The village's concert committee decided last week to set a Jan. 15 deadline for proposals for a Doubleday Field event next summer.

The committee reviewed one proposal already on the table from Ed and Judi Tripp, whose Tripp Family Productions stepped in at the eleventh-hour last year to act as promoters for the Beach Boys/Herman's Hermits concert.

The Tripp's offer would bring a twin bill featuring 80s rock groups Foreigner and REO Speedwagon to the field on Friday, Aug. 11.

According to their proposal, the Tripps are currently in final negotiations with the groups and would be willing to sign a contract as soon as village attorney John Lambert can prepare it.

The village would receive a guarantee of $7,200 for three-days rental of the field, overtime for field personnel and any additional village police coverage necessary.

Ticket sales would have to exceed 5,000 before the village would do more than cover expenses for the event. The Tripps have offered to pay the village $2.00 per ticket for each one over 5,000 that is sold. A sellout crowd of 10,000 would generate a total of $17,200 for the village.

Mayor Carol Waller commented that any proposal would have to be approved by the full village board.

Because of low ticket sales last year, the mayor and board of trustees agreed after the concert to forgive some promised concert revenue from the Tripps and along with the Chamber of Commerce settled for recovering expenses.

The current proposal calls for ticket sales to again be handled by the Chamber of Commerce.

Trustee Lee Malone, who chairs the committee, said the Tripp's offer was almost a month old now and they would like some sort of decision.

"...we would like a verbal acceptance as soon as possible so we can send the deposits off to the two groups," they stated in a letter to the village.

But some committee members were reluctant to commit to the proposal without any others on the table to consider.

Jeff Katz, another trustee member of the committee, said he understood Don Sullivan, of Jam Productions, the promoter of the sellout Dylan/Nelson concert in 2004, had contacted the village about promoting a concert.

Because of that, Katz said he believed there was no need to be in a hurry, adding that a Binghamton-based promoter, Magic City Productions, is also interested in bringing a concert to Cooperstown.

Malone reminded the committee that a similar scenario played out last year when Sullivan kept asking them to wait, and eventually the village was "left hanging" with no concert until the Tripps agreed to act as promoters.

Katz was not swayed and said Sullivan was looking at a different date - Friday, June 10.

The date change may pose problem for the field, however.

Head groundskeeper Joe Harris said he would rather see the concert after

both the Hall of Fame game, which has been in May and June in recent years, and the Hall of Fame Induction scheduled for the last Sunday in July.

"I don't want to jeopardize the field," he said.

Harris explained there are many people in the village for the Induction

and he wanted the field to be in good shape.

The last two years, the field sustained little damage during the concerts, but Harris and his assistant Greg Lippett both raised concerns about the potential for problems if there was heavy rain during the concert.

Katz said he looked at where REO Speedwagon and Foreigner had been playing and it appeared they typically were booked into venues considerably smaller than the 10,000-seat Doubleday Field.

"The seating shows where they believe they are," he said, questioning whether the two groups would push ticket sales past the 5,000-seat benchmark and begin to generate income for the village also.

Chamber of Commerce director Polly Renckens said she had spoken with the groups' management who assured her they would be able to get the job done.

Katz and committee member Tom Lieber both favored giving other promoters a chance to make proposals before deciding on Tripps' offer.

"From my point of view, what do we loose?" Katz said.

"We had a bad experience last. I don't think we should wait," replied

Malone.

"We have to make this successful for everyone. I don't want to say no to this, but I think we need another choice," Lieber said.

Katz explained he was not negative about the Tripp's concert proposal, but wanted to maximize the opportunity for the village, the non-profit concessionaires like the fire department and the business community.

Lieber said the community effort, which involves many volunteers, is the same no matter how many tickets are sold.

With a crowd around 3,000 like last year, Katz said, the money doesn't "trickle down" through the community the way it would with another sellout concert like the one for the Dylan/Nelson event. He said he would like to be able to look at other concert options which may be available to the village before making a choice.

Committee members eventually reached a consensus that they would wait until mid-January for proposals from other promoters before making a decision.

Katz said Tuesday that concert promoter Stu Green, of Magic City Productions in Binghamton, has asked to meet with the committee to discuss the summer concert. The committee will meet with him Friday at 10 a.m.