A light drizzle was not enough to stop the baseball game, which was good news to this 11-year-old boy. Many of the fans at Turnpike Stadium in Arlington, Texas, watching the Double A minor league Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs on this cool night in 1967 headed for the safety of the dry concourses. Not me.

I staked out a section in the lower level of the small stadium for myself. All to my lonesome, you might say. Then, as if on providential cue, a batter hit a foul ball that was arcing to my lonely section. Despite no one else within eye shot, I made a foolish decision to try and bare hand the rapidly approaching baseball, rather than waiting for it to take a bounce or two. The ball hit my hand and elicited an “OUCH” from my mouth (I think those were the words). The ball bounced around until it rolled over to the next section and to someone who literally had to do nothing to collect the souvenir thanks to my advance legwork (handwork?).

I felt like putting the “L” hand signal to my forehead. Loser.

Five short years later, the Washington Senators franchise moved to Arlington to become the Texas Rangers. As for the stadium, the shell remained and was enlarged to meet the requirements for a Major League Baseball franchise. I could not wait to get my driver’s license to make the trip from Dallas over to Arlington to watch a by gosh major league game. Well, despite the fact the immortal Ted Williams was the team’s first manager and that indeed other major league teams visited to play games, the results were what you might expect of a new team in a new market. Loser.

Not all was bad. In 1973, on a Sunday in September, I sat in the outfield aluminum bleachers with my brother and cousin to watch the woebegone Rangers play the powerful Oakland Athletics of Charles O. Finley. A’s slugger Reggie Jackson (Mr. October as well as “the straw that stirs the drink”) waited on a Pete Broberg pitch and promptly deposited it on a clear path to the outfield bleachers. As the ball became larger on its approach to our area, time seems to stand still. The ball took a huge bounce on the walkway in front of our seats, before its approach back down. I jumped with all my might and snatched the home run ball, a prize I still have to this day.

It wasn’t enough that the Rangers were primarily a losing team and distant afterthought to the Dallas Cowboys football team. To merely watch a game in the Texas summer meant baking like a lobster in the stands. The best seats in the house were the ones that first drew shade as the sun lowered. Alas, no such luck in the outfield cheap seats.

I enjoyed going to the games. as I moved into adulthood. Countless memories were made at the ballpark, and even if the team came out on the losing end (often), I still had an awesome time with friends and family.

Another highlight came in April 1994, when the new Ballpark in Arlington opened, putting the final nail in the coffin for a stadium that had been born a minor league ballpark some 30 years prior. My wife and I were gifted two incredible seats for the Rangers very first game at the new stadium, an exhibition against the New York Mets. The stadium was beautiful, but it really did nothing to beat the stifling heat. Today, the venue is called Choctaw Stadium and sits directly across the street from the new Globe Life Field. It is home to high school football games for the Arlington Independent School District, as well as the Arlington Renegades of the XFL football league. I am happy that the stadium did not meet a wrecking ball, as it is still a beautiful and functional venue for many events.

In the 1990s, a longtime friend and I got the idea we would get rich by doing public relations and serving as pseudo-agents for one John “The Hot Dog Man” Hunter, a vendor at Ranger games revered by all for his bellowing “Hotttttt Doggggggs” call, followed by what his business card (yes, he had his own business card complete with his being dressed as a wiener inside a hot dog bun) describes as a Cheshire cat grin, but one my wife equated to the look of a serial killer. Regardless, we got The Dog a few gigs, some radio appearances and such, but fame and fortune never materialized.

The Rangers, of course, made the long-suffering fan base happy in 2010 and 2011, with consecutive World Series appearances. Unfortunately, the team came within one strike (twice!) of capturing the latter Series only to fall. It was the ultimate pin popping the balloon and deflated locals faster than tires in winter weather. Was it never meant to be? I mean, we had no curse of the Bambino or such.

By this time, I had acquired Dallas Mavericks season tickets (in 1984-85, actually) and witnessed in 2011 that franchise win its only NBA championship, so I was totally on the basketball bandwagon while still attending some games at the ballpark.

