The owners of the historic Wichita Theater in downtown Wichita Falls say the landmark is enduring a rocky financial road and needs help to stay in business.
Owner Dwayne Jackson said his family has supplemented the old theater at 919 Indiana Ave. to the tune of about $5 million in the 30 years they have owned it.
“We gave up a long time ago on making money,” Jackson said. “At this point our dream is to be able to just pay the expenses and someday be able to sell the property to someone locally that can carry the torch to the next generation.”
He said rising expenses have taken a toll.
“Taxes, payroll, utility costs, our insurance doubled,” he said.
He said if ticket sales for any one of the live shows at the theater dropped significantly, it would be “devastating.”
On a brighter note, Jackson said the theater has had some success in drawing audiences from outside Wichita Falls.
He thinks that improvement has given the family another 12 months to find someone willing to take over the landmark or to hire someone to take the burden of operations off him and his wife, Lisa.
The elegant theater was built as an opera house in 1908. Jackson thinks it’s probably the oldest structure in Wichita Falls still in operation. It is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
In its early heyday, the Wichita Theater was a movie theater, but Jackson said its lifeblood now is live Broadway-type productions, along with a few concerts and rentals. He estimated the main theater and its adjacent performing arts stage host programs about 40 weekends a year.
His idea for keeping it afloat is simple: If every patron would buy one more ticket per year, “we’d be in great shape.”
That resulted in a “Plus 1” initiative. Details of the pay-up-front plan are available on the Wichita Theater Facebook page.
“I don’t need you to come every weekend or to every show. Just come one more time,” Jackson said. “Our financial problems are solved if we sell just 5,000 more tickets a year.”
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Historic Wichita Theater looks for cash infusion, more ticket sales to stay afloat
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
