TOLEDO – Toledo Athletic and JAC have announced that the Zac Brown Band will headline JobsOhio’s Glass City Live at the Glass Bowl on Saturday, May 24. Dustin Lynch, Luke Grimes and Gaelic Storm will open the show.
The last major concert at the Glass Bowl occurred on July 1, 1994, when the Beach Boys and America came to town.
JAC Management Group LLC serves as the promoter and producer for the event. They are responsible for booking the bands, promoting the show and selecting the artists, in addition to managing the ticket pricing, marketing and all production details.
The first announcement of Glass City Live came on Oct. 26 at halftime during Toledo and Bowling Green’s Battle of I-75. It has been in the works for two years.
Ken Bigley, chief operating officer of JAC Management Group, said their relationships helped book the Zac Brown Band for the event.
“We’ve been promoters for over two decades. We promote throughout the midwest, in most of the United States,” Bigley said. “We have a very good name in the industry, and we’ve been doing it for a very long time. We operate in arenas and theaters, as well as promote.”
In reference to Brown, he said “he’s an iconic artist at this point, and we know he’s great to deal with and that people love to come and see him, so he’s a great act.”
Bigley also said that it was a great testament to the skills of his management group that the Zac Brown Band is set to perform in such a large venue that has not hosted a concert this size since 1994. The strong relationship with Brown played a role in the performer’s willingness to headline the show.
Bigley noted the challenges promoters go through to put on a concert, particularly in a city like Toledo.
“The initial challenge is looking through and making sure what people want to see, and going through the demographics and market information to make sure you pick the right act. Also, geographically, Toledo is in a spot where your proximity to Detroit, the proximity to Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland to the east; there’s a major throughway that helps as far as artists coming back,” Bigley explained.
“When you’re dealing with a show of this scale, there are some pretty large radius clauses. So if somebody’s playing within one of those major cities within a couple of hundred miles, it usually rules out or there’s usually a couple of hundred-mile radius on a lot.”
Ken Bigley, chief operating officer of JAC Management Group
Bigley added that the University of Toledo and the athletic department have helped pave the way for this concert.
While the Glass Bowl will host its first concert in over 30 years, the University of Michigan recently announced it will host Zach Bryan for the first concert ever performed at their football stadium. Bigley said that artists book places like Michigan because they may be chasing attendance records, while universities want to provide a better quality of life for their students. Another goal could be to do something that will have a large economic impact on smaller businesses, restaurants and bars in the city.
At the press conference announcing the event, University of Toledo athletic director Bryan Blair discussed the partnership with the JAC Management team and how sports and concerts bring people together.
“Sports and music have a lot in common. We talk a lot about the value of sports bringing people together, and music in many ways emulates those same characteristics. It brings about a deep-seated passion and emotions that you often tap into; that feeling of being in a venue and singing the same song in harmony – those are the same things we see at our athletics events, and those are the same things we see at big-time concerts,” Blair said.
“When you set out to do a concert in a football stadium, in the Glass Bowl, you have to have a shared vision, and there has to be a total lineup as you go in the same direction.”
Blair shared his thoughts on the economic and emotional impact this will have on the city of Toledo.
“I just think about the restaurants, the dining, the bars, the shopping, all that comes to life when you bring an event of this magnitude to the Glass Bowl and our campus,” Blair said.
“You’ve got that vision of tens of thousands of people on the turf in the Glass Bowl as the sun sets. You think about tens of thousands of people locking arms, hugging, and swaying, singing the same song in unison, and building lifelong memories with those they are closest to,” Blair envisions.
“We’ll have that place in their heart for eternity, that’s a special opportunity.”
Bigley said Glass City Live is designed to be an annual event depending on the municipality, media, community and business support. He also said the best way to stay updated is to visit the Glass City Live website. Tickets for the event are on sale now.
