Ask and ye shall receive.

This mantra held true when Sterling Proffer and Kelly Bertog asked Student Association Comptroller Michael Rizzolo for Block Party funding months ahead of the budgeting schedule. Proffer and Bertog, University Union’s co-directors of UU Concerts, acquired $170,000 from the spring budget on Oct. 8.

And when SA expected the duo to get the ball rolling on Block Party sooner than ever before, they delivered – for the most part.

On Wednesday, The Daily Orange reported that UU Concerts planned to extend at least one offer to an artist to play at Block Party. However, Proffer and Bertog could not be reached for comment on Wednesday evening, so it could not be confirmed whether UU actually made an offer. Jillian Adel, art director of UU Concerts, declined to comment on the issue.

If an offer was made, this official gesture initiates the negotiation process between UU and the artists’ agents that may lead to contract agreements. Proffer said negotiations can take a few hours or a few months before contracts are signed.

In the past few years, artist offers were typically initiated in February.

Making offers in the fall allows artists to include the Syracuse stop in their tour. This in turn means UU pays a more reasonable artist fee, rather than the premium that is expected when negotiations take place months after the tour is scheduled.

Proffer and Bertog spent the past two months investigating artist availability and more than three months of research on student music interests. The duo, with the help of UU Concerts general membership, compiled a list of approximately 50 artists that students would like for the April concert at the beginning of the semester. Once SA’s Finance Board passed the bill granting UU Concerts $170,000 in early October, Proffer and Bertog started talking with upward of 15 booking agencies about possible acts for the event.

‘It’s kind of like Johnny Appleseed,’ Proffer said. ‘You plant a lot of seeds and see what blossoms.’

Proffer said his organization’s initial goal was to extend an offer by the end of the semester, or at least before the new year.

Aside from artist research, Proffer and Bertog also organized many of the less-glamorous aspects of Block Party earlier than in the past. Proffer said they are ‘very close’ to finalizing plans for permits, security, lighting, stage crews, venue and other event essentials. Without addressing these necessities, UU would have found difficulty in extending any offers.

‘We can’t move on the artist side until a lot of the other aspects have been covered,’ Proffer said.

Proffer and Bertog admit that, if not for SA’s decision to fund Block Party early, very little would be accomplished before winter break. They would have had to wait until the presentation of next semester’s budget, which occurred Nov. 26, to know how much money they could offer artists. Actual negotiations for dates in late April couldn’t take place until February, nearly four months after most big-name artists schedule their spring tours.

Despite the co-directors’ pleas for Block Party money early in the semester, Rizzolo – the man in charge of SU’s student fee – only allowed discussion of advance funding after conducting a random survey to see if other student organizations would approve. When 19 of the 20 student leaders selected said they were comfortable with a large portion of the spring budget going to UU in October, Rizzolo understood the value students placed on Block Party, regardless of their groups’ own interests.

Deliberation among the SA Finance Board lasted three to four weeks and ended in the granting of Bertog’s and Proffer’s wish.

The glaring question Rizzolo and the Board faced was clear: Will early funding guarantee a better artist?

‘The answer is no,’ Rizzolo said. ‘What it does do is provide a chance to book a better artist. That opportunity hasn’t been there in the past.’

In fact, the limited time frame for negotiations caused problems for UU in recent years. Due to contract complications with both Ludacris and No Doubt, SU was forced to cancel Block Party in 2002, according to an April 2003 story in The Daily Orange. Even in 2006, the year Kanye West performed, concert plans were unsettled until the beginning of March.

‘The stars aligned to make that happen,’ Rizzolo said.

‘Kanye was luck, capital L-U-C-K luck,’ Proffer said.

Then last year brought a disappointing group of artists, based on attendance numbers.

‘Last year, you saw Ciara, which for all intents and purposes could be called a failure,’ Rizzolo said. ‘In terms of all the events we fund, we don’t think that $170,000 for 3,000 people – let alone, it probably wasn’t 3,000 students – is really the best use of the student activity fee.’

The extra time afforded to UU Concerts for Block Party planning is meant to improve the chances of booking a popular artist that will draw a crowd.

To find out which artists they should pursue, Proffer and Bertog committed hours of daily research to exploring students’ music interests. Facebook served as the primary source of input. Proffer said they scanned profile after profile, looking for which artists come up most often under favorite music or in the iLike application.

Aside from Facebook, Bertog and Proffer also consulted the 150-plus members of UU Concerts. Proffer said at meetings they always ask the members who they’d like to see. At the meetings this semester, Proffer said many members expressed interest in bringing a rock artist for Block Party.

Such a decision would buck a trend stretching back to 2003 of bringing a hip-hop artist for the spring event.

Unfortunately, no artists – whether prospective or officially scheduled – will be publicly named until all contracts are signed, sealed and delivered.

‘(Agents) don’t expect to go see the school paper and see (the band) on the front page when they don’t have a contract signed,’ UU President Adam Scharfberg said.

UU keeps artist information confidential in order to protect the reputation of the artists. Even the number of prospective artists is off limits. Bertog said the number stays confidential because UU wants to avoid misinforming students about the number of options out there.

Proffer noted that although UU would love to discuss the number of artist options openly with students, doing so would violate trust established in monthlong or even yearlong relationships with agents.

So what reassurance do Proffer and Bertog provide that the artists they choose won’t be total busts? Bertog said to trust their track record as directors.

By the numbers, the duo’s two major fall concerts were successes.

The Homecoming concert, which featured Gym Class Heroes, sold out the 1,500-seat Goldstein Auditorium. Proffer and Bertog were challenged with the Homecoming event due to inclement weather and moved the concert venue from the Quad to the auditorium on short notice.

Juice Jam also enjoyed a change of venue that led to success. Nearly 4,000 tickets were sold to see headliner Third Eye Blind on South Campus. The ticket sales mark topped last year’s total of 2,282.

Bertog also noted that when he and Proffer were in charge of Bandersnatch, five of their seven shows sold out and the other two were near-sellouts.

Another edge the duo has on the rest of SU students is experience with booking agents. Proffer said even after four years of concert planning, he still finds negotiations about artists tough.

‘Getting on the phone with these people is difficult enough as is,’ Proffer said. ‘The fact that we are able to is a testament to the rapport we’ve built over time.’

Published on December 5, 2007 at 12:00 pm