People told him that it couldn’t be done. A city like Des Moines couldn’t sustain a major show like “The Phantom of the Opera” for a four-week run, they said. But Jeff Chelesvig proved them wrong by watching with satisfaction as the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines filled its seats not just for four consecutive weeks, but five. Chelesvig pinpoints that show’s debut in Des Moines in 1997 as a turning point for the performing-arts theater.

Chelesvig marked his 10th year as president and CEO of the Civic Center last month, right in the midst of one of its biggest years so far. The number of people seeing shows at the Civic Center has captured national attention. Recently, Pollstar, an information source for the music industry, ranked the venue No. 23 on its list of the Top 50 Theaters in the World. The ranking was based on ticket sales in 2004, when the Civic Center sold 150,869 tickets – more than any other Midwest theater. Chelesvig says a combination of things has driven the growth in attendance to the Civic Center’s Broadway shows, concerts, comedy performances and other special events.

“I think the most dramatic change in attendance that we’ve seen over the past few years is in the growth of the Broadway series,” Chelesvig said. “Ten years ago, the Broadway shows were drawing about 38,000 people. Now, it’s not uncommon for our Broadway series to draw about 120,000 people. The factors that brought us to this point are interrelated.”

A couple of years after Chelesvig left his job in St. Petersburg, Fla., to return to his home state of Iowa and lead the Civic Center, the staff implemented season-ticket sales for the Broadway series. As the number of pre-sold tickets for a season has increased, so has the theater’s ability to bring bigger shows to Des Moines.

“Selling season-ticket packages allows us the opportunity to build a base of tickets, and in return, bring in better shows,” Chelesvig said. “When tickets go on sale, we’ve already sold about 6,500 of the 21,000 seats for the week, and that’s really important to us to help offset our investment risk.”

For this theater season, which began with “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” in October will and conclude with “Miss Saigon” in April, the number of season ticket holders, 6,500, is a significant increase over the year before, when Chelesvig said about 5,000 people purchased the ticket packages. He’d like to see that number climb to 10,000 in the near future.

“I think we can get there,” Chelesvig said. “We keep growing it every year, and it’s directly related to the high caliber of shows we’ve been able to bring in.”

The Civic Center also collaborates with other theaters to bring big shows to Des Moines through its membership in the Independent Presenters Network, which invests in new Broadway shows. Recently, it invested in “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”

“We invest in shows in New York City, and that helps us to gain a position in the national tour,” he said. “The buzz is there and the ticket sales are there for ‘Spamalot,’ and it very well could be the big hit of the season in New York.”

Big-name shows require a substantial amount of money to book, a rule of thumb being that at least $500,000 worth of tickets must be sold in order for the Civic Center to break even on its investment. Ticket prices have increased to reflect the improved caliber of the shows, but Chelesvig said Des Moines theater-goers still pay less than those in other cities to see the same shows.

“What I’ve found is that people in this market really enjoy the high quality, so they will pay what it takes,” he said. “The prices have increased, and there’s no doubt about it; but at the same time, you can go to see ‘The Producers’ in Des Moines and pay $65, or you can go see an identical production in New York and pay $100. The same is true for the rest of the series. It’s really a bargain.”

Although the higher ticket prices reflect the fact that the Civic Center is taking a “sizable risk” on some of its shows, a conscious effort has been made to accommodate patrons who don’t want to dish out $65 for a show, Chelesvig said. Every show has seats for around $27.50 or less, and opening nights, Tuesdays always have the lowest-priced seats, he said.

“We try to offer a reasonable number of tickets at a reasonable price,” he said. “We try to recognize that price is going to be a sensitive issue for many people, but yet, we have to pay a lot of expenses with these shows, so we try to price them competitively.”

Chelesvig said the Civic Center’s 2005-2006 Broadway series schedule, which is set to be released March 8, will be somewhat patterned after the current one by including two major “anchors” – recent Broadway hits that are now touring nationally, similar to this year’s “The Producers” and “Movin’ Out.” He will also blend family-friendly shows and some classics into the lineup. And Chelesvig might throw in a twist with another off-site show, which was done successfully a couple of years ago with “Triple Espresso” at the Temple for Performing Arts.

“Triple Espresso was really the first time we had ventured outside of our building for a small show on our Broadway series, and it proved to be a good decision,” he said. “We’d like to see if we can go back, either to the Temple or someplace else. We liked that, and our subscribers seemed to like it too. It was something a little different.”

The Civic Center’s ticket sales, particularly from the Broadway series, support programs such as its Applause! educational performances for young adults, improvements to the 25-year-old building and more, Chelesvig said.

“Broadway is always going to be an important part of what we do here, and it allows us the opportunity, really through a minimal amount of programming, to help cover the costs of a lot of the other things we do,” he said.

Looking ahead, Chelesvig sees an opportunity for the Civic Center with activity the nearby Iowa Events Center and new Science Center of Iowa will bring to the area, and The Downtown Community Alliance is drafting plans for improvements to Nollen Plaza, the “front yard” the Civic Center pays about $40,000 per year to maintain.

“It’s not just about what happens on the inside, but it’s about what happens on the perimeter,” Chelesvig said. “For instance, we have a great restaurant, Splash, across the street that borders Nollen Plaza, and if there was another restaurant introduced, that would greatly change the complexion as well.”