TULALIP – There’s a new kind of banter going around the Tulalip Indian Reservation these days.
John McCoy, a state representative and general manager of Quil Ceda Village, the tribes’ retail and casino center, wants to invite the Glenn Miller Orchestra, a big band still performing after 70 years, over for an evening.
Tribal members and employees, some of whom are decades younger than McCoy, want to send an invitation to a different kind of musician. A rapper, or a young rock band.
Unlike most music lovers, when the Tulalip Tribes extend an invitation, the performers answer.
Since the Tulalip Tribes Amphitheatre opened this time last year, crooners including Trisha Yearwood and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons have drawn crowds.
The 2,500-person outdoor venue was sold out for a performance by blues legend B.B. King on Sunday. Tickets for a show Tuesday featuring Latin lover Julio Iglesias are going fast.
The amphitheater was built in about 10 months and opened in August 2005. McCoy said the construction cost the tribes millions of dollars. The tribes amphitheater operation nearly broke even its first half-season, which ended in October, McCoy said.
The venue was part of a master plan drafted in 1999.
“We deliberately didn’t put this inside the casino,” McCoy said. “We want to give people something to do besides gambling and make this a real destination.”
The amphitheater brings acts to the area that might not otherwise stop in the Puget Sound region, said Tammi Bryant, director of marketing for the Everett Events Center, an arena that holds up to 10,000 people for a full concert.
“The artists are going to play where it’s most appropriate size-wise,” Bryant said. “Because of (the amphitheater’s size), I don’t think we view it as competition.”
Trisha Yearwood often plays at casinos and at outdoor music festivals, and B.B. King rarely takes his music indoors, Bryant said.
Bryant worked for House of Blues, a nationwide chain of music venues, for five years.
“I’ve promoted B.B. King so many times, but always in amphitheaters,” she said.
The Gorge Amphitheatre in central Washington holds 20,000 people, as does the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, a venue owned by the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe that opened three years ago.
White River Amphitheatre Executive Director Lance Miller said the number of shows his venue offers varies from season to season and from week to week. According to the venue’s Web site, four shows are scheduled between Sunday and the end of September, including radio station The End’s Endfest, a festival featuring several alternative rock bands.
The Tulalip Tribes booked five acts last year and had 11 acts scheduled this season. McCoy hopes the venue will soon host as many as 18 acts each season.
The Tulalip Amphitheatre can also be rented for $300 per day for weddings and other parties.
Tribal leaders don’t plan to build a larger venue, McCoy said.
“We wanted a little more intimate place,” he said. “We don’t want to compete with White River.”
The Tulalip Tribes are at the forefront of a state trend among American Indian tribes to diversify their business enterprises away from gaming, according to a study released last month by Jonathan Taylor, an economic consultant in Massachusetts.
Taylor found that the Tulalip Tribes’ diversification has resulted in “reservation activity that can only be described as explosive.”
Traffic near the amphitheater grew by 420 percent in six years. Quil Ceda Village, home to the Seattle Premium Outlets, generated $26 million in sales tax revenue for the state in 2005.
More than half of Quil Ceda Village is still undeveloped, McCoy said. There are plans for office buildings and light manufacturing facilities as well as recreational outlets such as bowling alleys. Crews broke ground for a 12-story luxury hotel last week.
“We’re starting things today that my grandchildren are going to finish,” McCoy said.
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@ heraldnet.com.
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