Lee\u2019s face was featured on the poster<\/a> for the event, among a large cast of performers.<\/p>\nPerry said it was complicated negotiation, one that went on informally with the promoters for weeks. The talks underscored the complicated nature of structuring a deal to bring an act to Stockton. A promoter can simply rent a facility. Some want to split the pot or get a cut of the food and beverage sales or parking charges. For Wild \u2018N Out, the promoters wanted to rent the arena and share revenue from service fees and food and beverage sales, Perry said.<\/p>\n
Tickets were initially priced high and sluggish sales alarmed promoters.<\/p>\n
\u201cJason, we\u2019re going to pull the show,\u201d Perry recalled the promoters warning him as the performance date closed in. Perry said he believed its cancelation would have been too much of a blow to the city\u2019s entertainment reputation. \u201cStockton cannot afford another show going away, especially on one of this large magnitude that\u2019s getting as much publicity as it has gotten,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His ace in the hole: Making a request to the city to dip into a $600,000 Risk Mitigation Fund created the previous fiscal year. It was intended to lure performances to Stockton or cut their losses in hopes they might return to try again with top acts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal of this fund is to allow the venues to go \u2018at risk\u2019 to secure a show,\u201d though never by more than the amount in the fund, states ASM\u2019s slide presentation to the committee. \u201cIf the show performs well, the profits rebuild the fund.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nThe fund had been formed the previous year to cut losses in the the second year of the Lantern Festival held at the ballpark. The light show, a multi-million dollar production meant to create \u201cgenerational memories\u201d every holiday season, nets $4 million in some markets, Perry said. In establishing the show in Stockton, promoters expected it to lose $200,000 its first year. But in a surprise, it brought in $206,000 \u2014 a $6,000 profit. Hopes were high for the second year. But only half as many tickets were sold then, resulting in a loss of $125,000 over the two-year run, city documents show.<\/p>\n
In the final week before Wild \u2018N Out Live, ticket prices were slashed to as low as $6 on the deep-discount site Groupon. Yet promoters needed more than $750,000 in ticket sales to break even, Perry said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably the cheapest ticket ever in the history of the venue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Some 2,797 people snapped up tickets in the final week for a final tally of 7,121 who saw Wild \u2018N Out Live, according to Perry.<\/p>\n
Though promoters took a loss and the city paid out compensation, Tina McCarty, director of the city\u2019s Economic Development Department, said out-of-town attendance and parking revenues helped salvage the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, the event was a success for the city,\u201d she insisted in a email to a deputy city manager.<\/p>\n
The lesson for Stockton?<\/p>\n
There really is no business like show business.<\/p>\n
Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nWant more? Sign up to get Stocktonia delivered to your inbox three days a week. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source stocktonia.org \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes landing big-name acts in entertainment, Stockton isn\u2019t getting a standing ovation. The scandal emerging over how Stockton forked over $50,000 to make up for a promoter\u2019s expected losses on a Wild \u2018N Out Live performance featuring Vice Mayor Jason Lee in the cast offers a window into the city\u2019s struggles in trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1954004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[342634,339609,27606,61966,307878,339611,339612,342635,342636],"class_list":["post-1954003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-adventist-health-arena","tag-jason-lee","tag-jerry-seinfeld","tag-lil-wayne","tag-mtv","tag-san-joaquin-county","tag-stockton","tag-stockton-city-council","tag-wild-n-out"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Jerry-Seinfeld-Lil-Wayne-and-Jason-Lee-How-Stockton-struggles.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1954003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1954004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1954003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1954003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1954003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}