By R.V. Baugus

Talk about a way to raise money! It is not necessarily unusual for a venue to auction off unused or unneeded equipment, but U.S. Bank Stadium in Minnesota raised more than $45,000 recently in such an auction.

The venue, owned by the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, and home of the NFL Minnesota Vikings along with other major events, opened in 2016 and as recently as 2018 played host to a Super Bowl.

During this short life span, the stadium was saddled with some excess equipment, and what better way to produce some revenue than to invite the public to participate in an online auction.

The recent auction was a collector’s dream with items such as hot dog rollers, cocktail shakers, and champagne flutes. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that 106 individual bidders went away with items. In all, some 540 lots of surplus stadium equipment was up for grabs that also included a pitching mound and numerous concessions and catering items.

The auction proceeds of $45,815.60 are being split with items sold from concession and catering-related items deposited into a concession capital reserve account while proceeds from other items go into a capital reserve account.

“The public auction resulted in a total value of $45,815.60. The proceeds from the sale of the concessions and catering-related auctioned items will be deposited into the concession capital reserve account. The proceeds from the sale of the other auctioned items will be deposited into the capital reserve account.

Grafe Auction Company, a professional auctioneer from Spring Valley, Minnesota, handled the auction.

By Sarah Maio

Wisconsin Center District (WCD) President and CEO Marty Brooks announced that the architecture team of tvsdesign and EUA has been selected to design the expansion of the Wisconsin Center.

“(Today’s) announcement is a critical milestone in this exciting and ambitious process,” Brooks said. “The expanded Wisconsin Center will be a facility providing superb, captivating, and buzzworthy experiences to all who enter. We will create jobs, generate economic impact, and capitalize on the momentum that Milwaukee is only starting to feel. It’s the beginning of a new legacy.”

Atlanta-based tvsdesign has most recently completed expansions for the Las Vegas Convention Center, and the largest convention center in North America, McCormick Place in Chicago, IL.

tvsdesign is partnered with Milwaukee-based firm EUA. EUA is best known for designing environments that elevate people’s potential. The 112-year old firm has been involved in many of Milwaukee’s landmark projects including Fiserv Forum, Miller Park, Milwaukee Intermodal Station, Discovery World addition, and dozens of projects on the Summerfest Grounds including the American Family Insurance Amphitheater. EUA is based in Milwaukee’s Third Ward.

“On behalf of EUA and tvsdesign, we are incredibly proud to have been selected,” said Rich Tennessen, President of EUA. “The combined expertise of our EUA staff with the world-class convention center team at tvsdesign is ready to design a convention center that draws people from around the world to experience our phenomenal city.”

Wisconsin Center District owns & operates the Wisconsin Center, UWM Panther Arena & Miller High Life Theatre.

Sarah Maio is vice president of marketing and communications for the Wisconsin Center District.

By CNY Central

The Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, New York, officially has a new name.

During a press conference on Friday, December 20, 2019, County Executive Ryan McMahon announced an 11-year sponsorship agreement that includes naming rights of the Upstate Medical University Arena at Onondaga County War Memorial. The sponsorship includes health programming and the continuation of Upstate’s sponsorship with the Syracuse Crunch.

Medical University has expanded its partnership with Onondaga County and the Syracuse Crunch to now have the Upstate Medical University Arena at the Onondaga County War Memorial.” He added, “As I have said repeatedly, the primary tenant of this building will always be our Veterans and I am also pleased that they have been consulted in this process and will also receive many benefits from this expanded partnership.”

The owner of Syracuse Crunch, Howard Dolgon said, “This is a great day for our community, our fans, and everyone who will enjoy any of the hundreds of future events at the Upstate Medical University Arena.”

According to County Executive McMahon, The agreement includes a foundation established by the Syracuse Crunch to support initiatives for veterans. The first-year cost for the naming rights portion of the agreement is $228,000.

The agreement also provides Upstate with year-round use of the venue as a site for health programming for the community and special interest groups, such as veterans and youth.

By Larry Solters, Sam Threadgill, and Erik Stein

Oak View Group (OVG), the global venue development, advisory, and investment company for the sports and live entertainment industries, announced respected venue management executive John Bolton, CVE, has joined the company as Senior Vice President of Entertainment and General Manager of the new arena at Agua Caliente in Palm Springs. Based in Palm Springs, Bolton assumes his new role effective immediately.

Reporting to Stephen Collins, Chief Operating Officer, OVG, Bolton will be part of the company’s senior leadership team and will support all OVG venues in driving entertainment and programming content. Bolton will assist in developing grand opening and entertainment plans for OVG’s eight new arena projects as well as working with OVG’s current venues under management.

“John brings decades of industry expertise, and throughout his career, has played an integral role in building world-class successful venues. We are very pleased to welcome him to our team,” said Tim Leiweke, CEO of Oak View Group. “As General Manager, John will bring passion, energy, and vision to the arena in Palm Springs, and I look forward to his contributions in the years to come.”

As General Manager of the Palm Springs arena, Bolton will oversee the development and opening of Southern California’s newest arena. The Palm Springs arena will be home to the recently announced American Hockey League (AHL) expansion team, an owned-and-operated affiliate of the Seattle NHL team that also begins play during the 2021-22 NHL season. Groundbreaking and construction on the $250 million arena in downtown Palm Springs will begin in February 2020 with completion in the fall of 2021.

