DTB for the first show? Lovely!
They do allow video (with certain caveats and addenda):
http://www.archive.org/details/DonnatheBuffaloSome thoughts:
It sounds like the hall is huge horizontally. Has the owner considered making the stage even wider? 12 - 16 feet wide to one side of the pole might be a little narrow for a lot of bands and I imagine extending a one foot tall stage would be a lot easier and cheaper than removing the post.
Has anyone considered building hard flats to tailor the sound of the hall? (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flats_(theatre) ) I'm kinda expecting -- in my wild imagination -- that it's going to have some reverberation that's going to make it sound muddy. If it were done it would probably be safest to hang them from the ceiling. They're not hard to build at all, but the cost of lumber can add up. As a bonus, they could be used for projected lights.
Have you considered bringing in a small local band for an afternoon or evening some time before opening night? It would probably be useful for the house to do a run-through as if there were a real show so that they've had live music run through the system at least once and to help figure out whatever setup / take down / storage procedures. The main reason I thought of this is that if you / they did it, you'd have a good chance to put a pair of mics on a stand and carry it around to find the real sweet spots to help in your decision making.
GL. Let us know how it goes!