After his first visit, he sported an Ohio basketball jersey in his music video for “Please Don’t Go.” Maybe Mike Posner will choose a football jersey after his return to Athens tonight.
Mike Posner and The Brain Trust will perform at 8 tonight in Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium.
Two years ago, the first Ohio University Homecoming Steering Committee was created to reformat Homecoming. The idea behind the committee was to extend and plan Homecoming festivities throughout the week leading up to the weekend. The new format took effect last year, but there was still one component missing.
“The one thing that students have said loud and clear is they want to have more concerts on campus,” said Kent Smith, vice president for Student Affairs. “I applaud (the University Program Council) for making it happen.”
It has been more than 10 years since a concert has coincided with Homecoming, but UPC plans on making one an annual occurrence.
“What we’re shooting for with this concert is that it will set a precedent,” said Hannah Croft, a live-entertainment executive for UPC.
UPC decided to plan a Homecoming concert in the spring, and the clear choice seemed to be Posner — someone who would draw a large crowd and appeal to a large number of students.
Posner performed at 7Fest in spring 2010 and has since experienced a fair amount of success in the music industry after graduating from Duke University in the summer of 2010. His full-length debut album, 31 Minutes to Takeoff, spent a week ranked No. 8 on the Billboard Top 200 chart last August.
Despite his popularity, Posner was one of the more affordable artists, available at $35,000.
“People always ask why we can’t bring someone like Dave Matthews in,” Croft said. “When you bring in an artist like a Dave Matthews or Lady Gaga, their guarantee is like $2.5 million.”
A city such as Athens cannot guarantee enough tickets will be purchased to cover that amount of money.
Posner might not be coming back just for the money, though. His management team initially turned down the $35,000 offer, but Croft speculates that Posner himself might have heard about the proposition and decided to perform.
“I feel like Mike probably found out about it and thought, ‘I really had a good time there. Let’s just go back for ($35,000),’ ” Croft said. “That’s just me guessing. … But that’s what I like to think.”
Tickets for the show went on sale Aug. 3 with more than 1,000 sold before the school year started. There are about 300 tickets remaining before Mem Aud reaches its capacity of about 1,900, said Andrew Holzaepfel, associate director of the Campus Involvement Center.
Tickets are $35 for the first 10 rows and $25 for the remaining seats.
mt360307@ohiou.edu
