AUBURN - Picture a waterfront concert on a state-of-the-art stage broadcast for a national audience on high-definition television. Now imagine that performance in front of 20,000 people at Emerson Park as the warm-up for the annual fireworks display next July.

Can it really be done? That's the $450,000 question city businessman George Cuthbert intends to answer soon.

Traditional Irish musician Andy Cooney has done it before. The Public Broadcasting System picked up a documentary based on a show Cooney did in Nashville, Tenn., and broadcast it in 35 markets coast to coast, Cuthbert said.

A much smaller performance by Cooney at a Tyburn Academy fundraiser in June inspired the Emerson Park project. Cooney was impressed by a tour of the city during his visit, which included a walk around the park.

“At that point I told him that I believe the city of Auburn is very interested in increasing our tourism awareness and maybe there could be a win-win result if the concert took place here,” Cuthbert said by e-mail.

Getting the talent on board was the easy part.

The professional outdoor stage, high-definition film crew, guest performers and promotion come with a budget that approaches $450,000.

“That's more than we spend in a year,” Cayuga County Parks & Trails Director Gary Duckett said to put that dollar figure into context.

Cuthbert said Cooney is working on an unrelated album in which he would perform with a symphony. Cooney would like to play some of those songs at this concert with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.

Both Cuthbert and Duckett are confident the concert can happen.

“To produce a free show of this magnitude and quality, with the goals that it has, would require investment on the part of one or several foundations and perhaps some state funding as well,” Cuthbert said. “My thinking is foundations spend money on many worthwhile causes every year. This would be a new and different way to spend some of that money one year.”

There would be plenty of residual benefits to the production as well, he said. The stage would become the property of Emerson Park for use on future performances and series and the film crew would roll a documentary on Auburn into the feature.

Cuthbert, the vice president of Community Computer Services, said the event could be a springboard for a city on the verge of becoming a destination.

“I would like to see Auburn prosper more and this will end up with more of our kids being able to stay here in Auburn and make their lives here with their families,” he said. “I feel this is a wise and prudent investment for the future of Auburn.”

Staff writer Shane Liebler can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or shane.liebler@lee.net