Of all the harebrained schemes I’ve seen to promote an entertainment venue, this is the shaggiest.

Augusta promoters are banking on the legacy of James Brown to attract concerts to its arena. 1994 file photo.

In Augusta, Ga., a member of the board that oversees the James Brown Arena has proposed using $39,000 of public funds to buy advertising to attract acts to the approximately 8,500-seat venue. Now, if this was to buy ads in trade publications such as Billboard or Pollstar, it might make some sense. But it isn’t.

What Johnny Hensley, a member of the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority, wants to do is place full-page ads in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Nashville Tennessean featuring a photo of a youthful James Brown and the word “Wanted” above the names of acts from those cities that Augusta wants to attract, including Elton John and Tim McGraw.

“With this, it’s an old Ronald Reagan concept – go directly to the people,” Hensley said in a story in the Augusta Chronicle.

You probably already see the fatal flaw in this: a presumption that the people of Atlanta or Nashville care who plays at the arena in Augusta.

Hensley seems to think people are going to bump into Ludacris on the streets of Atlanta or Faith Hill in Music City and say, “Hey, why aren’t you playing Augusta?!”

But people in those cities care no more about who’s playing Augusta than we in Lexington care who’s playing in St. Louis, unless we’re going to St. Louis. We care who’s playing Rupp Arena – Nickleback next month, for instance; eat your heart out, Augusta.

Hensley seems to think the name James Brown on Augusta’s arena should be enough to draw pop music royalty to pay homage to the Godfather of Soul. And yes, Augusta-area native Brown, who lived in the area much of his life, did play the Arena on numerous occasions before his death in 2006. I saw a couple of his performances there when I covered entertainment in Augusta in the mid-1990s. As I remember it, the arena, then the Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center, was fine as small-to-midsized venues go.

But if you want to go step in the Godfather’s history, you probably want to play the Apollo Theatre in New York.

If you want to attract people to your facility, you don’t just lean on the name on the sign out front – a name whose 21^st Century cachet is routinely overestimated by Augustans. You attract acts by having a first class facility, treating people well when they come to town, getting audiences to turn out for those shows, and generally building a strong reputation. We have several venues in the area that have done this, including Rupp, the Lexington Opera House and the Norton Center for the Arts.

Why does the Norton Center, a small venue in a small town nearly an hour away from any sizable city, attract acts such Yo Yo Ma and Lyle Lovett? A major reason, and acts and agents have told me this, is it has a reputation for being a great place to play, even if it’s off the beaten path.

Now, I haven’t been to James Brown Arena in well over a decade and have no first-hand knowledge of how it’s managed. But if Augusta wants to build its clientele for its arena, the coliseum authority needs to concentrate on building its reputation in the concert industry. And you don’t build your rep by putting ads in major dailies that make you look pathetic.

Note: I covered entertainment for the Augusta Chronicle from 1993 to 1996.