Globe Life Field opened – wouldn’t you know it? – just in time to welcome a worldwide pandemic. The stadium did serve as the neutral home for the 2020 World Series won by MVP Corey Seager and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Once the Rangers got to enjoy their new home field, complete with retractable roof, not much had really changed on the field as the team staggered to 102 losses in 2021.

Management added a couple of marquee signings in 2022 of the aforementioned-Seager, plus Marcus Semien, setting the stage for 2023, a new manager in Bruce Bochy, and some much-needed pitching help. The team led basically wire-to-wire in the standings, but a final futile day of the regular season and a dud of a 1-0 loss meant the team had to travel the Wild Card route on the road.

So, what happened?

The Rangers flew on that final day of the regular season from Seattle across the country to Tampa, where the team began its playoff trek. Miraculously, the Rangers did something no team has ever accomplished on the road in the playoffs by going 11-0. They dispatched the Rays, then the Orioles, then the Astros, and finally the Diamondbacks. Why do I mention the mascot names and not team names? Well, a friend pointed out to me how this team became known as Road Warriors, and if you do the spelling in order of these dispatched teams, it spells R-O-A-D. Freaky, huh?

As for me, I enjoyed the final Game 5 the team played in Phoenix from the comfort of the recliner, after coming home from announcing an 8^th grade city football championship game (I know, I know, priorities). The score was a tense 1-0 Texas lead at the time, when I plopped down for the eighth inning with four runs tacked on in the 9^th inning. When Josh Sborz threw a called third strike into the mitt of Jonah Heim to win the series, four games to one, I felt pure … I think relief before elation.

It is the cross Rangers fans have borne since 1972, when those lovable losers first arrived on the scene. Like many, I could not help but reflect on the years of being a fan, in my case having my dad take me to watch the minor league farm club of the Baltimore Orioles. This day had finally arrived, and I went to sleep feeling happier than I had most any childhood Christmas Eve night.

Earlier this month, the International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM) joined ranks with local radios stations, major motion picture studios, online streaming services and music venues to file an amicus brief seeking to overturn a recent federal court decision involving the National American Concert Promoters Association (“Concert Promoters”) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (“BMI”).

At the heart of the dispute was whether the licensing fees the concert promoters would be required to pay BMI for their use of BMI’s catalogue would be governed by the procompetitive principles contained in the BMI consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice or if BMI would be allowed to seek much higher royalties by relying on third-party licensing agreements with the newer and unregulated performance rights organizations who often utilize unfair pricing power.

The lower court unfortunately agreed with the latter concept, a decision that could generate much higher licensing fees for all entities (including IAVM members) who routinely license music from BMI.

“The consent decrees that govern ASCAP and BMI help ensure a competitive marketplace that the business events industry relies upon to license music for conferences, trade shows, and other in-person events,” noted Tommy Goodwin, FASAE, CAE, PMP, CMP, Vice President of Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance (ECA). “By ignoring years of rate-setting precedent in this case, the district court’s decision would unfairly raise licensing fees for event organizers, convention centers, and others going forward. That’s why ECA was pleased to join this important effort from a wide-range of respected stakeholders to overturn this flawed anti-competitive decision.”

The amicus brief filed earlier this month encourages the federal court of appeals to overturn the district court’s recent decision; thereby guaranteeing all venues will continue to have access to reasonable licensing fees going forward.

The IAVM Leadership Development Committee is seeking candidates who are well-versed in all areas of venue management, invested in their own professional growth and the growth of others, are dedicated to the advancement of the venue industry as a whole and have the demonstrated ability to lead the Association.

