Residents from Dane County and other cities might be able to see their favorite artists on tour at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison one day. That’s what one national concert promoter is hoping to accomplish with its proposal to invest in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Dane County officials are negotiating a contract with Frank Productions Live, an entertainment company with headquarters in Madison, to reconstruct the Coliseum. FPC Live was the only applicant to last year’s county request for proposals for a public-private funded partnership toward the Coliseum’s redevelopment.
Included in FPC Live’s $111 million proposal to invest in the Coliseum is contributing toward the delayed infrastructure upgrades, including to the building’s heating and cooling systems, the guest and staff experience, and the vintage concession stands — saving the county’s capital budget by at least $35 million.
In a Jan. 23 interview, County Executive Melissa Agard and Alliant Energy Center Director Kevin Scheibler discussed the plans for the Coliseum. While the new offer to construct, finance, operate and maintain the venue is the start of a years-long process, Agard said she’s stepping into the public-private partnership with curiosity and optimism.
“I think, you know, government is always doing multiple things at the same time. And this is no different than that. I'm excited,” Agard said. “Our community has been asking for this for quite some time, and having a director of this campus who is excited and fully capable of balancing a multitude of things at the same time and ensuring our public's values are continuing to be lifted up through this process is very, very important.”
Residents want more say over how major plans for the Alliant Energy Center, the Madison LakeWay and other projects affect their neighborhoods.
Agard emphasized the importance of pursuing a public-private partnership to redevelop the Alliant Energy Center, mainly to reduce the financial strain within the county, given concerns over structural budget deficits. FPC Live’s proposal to invest $100 million would remove fiscal risk from the county and put private investment on the table in a way that works for the public good, Agard said.
“I believe that it is the responsibility of Dane County to ensure that this continues to be a thriving place. We’re the fastest-growing county in the state of Wisconsin. We're the economic engine for the state of Wisconsin. So creating that balance is vitally important, doing a public-private partnership, starting to engage in that,” Agard said. “We have a potential partner who is talking about investing, and this is just the proposal where things can change — $100 million into this campus to allow that to happen, to remove long-term liability of deferred maintenance that currently exists in that facility.”
Contract negotiations are scheduled to last until spring. Then county officials and developers will begin working on the preliminary design plans for the Coliseum later this year. Construction isn’t planned until 2027, around the same time the Exhibition Hall will be revamped, according to the county’s Alliant Energy Center Redevelopment Committee.
That committee, alongside the commercially-focused Destination District Task Force, has been working collaboratively over the past decade or so to make recommendations for future development of the 164-acre area surrounding the event center. The Redevelopment Committee is working on reviewing the design plans for the Exhibition Hall, now that contract negotiations are underway for the Coliseum.
Investing in the necessary infrastructure upgrades at the Coliseum is crucial if venue operators want to attract entertainers touring in neighboring cities like Milwaukee, Chicago or Minneapolis, where facilities feature more modern options, Scheibler said. He was hired as director of the Alliant Energy Center in 2024 after overseeing arenas across the Midwest for 40 years.
One goal for the campus is to put out 70 to 100 events a year and bring in more than a quarter million people, Scheibler said. He compared the 100-plus events hosted at the Coliseum in 2018 to the 44 from last year and said making sure the facilities are updated and ready for entertainers’ visions is the main priority.
“The industry has changed dramatically. It used to be that you went on tour to sell albums and records. Now you go on tour to make money. Unfortunately, that's the way the world is now. For these entertainers, they only make real money by touring, and so the amenities and the ability to move from city to city quickly has been critical,” Scheibler said.
“The fact is that we don't have the amenities that our competitors do for the artists in the back of house, we don't have the amenities for the guests in the front of house, and it's not easy to set up and tear down there. Really, our competitors provided a better option, and we need to invest in there to make sure that we are the better option that makes sense,” Scheibler said.