“Nothing could be more exciting to me than being part of OVG’s unprecedented number of new arena projects both nationally and internationally,” commented Bolton. “To have a role in developing the new arena in Palm Springs is a dream come true as I have always loved Palm Springs. I can’t wait to become involved in the community there and develop another unique and iconic arena,” added Bolton.

“We’re thrilled to have John playing a key role in our business development efforts as we aspire to partner with the best facilities around the world. John will also play a crucial role in our event and content innovation strategy, said Peter Luukko, Co-Chairman of OVG Facilities and Alliances.

“Bolton is a key ingredient to building a top-notch team for this world-class facility,” said Chairman Jeff L. Grubbe, of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. “We are excited about the energy this new arena will bring to the revitalization efforts in Downtown Palm Springs.”

Prior to his role with OVG, Bolton served as Vice President of Entertainment for ASM Global. As part of the corporate team at SMG Entertainment, Bolton worked with stadiums and arenas across the country to present over 32,000 live events annually. Bolton supervised a national network of regional marketing directors who were responsible for some 140 arena marketing professionals.

In addition to his previous role as General Manager for SMG in Tulsa, where he was entrusted to oversee the final phases of construction and grand opening of one of SMG’s premier arenas – Tulsa’s BOK Center, Bolton acted as Regional Vice President for SMG for its venues in Puerto Rico and the West Coast. Bolton was responsible for creating five new festivals and events in Tulsa that attract more than 200,000 people per year, and through his vision, this previously underserved market became a “must play” stop for national touring artists and family shows. His effort led to a nomination for Pollstar’s “Best New Major Concert Venue” and subsequent nominations for Pollstar’s “Arena of the Year” every year he was General Manager. Bolton and the BOK Center were awarded the prestigious IAVM (International Association of Venue Managers) Venue Excellence Award recognizing the Top Arena in the World.

Bolton earned “Venue Executive of the Year” recognition from the International Entertainment Buyers Association (IEBA) in 2011 and from Pollstar in 2012, as well the “Venue Excellence Award” from IAVM in 2011. He is also a three-time winner of Venues Today Hall of Headlines Award (2008, 2013, and 2015).

Bolton recently served as Chair of the Board of Directors (2013-14) for the IAVM. Bolton also serves on the Executive Committee and Board of IEBA as well as on the Board of Directors of the Country Music Association (CMA) located in Nashville.

In the past 24 months, OVG has announced the redevelopment and operations of the New Arena at Seattle Center as well as leading arena development projects in Belmont, NY, Austin, TX, and Milan, Italy. OVG is the largest developer of new arenas in the history of the industry.

Larry Solters, Sam Threadgill, and Erik Stein are with Scoop Marketing.

By R.V. Baugus

With your permission, please allow me if only for a minute to play the seasonal role of the Grinch with regards to the following:

According to a study by Bizzabo, the world’s leading event success platform, almost two-thirds of all event speakers are male.

Bah, humbug!

In its global analysis annual release on Gender Diversity & Inclusion in Events Report that analyzed the gender diversity of more than 60,000 event speakers over a seven-year period from 2013-2019, and spanned 58 countries across five continents, 45 industries and thousands of the world’s largest professional events, the final report is enough to make Cindy Lou Who look up with those doleful eyes and ask, “why?” And who could blame the little princess from Whoville? Not us, not in what is approaching 2020.

In its release Bizzabo CEO and co-founder Eran Ben-Shushan said: “Forward thinking business leaders, and marketers intuitively know that gender balance is important to the overall success of an event. We’re releasing this data to help more leaders and organizations realize that the gender gap is still large, and unfortunately, closing all too slowly.”

According to Bizzabo’s global analysis, on average more than two-thirds (66%) of all speakers between 2013 and 2019 were male, while just one-third (33%) were female. This is a three percent jump from last year’s analysis, which showed 69 percent of speakers to be male, and only 31 percent to be female.

Call it a jump if you must, but it still produces numbers that are far from flattering when a talent pool of speakers is more diverse and expert than ever.

“This year’s analysis has shown progress, when compared to last year’s study but, unfortunately, not enough,” added Alon Alroy, Co-Founder of Bizzabo. “The narrow three percent bump, even with taking into account the smaller dataset used last year, shows that we still have a long way to go before there is greater gender balance within events.”

This comes at a time when IAVM takes serious the notion of being “intentional” as it seeks speakers for its events. It is the same intentionality that our member venues are demonstrating in the hiring and promotion process. It is long, long, overdue, and a process that will not change overnight, nor really should it just for the sake of change.

But the time to move beyond talking about it to doing something about starts now, so going forward within our corner of the industry results can be demonstrated.

The analysis showed that when comparing the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, the U.S. and Canada tied for most diverse, with 64 percent male versus 36 percent female, respectively. In the U.K, 69 percent of all speakers were male, while 31 percent were female, making it the least diverse of the three.

Of the 55 other countries studied, 19 came in last with almost zero percent of speakers being female. Those 19 countries included: Turkey, Czech Republic, South Korea, Philippines, Cote D’Ivoire, Macau, Norway, Malta, Qatar, Indonesia, Poland, Bahamas, Austria, Malaysia, Finland, Uruguay, Peru and Slovakia.

The deep dive also found that the country with the highest number of female speakers was Kenya, at 40 percent versus 60 percent. Right behind Kenya was Mexico (38 percent female), followed by both the U.S. and Canada, which tied for third place at 36 percent female.

The year 2020 is around the corner, and so are some fantastic opportunities. This is one that should not only be embraced, but executed to demonstrate it is more than just us guys capable of being speakers and presenters.

And with that we now carve the roast beast …