The application process and criteria are available here. The time frame to submit your application to Rosanne Duke, Director of Governance and Operations, begins October 10, 2023 and ends December 4, 2023.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Must have attained CVP or CVE designation and maintain the designation throughout the term of office; CVE designation is preferred.
• Must be a dues-paying (either Individual or Group Membership), Professional Member of IAVM and remain as such throughout the term of office;
• Must have previously served at least one full term on one of the following: the IAVM Board of Directors, as a Region officer, Chair or Vice-Chair of an IAVM committee or the Foundation Board of Trustees;
• Must have served on at least 3 of the following in any combination (each Committee service counts as one):
  • IAVM Committees,
  • Board of Regents,
  • Board of Governors, or
  • Board of Trustees;
• Must have been employed in one of the 2 top levels of management in a venue for at least 10 years;
• Must have completed at least 1 of the following IAVM school programs:
  • Venue Management School
  • Graduate Institute
  • Senior Executive Symposium
  • Academy for Venue Safety & Security
• Must have attended VenueConnect at least 3 times, and any combination of at least 3 other programs (from the list below) in the previous 6 years:
  • Additional years at VenueConnect;
  • Other IAVM educational programs; (GuestX, Operations Summit)
  • Sector Conferences (AMC, ICCC, PAMC, ISMC, UVMC)
  • Region Meetings
  • Chapter Meetings

The nomination process is Member-initiated. The web site directs the interested members to review the criteria and utilize the online self-assessment tool to help determine their individual eligibility as a candidate for senior officer, and to ultimately submit an application form should they wish to be considered as a candidate.

The application is available online by clicking here.

Final reminder:  The application and supporting documentation is due by December 4, 2023.

“Create space. Be patient.”

That’s the advice Dominic Pavone, Senior Director, Event Services at Cleveland Cavaliers/Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, Ohio, has for any other venue lucky enough to book the brand-new Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth.

It is a 27-truck production, requiring 125 rigging points to handle 128,912 pounds of equipment. It’s akin to a Vegas-type rock show in load-in and load-out, night and day from the former Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus; number one, because the new Ringling has no animals.

Cleveland presented six shows Oct. 6-8 and had the distinction of being the first big arena to host Feld Entertainment’s reimagined Ringling. Therefore, Pavone couldn’t do a site visit and advance the show.

The veteran Feld team communicated very well, and he knew most of what to expect. He knew the show was very large, very spread out. It took three days to load it in, and the first two were 14-hour days each. The third day was 11 hours, including rehearsals and lighting focus, and went into overnight.

“We had 130 stagehands for the load-in on day one and another 71 we brought back for day two, so we were at 201 stagehands for the first two days,” he said. “For the out, we brought back 156 stagehands. That’s a huge number for an event.”

He was called down to the floor the first day of load in to find out the production required more floor anchors. “I said, ‘Okay, talk to me about what that looks like. What are they for? Can we pivot away, or is it mandatory?’ It was mandatory, or they would have to remove an act from the show,” Pavone recalled.

The marquee outside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland. (Photo Credit: Carrie Samek)

So, they brought in X-ray technicians who specialize in concrete to map out existing anchors, glycol lines for ice, and rebar that vein the concrete floor. “He could say, ‘you have a 2-inch by 2-inch square here you can hit if that anchor works for you.’ We let them do the drilling,” Pavone said.

“Everybody was on the same page. We understood the sensitivity to it – it was safety. It was meeting in the middle and everybody working together,” he said. There was an advance scout doing a site visit from Fiserv Arena in Milwaukee in the house that very day, and Pavone says she immediately homed in on the anchors issue, calling home to construction to prepare for the show there. Pavone shared the X-ray map.

Every arena that has hosted the circus, which left the road five years ago, still has floor anchors for the rigging and netting. But, this production is huge, spread out over a 200-by-85 foot wide hockey floor. “We were lucky; we didn’t have our ice in,” Pavone said, but even if they had, and even though Feld says it can perform over ice, he would have taken the ice out for this.

They ended up with 14 anchors on each side of the floor. In addition, to maintain integrity and hold those lines, they brought in another 8-12 concrete Jersey barriers to wrap those wires around before they were anchored, specifically for the safety nets of the trapeze artists and high wire acts.

This Feld show is different from a concert, which might have 20 trucks and 20 drivers on a show. The 27 production trucks are really trailers parked in a staging area the arena rented from the city down near Cleveland Browns Stadium. The trailers were dropped off and four drivers proceeded to hitch them to their cabs and bring them to the arena in a predetermined order for load-in.

