The 2025 15-year Austin City Limits Contract: "Money left on the table" -- and why it matters

The 2025 15-year Austin City Limits (ACL) Contract could have been the tool the Parks Department needs to raise money to restore vast acres of Zilker Park.

It is obvious to both tourists and residents that the park is degrading over time.

ACL Fest has expanded its footprint in recent years. A lot of long-term damage has been done to the acres between Barton Springs Road and the pool: These acres have no permanent irrigation. Stratford Lot and Polo Field are subjected to extreme abuse by being used as illegal parking lots year-round. A long-term -- and legal -- improvement to the Stratford Lot (Butler Landfill) is desired by the Watershed Protection Department.

The annual remediation to these park elements are minimal: only a return to baseline before the ACL event occurred. The long-term degradation -- and its causes -- have not been addressed by the Parks Department or the Austin Parks Foundation (the nonprofit partner of ACL).

I’m afraid that if we don’t look at the 15-year ACL contract in depth — right now — we will lose a window of opportunity to cancel and redraft the contract to get more money from ACL festival organizers C3/Live Nation: Money needed to restore the natural environment of Zilker Park.

My personal passion is to protect and restore the Zilker Park Polo Field, about 7 acres of prime parkland in Austin's “jewel” that could be converted to recreational use. At present it is still used as a parking lot for large events, a weekend lot for visitors, and as a staging-and-staff lot for ACL.  

In 2018, Council hoped to find a solution to the illegal parking lot problems in Zilker Park:

[See the 2018 Council Resolution 20180628-072:    

"the Polo Fields are located over the recharge zone for Barton Springs, making parking in the space less than desirable; "

"in order to accommodate the current visitation numbers, Zilker Metropolitan Park operationally utilizes both the Polo Fields and the Stratford Drive landfill space to accommodate temporary parking and temporary staging for special events, instead of restoring and utilizing these as green spaces for park use;" 

Source: https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=301684 ]

I have assumed that the only reason the City of Austin Parks department -- and City Council -- have not authorized the complete environmental restoration of the Polo Field in Zilker Park is "lack of money" because the political problems preventing the Polo Field restoration have been solved:

(1) In several actions, the citizen-led Parks Board and Environmental Commission have recommended closing the Polo Field as a parking lot and for its restoration as a natural surface. 

https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=423161

https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=416101

https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=300927

https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=412493

(2) One part of those citizen-recommendations was for the City to identify an external parking lot — within walking or shuttle distance —  for future special events held in Zilker Park. Luckily, in 2024 the City of Austin purchased two large commercial buildings 

on MoPac -- located just outside Zilker Park -- with two large parking garages. Mayor Watson told the public that the large garages could be used for Zilker Park's special events -- while increasing revenue for the City:

Mayor Watson, Oct. 11, 2024: "In addition, the location near Zilker Park creates great opportunities to address parking needs for that important city park and generate additional revenue for the City using the two on-site garages for public parking during festivals, events, and other activities." (source: https://www.austintexas.gov/watson-wire-archives#GettingAwayFromDirtSorry) 

Since Mayor Watson has identified the external parking garages for Zilker Park's events, and the citizen-led Parks Board and Environmental Commission want the Polo Field closed as a parking lot and restored as a natural surface for recreation and positive environmental benefits, I can only assume the remaining piece of the puzzle is “lack of money.”

I believe the ACL organizer C3/Live Nation should be held to a higher standard for both the annual rent they pay to the CoA for the next 14 years, and for one time gifts to the City for park infrastructure improvements. 

What didn't happen:

It has become obvious that neither the Parks Department nor the Austin Parks Foundation want to tackle the hard problems of Zilker Park: weekend and special event parking on illegal surfaces and long-term year-round environmental damage. 

What could be:

The ACL Contract is easy to cancel (requires only 30-days notice from the City to the Organizer) and could be re-negotiated to deliver the money needed to make improvements to the long-neglected environmental problems in Zilker Park.

What is our problem with the ACL Festival? In 2014, a small-town business model was sold to Live Nation. Times have changed -- but not for the Parks Department.

As the beloved KLRU 2002 Austin City Limits Festival morphed from being a locally-produced 3-day event to a 6-day event (in 2013), it was acquired (by the purchase of a controlling interest) by Live Nation in 2014. 

RESOLUTION NO. 020509-88, https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=86926

That the City of Austin welcomes the opportunity to partner with KLRU's Austin City Limits as an official host of the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Zilker Park.

RESOLUTION NO. 20120816-057, https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=175273

The City Manager is encouraged to negotiate and execute an agreement with C3 Presents to include an additional weekend event for the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

The City Manager is encouraged to ensure that deposit fees by all rental groups for the use of Auditorium Shores are collected and utilized for the maintenance and repairs for any post-event issues.

The City Manager is encouraged to ensure that any resulting agreement reflects stakeholders' input to the greatest extent practicable.

The City Manager is encouraged to work with C3 Presents to ensure that the Sustainable Food Center's Austin Farmers' Market Downtown can remain open during both weekends of Austin City Limits and to explore strategies for improving access to parking and Republic Square for market vendors and customers.

Chris Coplan, December 19, 2014: "Live Nation acquires controlling interest in Lollapalooza/ACL promoter C3 Presents"

By 2014, C3 could demonstrate to Live Nation the profits to be earned on the current established business model: 6 days over two weekends, with park rental prices set at 2010 prices when "large events" were smaller. -- And -- with the correct business model for "maintenance fee expense" based on the new Tiered Special Event Maintenance Fee published in the 2014 Annual Budget Ordinance.

By December of 2014, I can imagine what Live Nation saw: A 6-day event set up by locals who could lobby the Parks Department to maintain the status quo: Costs were low and predictable as long at the Parks Department didn't see a need to change the cost structure.

