Sacramento needs more live entertainment venues, both large and small. That’s the consensus among city leaders and industry veterans. Two projects in the works aim to help fill the gaps. City administrators are crafting a new permit making it easier for restaurants to host live music. Meanwhile, a Bay Area concert promoter is planting its flag in the capital with Channel 24, a new venue under construction in Midtown. 

This will be the first venue designed and built for Another Planet Entertainment, which operates several properties across the state. The 2,150-capacity Channel 24, originally known as the 24R Theater Project, is slated to open sometime early next year. The last mid-sized indoor concert venue opened within city limits was Ace of Spades in 2010. That space originally opened two decades ago as Empire Events Center. Once completed, Channel 24 can hold twice the number of concert-goers and fill a niche the city lacks.

“We understand how important it is to develop an artist in a market so that they can grow,” says Allen Scott, Another Planet Entertainment’s president of concerts and festivals. “And there just wasn’t that next step after the Ace of Spades for an artist to go.” 

Nightclubs and community theaters in Sacramento typically have a capacity between 200 and500, most right in the middle. A rung up are seated venues like Crest Theatre at about 1,000 and Sacramento Memorial Auditorium at a little over 3,800. The void lies between those last two sizes. It’s been a problem for Another Planet Entertainment. 

“Artists are always asking to play Sacramento,” Scott says. Many inquiries are for downtown locations with a capacity of around 2,000. The closest the promoter could book was 16 miles away at UC Davis. The only other option for the company near Northern California was Reno. Since there wasn’t a venue of that size, the solution was to build one. 

Construction on Channel 24 began in March, but the venue has been in the works for nearly a decade, Scott says. The company had trouble finding the right spot. One thing was clear: “This has to be in Midtown,” Scott says. It needed to be for its proximity to restaurants, hotels and the airport. “That’s much more appealing than being outside of the city limits.”

Scott says the goal for Channel 24 is to create another stepping stone for small artists. Ultimately, he wants to help musicians who play to hundreds at clubs like Harlow’s to go on to perform for thousands at the city’s largest venue, Golden 1 Center. The other hope is to draw new artists to town and make Sacramento a tour stop as they head to the Bay Area.

Sacramento doesn’t have a problem drawing acts who play at the club level for crowds of a couple hundred, says Brian McKenna, who has worked as a concert promoter in the Capital Region for over three decades. However, talent who play for a few thousand can struggle to find an accommodating venue. Sometimes they pass up Sacramento for Oakland or San Francisco. 

“In that missing link between 1,000 and 2,500 seats, sometimes in the past, we have been skipped over for that. We’re not quite a major market,” McKenna said. “The Bay Area is always going to get the show.” As for Channel 24, he said “The population has grown to a point where it can support it. And I think it’ll be a very good thing for this city.”

But if there’s a need in the capital for a space of Channel 24’s size, why hasn’t anyone else built it until now? “Nobody, I think, had the foresight or the belief to come in and do what we’re doing,” Scott says. “Or maybe we’re just stupid.”

‘It’s tough sledding right now’

Sacramento’s live entertainment scene has largely recovered since the pandemic-era lockdowns, says Crest Theatre general manager Robert Alvis. The demand has returned, but repaying loans that kept businesses afloat during the past few years has hampered the full recovery. 

COVID-19 forced many of the small venues of Sacramento’s music scene to adapt. The Boardwalk in Orangevale closed after its founder died in 2020 only to reopen about nine months later under new ownership and a new kitchen. Holy Diver closed in 2021. Luna’s Cafe & Juice Bar, a go-to for open mics for four decades, was bought last year and replaced with The Silver Lining, which bills itself as “Sacramento’s only dueling piano bar.” The Russ Room closed in June after operating for about five years, and The Park Ultra Lounge closed the same month with plans to reopen next year after renovations. 

Newer venues add to the challenge. Up north, The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino near Wheatland opened a 2,500-seat venue in 2022, and Thunder Valley Casino Resort near Lincoln unveiled a 4,500-seat theater The Venue the following year. Goldfield Trading Post opened a second venue in Roseville twice the size of its Midtown location (which was also expanded). And outdoor concert venue The Backyard with its 3,500 capacity opened in July next to Cal Expo. 

Channel 24 will be another competitor to the Crest Theatre. In the immediate term, it means a harder fight for those key acts. Long-term, Alvis says it will help the downtown venues by drawing acts to the city. He says some tours fly south from Seattle or Portland and overlook Sacramento to play in the Bay. Channel 24 could draw them to town. 

“Now they’ll stop, and then as their popularity either increases or decreases, because that happens, then they’ll either play the bigger venue or smaller venue, but now Sacramento becomes part of their routing.

“The more acts that get used to coming and stopping in Sacramento, the better it’s going to be overall for everyone in the future,” Alvis continues. “But right now, there is a little bit of a supply and demand crunch that’s going on in the meantime.”

‘A long time coming’ 

If Channel 24 is filling a gap at the mid-level, then another project aims to do the same at the very bottom. Since 2003, the city has required an entertainment permit for any business wanting to host a live show in Sacramento. After getting vetted and approved, the permit lasts two years and costs $1,722 to obtain, $1,331 to renew. The city typically has 70 to 80 of these permit holders at any given time, according to Tina Lee-Vogt, who less than two years ago was appointed as the city’s first nighttime economy manager. She says that number has been pretty consistent over the past two decades.

Lee-Vogt, who acts as a liaison between local government and the live entertainment venues,  says the original entertainment permit was designed with nightclubs in mind. This one-size-fits-all approach had an unintended consequence. A pizzeria wanting to book a DJ once a week had to go through the same application process as Faces, a gay nightclub boasting a 1,000 capacity on its Yelp page. It’s a hassle some small business owners don’t want to deal with.

This has caused a drought of venues at the micro level. The findings of the city-funded 2023 Sacramento Music Census back that up; 1,400 area residents working in the music industry were surveyed for the report, which states “the musician-to-venue and industry resources ratio is out of balance” in Sacramento. The city does not have enough small stages at a capacity between 101 and 500 that can incubate local artists. Channel 24 could help fill out the midsize rung, but there’s a vast shortage of opportunity for the city’s musicians looking to land their first gig. 

However, in March the city council voted to approve the creation of a limited entertainment permit. Under the current proposal, this permit would allow live entertainment at venues with a capacity of fewer than 300 where the performance is a “secondary operation.” The new permit will reduce some of the requirements regarding security and city inspections, making it faster to obtain. “We’re hoping to streamline that process and make it a little simpler so we can expand the permit to more businesses,” Lee-Vogt says. So how much interest is there?

“Well, from the amount of times I get asked about it when I go out, I think there’s a lot,” Lee-Vogt says. If she had to put a number to it, she estimates “easily 40 to 50” businesses could apply but adds it’s hard to say. It’s possible some existing permit holders could switch over to the new one. Lee-Vogt says the limited entertainment permit should be available by the end of the year. 

McKenna says the new permits are “a long time coming,” and Alvis calls the idea “genius.” He plans to get one for the Empress Tavern, which Crest operates. Alvis imagines hosting a guitarist or pianist on a Thursday night to “create an ambiance for customers.” He adds, “There’s certainly a market for that.”

“It adds to the overall feel of the city,” Alvis says. “More live music, at least in my opinion, is better.”

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