“It was efficient. It did take some time, but because of the volume of stuff we were hanging, that time was built in. It helped soften the blow of constantly rushing. This was a methodical load-in,” Pavone said.

In addition, there are three merchandise trucks. Due to sheer volume of production trucks, the arena staff had to identify a secondary location off the street to load in merchandise because they were out of room and “we have quite a lot of room,” Pavone said. “We’ll load in 20 trucks and 12 buses on a rock and roll show like it’s no problem. The volume they had, we had to identify a second location for their merch.”

The show also required removing three rows of seats in two different sections to build audio and lights for front of house. “We knew that early on, so that was included in the on-sale map,” he said.

However, and this is just the nature of the beast when you’re hosting a show for the first time, there were quite a few relocations once production was in and up, due to obstructed sightlines. “They had the forethought to keep production holds in their pocket,” Pavone said of the Feld team. “They really did prep themselves putting veterans in charge.”

Pavone gives a lot of credit to the Feld team for splendid communications and to his own operations team for being flexible (knowing they had a hockey game in two weeks), as well as to everyone involved for being patient.

“It’s a long load in, long load out,” he said. “It’s easy to get frustrated when people are asking for more. You have to remain flexible and make sure it gets off on time and safely.”

There was a lot of pivoting, because Cleveland was the first show in such a large building. “Their team was fantastic. There were a lot of Feld veterans out on this run. We knew there would be pivots and patience needed in order to get something this size up for the first time. But then you have a deadline on the other end. Having to be ready for the show Friday.”

Pavone is going into his 17th year at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and knew a lot of the Feld production team because they have been through the building many times before. “They are all mild mannered, patient, and willing to work with us. We were lucky to have veterans on both sides,” including Feld’s Matt Gillet and Erick Del Castillo.

“When we got to load out, we did it in 10 hours. They expected 12. They overshot, so we weren’t startled. We were making ice the next day. It was efficient and awesome,” Pavone said.

Carrie Samek, senior director, event & media marketing for the arena, was tasked with educating the audience about the new Ringling. It’s been so long since the circus toured, people weren’t necessarily expecting the elephants. Feedback was positive.

She emphasized the visual, the spectacular performances, and the ticket price ($25-$95+) which is family friendly and loaded with discount opportunities. There were offers all summer long, including back to school and blood drive offers. “Feld is very good with all those opportunities for families to bring their kids,” Samek said.

She invited media outlets to come in and see rehearsals and did plenty of media drops, including cookies and cotton candy.

She had to explain the Greatest Show on Earth without the word “circus” and with no “clowns” (just comedian performers), but Ringling is still a very known brand, the famous “R” logo, and she could visually show what it would be.

In the end, 50 percent of ticket buyers had 1-2 kids and were young parents age 35-42. “I brought my own nieces and nephews. Under age eight was the hot spot for kids,” Samek said. Her nieces are in gymnastics and loved the acrobats. She worked with Cleveland Cavaliers lists for sports fans.

She also worked with local mom influencers, hosting an opening night party where a couple of performers performed for them. “They promote the show from the moment it’s announced,” she said. “Once here, they post how great it is, which is good for last minute sales.” Cleveland also benefitted from good timing — the fall season, when parents are looking for things to do with kids.

Feld’s new production has 75 performers from 18 countries. Plus crew, it’s a big stretch backstage, but Cleveland had another lucky break there. They had just debuted phase one of a $12 million renovation of the dressing and locker rooms. Feld’s cast and crew were the first beneficiaries and most complimentary.

It ended being a very good run for the new Ringling’s Greatest Show on Earth, all agreed, but how does it compare to the circus?

“Other than everything, nothing is different,” Pavone said.

Lead the conversation at VenueConnect 2024 in Portland by proposing a session today! Our sessions are interactive, full of relevant content, practical tools, and emerging best practices in venue management today.  

Becoming a presenter is a great way to expand your network, assist in the educational growth of our association, and share experiences.

Be bold and innovative!  This is your opportunity as a member to make an impact!

Submit your VC24 Session Topic here!

Deadline to submit is November 14, 2023.