At the San Diego Performing Arts League's downtown San Diego half-price ARTS TIX booth, Alan Sparkes carefully tucked a pair of tickets to a San Diego Symphony concert into his wallet.

"I come here simply because I can get good tickets at half-price," said Sparkes, who paid $50 (including service fees) for tickets that would have cost $84 at the Copley Symphony Hall box office.

A semi-retired auto mechanic living in San Carlos, Sparkes said he takes advantage of ticket bargains whenever he has the chance, especially if the event is a classical music concert or touring Broadway musical.

Sparkes is among thousands of county residents who have noticed arts event ticket increases (along with real estate, groceries and gasoline) over the past 10 years.

Last year, 26,390 tickets worth $96,409 were sold at the ARTS TIX booth at Horton Plaza, up 15,553 from the previous year. (The ARTS TIX record is 30,359 sold in 1992 - an economic recession year.) For North County residents, the League opened a second booth in August in downtown Escondido.

As a former ticket manager of the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus, Stuart Towers, of Sabre Springs, understands the rising production costs incurred by arts organizations, but he takes advantage of ARTS TIX for greater exposure to the arts.

Among 14 San Diego County-based arts organizations surveyed by the Union-Tribune, the biggest increases over the past 10 years have occurred at the San Diego Repertory Theatre - 119 percent for its most expensive seats (from $16 to a current $35) and 117 percent for the cheapest ($12 to the current $26). Also high on the list were Evoke Dance Theatre, 200 percent for its cheapest and 100 percent for its most expensive, and the Old Globe at 124 percent for its lowest-priced tickets and 108 percent for the top end.

The lowest ticket-price increases have occurred at La Jolla Playhouse - 9 percent for the most expensive seats ($47.50 10 years ago, $52 now) and 16 percent for the cheapest ($25 versus $29) over the same period.

For arts organizations, artists fees and construction materials costs have risen steadily. Groups that don't own their performance venue are paying more for rent than they did in 1995, while those that do own their space pay more for such items as building maintenance, utilities and security.

"Old Globe expenses increase annually in almost all areas - personnel (staff and actor-artist salaries), health insurance, worker's compensation, set and costume materials, and marketing expenses similar to other institutions," said Globe managing director Louis Spisto.

At the Old Globe Theatre, increases since 1995 have been 108 percent for the highest priced seats, and 124 percent for the lowest (nondiscounted) seats.

San Diego Opera general director Ian Campbell, whose company rents the Civic Theatre, echoed Spisto, but singled out organized labor and artist contracts as especially significant to the company he's run for 22 years.

"We are a union house and union contracts (including for musicians) usually have increases year by year," Campbell said. "Singers who were inexpensive when they were less known . . . become more expensive as they succeed."

Next year, San Diego Opera's rock bottom price will increase $5 from this year's $20. Its top price - $170 on Saturday (opening) nights - will be the most expensive performing-arts ticket in town. On all other nights next season, the top opera seat price will be $140, up $8 from this year.

That's a bargain compared to other California opera companies. Opera Pacific in Orange County charged $27 to $261, San Francisco Opera $24 to $230, and Los Angeles Opera $30 to $205.

"Experience teaches that unless prices rise at least to keep pace with inflation each year, a much larger bump will have to be made after three or four years, which causes a severe loss in ticket buyers," Campbell said. "Were we able to raise the whole cost of the 2006 season ($14.5 million) in contributions, we could give the tickets away."

Patrick Madden, vice president of the Washington, D.,C.-based Association of Performing Arts Presenters, said ticket sales typically "only cover a little over half the actual expense" of putting on a performance.

"So, modest increases to ticket prices are part of doing business to cover any rising costs of putting on a performance," Madden said, adding that singles sales (as opposed to subscriptions) are on an increase nationally because "fewer people are willing to commit to performances three, six, nine months away."

With barely enough money to keep its doors open, the California Arts Council has no funds to make grants to thousands of arts organizations and artists it used to support as recently as 2003.

The city of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, and the county Board of Supervisors, have fewer dollars to dole out to the arts, too. Between 1992 and 2000, city arts funding went from about $4 million a year to $10 million. Over the past few years, city arts support has been decreasing (slightly under $8 million this year) in the face of overall city financial woes.

Requirements to receive National Endowment for the Arts support these days are more stringent and restrictive than they were a decade ago. Eight years ago, nine arts institutions here shared $700,000 in NEA support. So far this year, eight groups here have shared $210,000 in federal arts funds.

"Every ticket that every nonprofit (arts organization) sells is a subsidized ticket," said San Diego Repertory Theatre marketing director Michael Gepner. "If we charged what it actually costs to produce the product, very few people could afford it."

At the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park, just 10 percent of that institution's income budget comes from admissions. Five years ago, MoPA reopened in a space four times as large as its original Casa de Balboa space in Balboa Park, prompting the museum to raise its general admission to $6 (still holding) from $3.50 10 years ago.

"Every person that comes through our door must be subsidized by donations, store sales, and grants," said museum spokeswoman Courtney Blackwell. "Half of our admissions are given away on the 12 (Balboa Park) 'Free Tuesdays' each year."

Paul Vierra, managing director of North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach, agreed general inflation is the main culprit of price increases, but he said "another reason is to prevent the perception that the product is of lower quality than our competition."

"We try to balance ticket prices with our audience profile, market perception, costs of production, and organizational needs," said Sledgehammer vice president Eric Bernhard.

The Old Globe annually conducts a pricing survey of other prominent theaters around the country, and of other local performing arts groups. The Globe and La Jolla Playhouse price musicals and nonmusicals separately.

"People are accustomed to paying much higher prices for musicals, and there is a larger market of musical audience members who readily pay," said Playhouse spokeswoman Jill McIntyre.

La Jolla Music Society looks at artist, venue and capacity, and what the organization believes the market will bear. Its concerts in 500-seat Sherwood Auditorium for a string quartet max out at $75. At the also small-capacity Neurosciences Center in La Jolla, $30 is the most the Music Society asks. At the Civic Theatre or Copley Symphony Hall, the top Music Society ticket (usually for a visiting orchestra) is $85.

It appears there's no consumer revolt here over higher ticket prices. Of the local arts organizations surveyed, eight said they do not receive complaints about increases. Others said they get "very few" complaints, "usually not" or just "occasionally."

San Diego Opera's Campbell said complaints are inevitable, but they usually are from patrons "who do not understand that they cannot get to the front of the aircraft for the cost of a rear seat."

Theater-goers here may want to count their blessings when it comes to prices. In New York, the $100 ticket barrier recently was broken for regular orchestra seats. "Monty Python's Spamalot," "Wicked" and "Mamma Mia!" - three of Broadway's most popular musicals - now charge $110. Premium tickets for dead-center orchestra section at "Wicked" go for $250. Plays are inching toward the $100 mark, too. "Doubt," this year's Tony-winning best play, has a top price of $96.25.

Joe Kobryner, Broadway/San Diego general manager, said he hopes his operation - a subsidiary of the New York-based Nederlander Producing Company of America - can continue to stay under "Great White Way" prices.

"Some national producers ask us to create a 'Golden Circle' price for a limited number of seats," Kobryner said. "Sometimes at that price some other benefits might be included. (Still) we hope to always be price-sensitive."

Eveoke Dance Theatre producer Christopher Hall said his company's current $25 top ticket appears maxed out, particularly because the organization rents various venues.

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