In 2010, a "large event" had over 10K attendees. By contract, ACL is allowed to sell tickets for 75K attendees per day. (Another 5K people are allowed in the park for staff and artists, for a total of 80K daily capacity). 

In 2014, an "expensive" ticket was listed as "more than $100." In 2025, the ACL ticket prices looked like this:

• Single-Day Passes:
  • Friday, October 3: Started at $223 (including fees).
  • Saturday, October 4: Started at $313 (including fees).
  • Sunday, October 5: Started at $150 (including fees). 
  • Single-day VIP: Prices start at $710.

Small town prices for a Live Nation venue

Since 2010, park rental fees have been frozen due to inaction of the Parks Department. The highest increment of attendees for a "large scale event" was -- and remains -- 10,001+ attendees. 

The event-day park rental fee hasn't changed to reflect ACL/Live Nation's 75K per day attendance.

Since 2014, the Tiered Special Event Maintenance Fee hasn't changed. The highest tier in 2014 for "sold admission" was $100+ per ticket. 

Who imagined daily ticket prices of $223, $313 or $710 per person in 2014? 

Probably no one -- except C3 Presents and their new bosses at Live Nation.

Copy and paste contracts

Live Nation purchased a controlling interest of the ACL Festival in December of 2014: This was just two months after C3 could demonstrate their new business model with the Austin Parks Department. 

The Austin Parks Department handles the annual renewal of special event contracts in a copy-and-paste mode: If it was correct last year, it is probably good enough for this year. No effort has been made since 2010 and 2014 to adjust large event fees to mirror the rising revenue (higher admission fees, more sales of concessions) earned by C3/Live Nation.

CM Ann Kitchen "called it what it was" in 2021

In a Council meeting on 10-21-2021, CM Kitchen told the truth about ACL:  The Parks Department had allowed more days and more area of Zilker Park without explaining this action to Council or the public.

"The previous council with the use of zilker park set in motion acl as an administrative activity in the future. So, there have been additions to acl including adding a second weekend. The location of acl has expanded into surrounding areas, all just the decision of staff without public input and without council input. "

From 2013 to 2014, the number of attendees doubled from 75Kx3 to 75Kx6. This doubled the environmental damage to the Great Lawn starting annually in 2014. By 2023, or possibly sooner, the physical area was expanded to occupy more of Zilker Park: More parking lots on the south side of Barton Springs Road (Polo Field -- possibly for staff and staging -- and Polo Picnic Parking Lot) and more parkland (southeast Lawn and Rugby Field).

I believe that the southeast Lawn and Rugby Field have no underground irrigation. Severe erosion and compaction to many acres is nearly impossible to remediate without consistent irrigation.  The Butler Landfill (aka "Stratford Lot") is already a contested cap -- an unpermitted parking lot -- according to the Watershed Protection Department, and it continues to age as it is heavily used by heavy equipment as an ACL staging area. The Moon Tower grounds now look like the surface of the Moon -- and the Parks Department doesn't seem prepared or willing to fix the big environmental issues in the park.

The problem is metastasizing administratively

In general, what we see is that long-term contracts -- or just business expectations, such as ACL before 2025 with its annual contract arrangement -- makes the City more inclined to "break the rules" of the contract rather than enforce the rules.

For example, the maximum allowed attendance in Zilker Park is 75K. Documents show that an additional 5K of staff are allowed.  This is supported by the Parks Department 2024 ACL Contract:

However, the 2024 ACL Ticket Manifest shows that ACL was allowed to sell nearly 491K admission tickets:

That's nearly 81K of paid attendees per day: nearly 6K attendees -- per day -- above the allowed maximum capacity.

Why would the Parks Department -- and the Fire Department -- allow capacity to exceed the maximum? 

Answer: It is easier than confronting Live Nation. It's easier than actually providing oversight of the ACL event.

The problem is metastasizing fiscally

(a) No additional rent revenue for the extraordinary number of attendees above 10,001: The 2010 the Fee Schedule stops at "10,001+ attendees" and PARD has not revised it; nor has PARD made the "large event fee schedule" consistent with the "$1.50 per attendee" structure of fees for smaller commercial events;

Here's the current fee schedule for smaller events: Smaller events pay $1.50 per attendee. Compare to ACL which pays 66 cents per attendee ($5K divided by 75K).

(b) minimal rent -- $500 per day -- is collected for the 4 days between weekends, when the ACL fenced areas of the park are still completely off-limits; 

(c) No additional rent revenue was adjusted for the expansion into additional acres of parkland: Polo Field, Polo Picnic Parking Lot, southeast Lawn and Rugby Field;

(d) 14 days of "clean up" are given to the C3 Organizer free-of-charge every year. 14 days FREE.

Note: It appears that C3 does pay the Tiered Special Event Maintenance Fee (about $1.4M annually) to the CoA; this is deposited into the General Fund. However, 2024 evidence shows that PARD charged C3 for about $200K of additional maintenance on March 28, 2025, after the event had concluded. Why? Is something going wrong?

The problem is further metastasizing: We don't see enough Zilker Park maintenance.

The ACL/C3 maintenance payments to the CoA are deposited into the General Fund. The park grounds appear to be intentionally neglected by the Parks Department as a mechanism to enable nonprofits (possibly Zilker 351 and/or APF) to gain access to the park.

Zilker Park's neglected long-term maintenance could be fixed if the Parks Department or Council would simply spend Zilker Park maintenance revenue on Zilker Park's long-term maintenance needs.

Zilker Park earns a lot of revenue for the City of Austin. It's time for the Parks Department and the City Council to show-some-love for Zilker Park.