After the lawsuits and failed deals and confusion, it seems Fulton County is prepared to finally give the Wolf Creek Amphitheater to the city of South Fulton.
A lease for the 42.9 acres containing the venue is on the Fulton County Commission’s meeting agenda this week. Negotiations about ownership of the 5,300-seat date back to when South Fulton incorporated in 2017. The city sued the county in August 2019 to gain control of several county-owned facilities, which included the $6.1-million amphitheater.
The city wanted the venue as a way to help the nascent city. Part of the problem with transferring ownership is the property partially sits on an old landfill with all kinds of remediation required by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
Those environmental concerns are the reason why the county is leasing (for free) the property to the city, so as to avoid all sorts of regulatory issues.
Part of the Wolf Creek property hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics shooting events.
Fulton approved the construction of the music venue 2008, which at the time drew ire because Northside commissioners said this was another example of county money being wrongfully used. The future first mayor of South Fulton, at the time county commissioner Bill Edwards, argued that detractors were trying to sabotage a revenue-generating project on the Southside, according to reporting The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time.
The amphitheater opened in 2011 — with a free concert by India Arie — but almost immediately started losing money because of an inability to sell tickets or book acts. A couple years later, as predicted by a 2005 feasibility study, the venue had found its groove hosting R&B and jazz performers and turned a profit for the county.
Credit: Hyosub Shin, hshin@ajc.com
Credit: Hyosub Shin, hshin@ajc.com
But scandal struck after a November 2016 audit showed staff, some of whom the county fired, were sometimes printing 500 complimentary tickets per show — the industry standard of 1% comped tickets would be 53 tickets for Wolf Creek — putting the venue over capacity. Those were only some of the two dozen county policy violations.
The county then hired Live Nation in December 2016 to run the venue for 10 years. But in April 2019, less than three years that contract, Fulton ended its agreement with Live Nation.
The company was expected to yield $800,000 and $1 million annually, but the county got just $125,000 over two years, according to previous AJC reporting.
In January 2020, it seemed a $1 million sale was ready to go between the county and the city. That failed.
This latest round of negotiations between the county and the city has lasted months.
“This has been a long process, but I’m pleased to say that it’s almost a done deal,” Fulton Chairman Robb Pitts said in a news release from his office. “The transfer will allow the City of South Fulton to grow and build on Wolf Creek’s popularity with all residents of Fulton County. With COVID-19 restrictions now lifted, I’m excited about the Amphitheater’s bright future.”
The Fulton County Commission is set to meet Wednesday at 10 a.m. inside the assembly hall of the county government center, 141 Pryor St. in downtown Atlanta. The meeting is expected to be streamed on YouTube at http://bit.ly/WatchFGTV.
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