Marian Anderson Hall
PHILADELPHIA - The company that formerly ran the now-dissolved version of The Philly POPS is spending more than $1 million to end antitrust litigation with the Kimmel Center.
Though it was the one who sued, Encore Series ended up paying the concert venue it says it was illegally shut out of. Kimmel Center and Ticket Philadelphia pushed counter-claims of breach of contract, leading to a $1,021,209.72 settlement announced July 24 in Philadelphia federal court.
Encore had said the Philadelphia Orchestra turned to its brand of symphonic popular music after years of only providing classical concerts in an effort to monopolize the market. The Orchestra had merged with the Kimmel Center in 2021.
And though Encore had obtained a limited preliminary injunction regarding customer information, U.S. District Judge Mia Roberts refused to go further.
"Plaintiff has not created a sufficient causal link between the eviction of The Philly POPS from the Kimmel Center and the alleged reputational harm," Roberts said at a hearing in 2023.
"There is evidence on the record that The Philly POPS financial mismanagement led to the eviction from the Kimmel Center. That they canceled or rescheduled event at The Met just two days prior to that performance."
And musicians sued Encore in 2023 for nonpayment of wages, so reputational harm once attributed to statements made by the Orchestra can be blamed on that lawsuit.
"The fact that those musicians were not paid is undisputed," Roberts said. "No credible evidence has been placed on this record that musicians that have historically performed with The POPs would be willing to do so in light of the ongoing wage disputes..."
Encore couldn't show customers would come back either, Roberts added.
Among the failed allegations were that the Kimmel Center raised the fees for the POPS to play at Verizon Hall and hired a public relations firm to create messaging the POPs would go out of business.
Former POPs musicians ended up forming their own group - the No Name POPs - which performed some concerts at the Marian Anderson Hall (formerly Verizon Hall) at the Kimmel Center. That group has now become the new version of the Philly POPs.