This just in from our friends at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Congrats.

Entertainment industry trade publication Venues Today announced that Ruth Eckerd Hall ranked #10 in the world in venues having 5,000 seats or less. With that same ranking, Ruth Eckerd Hall is #2 in venues having 2,500 seats or less.

This ranking is based on concert and event gross from April 16 to May 15 2009, with 11 performances during that period. Ruth Eckerd Hall ranked higher than such prestigious venues as the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago, the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center in Orlando and The Balboa Theatre in San Diego, California.

This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2009.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...