the rest.
“If they don’t participate, then we’re talking about scaling back the project,” Brigham said Thursday.
Though the meeting was not open to the public, all four participants confirmed to The Dispatch the details of what they discussed.
Brigham said the city could pair the $1 million legislative appropriation for the amphitheater it received in 2024 with another $1 million from its cash reserve to move the project forward. The city also has applied for a $500,000 grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission that could go toward amphitheater construction.
The city has roughly $5 million in capital improvement reserves. Brigham expressed concerns to the council earlier this month about using the majority of those reserves for the amphitheater or borrowing that kind of money to finish the project.
“I’m fine with this. I don’t think it will be a problem at all,” he said of the new plan. “What I’m concerned about is everybody else stepping up and participating.”
Brigham said he’s even looking into options for borrowing whatever shortfall remains after the CVB and county respond.
“You either believe in this town or you don’t,” he said. “If we believe the amphitheater is a viable thing, then I don’t mind borrowing as long as it isn’t $3 million or $4 million.”
What shows could the amphitheater draw?
Since 2017, the city has spent more than $3.5 million, all from legislative appropriations, to build the amphitheater in phases, including a fully functioning stage with power. The facility as it stands is Americans with Disabilities Act accessible and has restrooms behind the stage.
To date, the city hasn’t spent any local tax money on the project, and the amphitheater has yet to host its first event.
The $4 million in work still needed includes seating, concessions, more restrooms, gating, fencing and paved parking, among other things.
As designed, the completed facility would hold 3,500 spectators. Scaling back those plans to all open grass seating would be cheaper, Stafford said, but it would also significantly reduce capacity.
Food trucks could take the place of concessions, Brigham said, but that would mean the venue would lose out on concession revenue.
Further complicating the idea of scaling back is Red Mountain Entertainment’s purported interest in running the amphitheater and booking acts.
The Birmingham-based company first expressed interest during the initial phases of amphitheater construction, and Stafford recently confirmed that interest hasn’t waned.
“(But) they really don’t want to come to the table unless the facility is finished,” Stafford said.
Brigham said Red Mountain estimates it can book 10 to 12 shows per year for the amphitheater, with local events filling the gaps. The company indicated to city officials it could draw the same type of bookings to Columbus as the similar-sized Sweetland Amphitheater in LaGrange, Georgia.
According to the Sweetland website, its 2025 schedule includes the likes of Travis Tritt, Wynonna Judd, Cee Lo Green, TK Soul with West Love and Lyle Lovett.
While Red Mountain, or a similar company, could land the bookings, Brigham said the city would need to put aside at least $500,000 annually to pay for the acts. A nominal upcharge, maybe $5, to each ticket could replenish that fund after each show, he said.
The Dispatch could not reach a representative with Red Mountain for comment by press time.
The perfect partners?
Jones, who is running for mayor, has rejected calls to allow use of the facility, even for local events, before it is finished. In his mayoral campaign, he has promised to finish the amphitheater by the end of the year – first suggesting in February using reserve funds, loans, or both, to do it.
Greene operated from the other end of the spectrum, advocating for spending the $1 million from the legislature in the most effective way, opening the amphitheater for local events and adding to the facility as more money came available.
But Greene supports the new plan in principle, even using some reserves, as long as borrowing money isn’t involved. He called the closed-door meeting with Brigham, Jones and Stafford a “productive, good step.”
“We feel like (the county) would be the logical and good partner to try to take this forward,” Greene said. “… If none of that works out, I’m still in favor of taking what we’ve got and let’s open the doors.”
Stafford said he feels similarly about the CVB, which receives the lion’s share of 2% restaurant sales tax revenue to fund its operations to promote tourism. That tax pumped $4.23 million into CVB between Fiscal Years 2022 and 2024 (an average of $1.41 million per year), according to records Brigham provided The Dispatch. So far this fiscal year, CVB is on pace to match that mark, and an open amphitheater would likely increase those collections.
“The end benefactor in this is going to be the CVB,” Stafford said. “They are going to get the additional revenue off of this facility. Why wouldn’t they have skin in the game?”
Frances Glenn, CVB tourism director, said she is aware city officials want to meet with the organization, but nothing official has been scheduled.
“An open amphitheater would certainly drive tourism,” she told The Dispatch on Friday, though she did not comment on whether CVB was willing to contribute to construction.
County Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston said Greene had reached out to him but the two still haven’t met about the amphitheater. He admitted a county contribution would be a “hard sell” to supervisors.
“As I’ve always said, I certainly have open ears,” Hairston told The Dispatch on Friday. “That doesn’t mean I have open hands.”
He believes the amphitheater should be finished and open for public use, however that comes together. He said he wishes the city had used its $400,000 annual portion of the restaurant sales tax on the amphitheater instead of leveraging it for bonds to improve Propst Park.
Further, Hairston fears supervisors rejecting the city’s request for help will inflame public perception that the county won’t work with the city on anything, which he said is false.
“If we decide it’s not the best use for county funds to go to the amphitheater, we’re going to get basically talked bad about,” he said.
For Jones, he sees this plan as an opportunity to get all the amphitheater’s beneficiaries to the table, and he hopes the county and CVB will see the city’s vision for the facility.
If he and Greene can come together so quickly on that vision, Jones noted, then maybe it will be clear to everyone else.
“It’s all about communication,” Jones said. “Being able to work together, compromise along the way and get things done.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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