Long road back for nTelos Pavilion

Here’s an idea for filling all those empty seats at Portsmouth’s nTelos Pavilion: Book an exorcist to try to rid the place of its bad mojo.

OK, so maybe evil spirits aren’t to blame for the amphitheater’s history of bumbling calamity. But, as spectacles go, a rollicking demon roundup seems likely to draw bigger crowds to the waterfront venue than it’s been attracting lately.

As The Pilot’s Meghan Hoyer reported Monday, R&B legend Etta James opened this year’s concert season to a theater with more empty seats than occupied ones. The scene was typical; on average, performers at nTelos draw about 55 percent of the audiences they do at venues of similar size.

Paid attendance at nTelos dropped to roughly 37,000 last year, down from about 40,000 the year before. That’s not a tremendous decline, but the average attendance — fewer than 1,700 concert-goers in a theater built for 6,500 — appears to be creating obstacles for booking acts.

So far this year, nTelos has only 12 events on its schedule, a paltry number compared with the 41 on the calendar in the pavilion’s opening season in 2001.

Officials at Virginia Beach-based Integrated Management Group, who took over operations of the city-ownleted pavilion two years ago after multiple roof rips and other woes, say there are some signs of a turnaround. A recent gospel show was almost a sellout, VIP box seats are drawing more interest, and a few well-known acts that usually play in bigger venues in the region are on this year’s nTelos schedule.

Still, there’s merit to suggestions that the city open the pavilion to more community-based events, like wine festivals and citywide block parties. If nothing else, these events might familiarize more people with the pavilion, which is — without a doubt — one of the most attractive places to see a concert in Hampton Roads. Getting that word out would go a long way toward getting the demons out.