Grand Action 2.0 has already taken the public for $80 million on the Amphitheater project

Grand Action 2.0, the organization that was created by members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure to propose development projects in downtown, earlier this week announced the last fundraising wave for the Amphitheater, scheduled to open in May of 2026.

All four daily commercial news outlets ran stories on the Grand Action 2.0 update, exclusively relying on Grand Action 2.0 spokespersons and likely their Media Release. MLive ran an article with the headline, Grand Rapids amphitheater nears fundraising goal, asks public for support. WOODTV8 posted a canned video produced by Grand Action 2.0, with a spokesperson with the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce praising the Amphitheater project. In the WZZM 13 story, the reporter used the following sentence, “The $184 million Acrisure Amphitheater is already more than 95 percent funded but Monday marked a new chapter — the public’s turn to help push the project across the finish line.”

While not surprising, the line from the WZZM 13 reporter is false. The channel 13 piece, like the rest of the coverage, suggests that the public now has a chance to contribute to this project. Nothing could be farther from the truth. WXMI 17 was the only news outlet that at least provided some breakdown of the funding for the Amphitheater, but even they fell short with the complete costs of the project, especially the use of public dollars.

Here is a more accurate breakdown of how public dollars contributed to Amphitheater:

• $15 million from the Hotel Tax, which was adopted by the Kent County Commission, which diverts money from the public who stays on hotels and motels in Kent County.
• $30 million from the State of Michigan through a public grant, which is from public tax dollars.
• $20.5 million from the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), which uses funds from taxes collected in the downtown area, which is also technically public money.

Then there are public costs related to the project on the front end, when the City of Grand Rapids did infrastructure work and relocated City services & departments to free up land for the Amphitheater project. The City of Grand Rapids paid $6,252,643 to relocate a sewer trunk, as well as $7,450,000 that the City paid for the 1500 Scribner Avenue NW property from the County, which I reported on in 2021.

In 2023, MLive ran a story with the headline, Making room for proposed riverfront amphitheater could cost Grand Rapids $58M. GRIID responded to that article and discussed some additional costs that MLive did not factor into what the City of Grand Rapids, which is public money, would be paying.

In June of 2024, it was reported that $2 million in federal funding would be used to construct a walking bridge that would connect the Amphitheater and the westside. Federal funding is also public dollars.

If you add up the various sources of public money, it comes to roughly $80 million. Therefore, when WZZM 13 says it’s the public’s turn to help push the project across the finish line, I call bullshit. In fact, nearly half of the cost of the Amphitheater is from public dollars. Now, if nearly half of the cost has been picked up by the public, does this mean that the public will get to use the Amphitheater for public events or attend concerts for free at significantly reduced ticket prices? Hell no!

Looking at the ticket prices for the Amphitheater events you can see that the closer to the stage seats are reserved for those with deep pockets. Tickets for the first concert in May of 2026, range from $60 a seat to $623 a seat.

Lastly, the so-called public donation period that Grand Action 2.0 is pushing, uses the term public in an elitist fashion, since it provides special perks for those that can “donate” larger sums. Here is the breakdown:

• $1000+ results in permanent recognition at the amphitheater
• The first 500 people to donate at least $2,500 can purchase two tickets before they publicly go on sale for all events in the amphitheater’s first season
• Donors who give $20,000 to $49,999 have the option to buy premium seat licenses
• Donations of $50,000 to $199,999 open options for seat licenses and on-site recognition
• The biggest prize comes for donations of $200,000 or more: the option to purchase loge seating licenses

All of the pricing opportunities excludes the majority of those who live this city and county, thus creating yet another divide between working class people and members of the capitalist class. The Amphitheater is just the latest project that Grand Action 2.0 has shoved down our throats, forcing the public to cough of at least $80 million and then charge us ridiculous prices to attend concerts. When are we going to wake up to how we are being manipulated, start resisting and demand that our money should go for housing, health care, mass transit and sustainable energy projects?