Augusta Could Teach L.A. About Holding Event

Augusta, GA—It could be considered the building’s best moment.

“It was a good feeling to know we pulled it off, with no incidents with everybody working together,” said former Augusta Coliseum Authority member J.R. Riles.

Right now, the Staples Center in Los Angeles is planning a memorial for Michael Jackson.

Two and a half years ago, the world said good-bye to James Brown with a historic ceremony at the James Brown Arena.

Mayor Deke Copenhaver called it his proudest moment in office.

When it comes to honoring musical legends, Augusta can tell LA, been there done that…8,500 people packed into the arena, including Michael Jackson.

Robert “Flash” Gordon, the former GM at the Augusta Entertainment Complex had been on the job less than 30 days when it was announced the arena would host James Brown’s home-going.

“To do something like this you needed a lot of cooperation that was something we found we did have in Augusta when this happened,” he said.

Gordon says the arena got tremendous cooperation from the Brown family, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, as well as Michael Jackson’s security people who let city officials know a just a couple of day before he would be attending.

“They told us about when he would be in and everything went really smooth,” said Gordon.

The Jackson memorial is still being planned, but the owners of the Staples Center were not considered smooth when first announcing they were going to charge people $25 to attend the event.

“Oh no, no we didn’t even consider anything like this we didn’t even charge for parking,” said Gordon.

In these tough economic times LA can expect to rack up expenses holding the ceremony.

It cost $50,000 to have Richmond County deputies handle security for the James Brown event. 

And about 20 arena personnel worked from three in the morning until eleven that night.

Civic Center officials say their pay and overtime topped $10,000 dollars.