With months before coronavirus-related restrictions may ease and the vaccines are available to the general public, the staff at Worcester’s DCU Center is being nimble and planning for the future of live entertainment.
Currently, the center is home to a coronavirus field hospital run by UMass Memorial Health Care, a far cry from its history hosting concerts, industry conventions and dance or cheerleading competitions.
It’s been months of change and a financial struggle for the center, a key piece of Worcester’s entertainment scene.
“We’ve become very good at being flexible,” said Sandy Dunn, the center’s general manager. “A lot of the dates that we hold, they just continue to roll. We’re in touch with the promoters maybe 12 weeks out, 16 weeks out, saying ‘What’s it look like? Why don’t we move it back another month.’ So, we’ll continue those efforts.”
Right now, the center is focusing on things like asset management. There’s also a training center for the hospital on the center’s third floor, Dunn said, and Reign Cafe is still operating from inside the center.
Even with a few months of uncertainty ahead as vaccinations roll out, the center has a schedule rife with meetings with promoters, event planners and conventions, to try and plan bookings for the future.
“Some are bullish enough, typically the convention center, is bullish enough that they’re starting to look at April, depending on the type of event that it would be,” Dunn said. “The arena is, maybe we have a booking in June, July, but because provisionally we don’t have a lot of indoor arena events in the summer anyway, really the focus is on September.”
The Worcester Pirates indoor football league still plans to have a season in 2021, which is scheduled to start in April. Tickets for individual games will be on sale soon and season tickets are already for sale, Dunn said.
Looking into 2021-2022, the center is looking ahead at planning the next ECHL hockey season for the Worcester Railers Hockey Club, Dunn said. The Railers canceled its 2020-2021 season.
The DCU Center is working with a skeleton crew for staff, and Dunn said the expectation is to have its full staff return and do some new hires when activity picks up again.
Of course, the financial strain has been immense during the pandemic. The DCU Center’s funding is provided by the city of Worcester and the center has not been eligible for federal stimulus packages. The city does have eligibility for federal funds.
It’s hard to predict how long it may take for the DCU to completely recover financially. In the center’s last normal fiscal year, it earned $758,000, Dunn said.
“It’s going to take some time, but it will turn back,” Dunn said. “I have all the belief in the world that live entertainment, people are missing it tremendously and they’ll be back in droves once we get past all of this.”
Dunn said she thinks the pandemic has helped people further embrace technology. Once large activities return, Dunn said she thinks more people will take advantage of online ticket sales and skip the box office.
“I think people will be used to buying their tickets online, arriving with their cell phone, scanning tickets in,” she said. “Ordering their concessions on their phone and picking it up or having it delivered to their seat, I think all of that is going to be the future of the industry.”
In addition to technology, a heightened focus on hygiene and sanitation will outlast the pandemic, Dunn said.
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