Whether it’s (yet another) new venue, festival, or gladiator 5k chipping away at entertainment spend, venue managers continue to face the fierce challenge of filling seats and calendar dates. IAVM’s Pollstar session, moderated by Kim Bedier, CFE, IAVM chair and director of public assembly facilities for the City of Tacoma, dove straight into some of the creative ways venue managers are evolving their buildings (and operations) to thrive in an ultra-competitive environment.

Resch Center, Green Bay, Wisconsin 
Ken Wachter, president with PMI Entertainment Group, shared several examples of projects at the Resch Center that are working in their market. Neighbors to Green Bay’s Lambeau Field (they share the parking lot), Wachter and team found ways to capitalize on the fact that—for at least eight Sundays a year—the equivalent of 25 percent of the entire city’s population gathers to hang out, tailgate, and be Cheeseheads in support of the Packers. PMI shares 400 part-time staff with Lambeau Field to assist in game-day operations, but they also have developed their own opportunities.

“We decided to rent out as much available space as possible to tailgaters,” Wachter said during the panel discussion. “We have a $35 all-you-can-drink beer pass and club areas for VIP groups. We’re now averaging about 3,000 fans on our property every game day.” 

PMI also fulfills concession orders (and handles clean up) for tailgaters in the parking lot, a profitable extension of their game-day efforts since their food and beverage is handled in-house.

In addition to the tailgating, PMI found another game day opportunity.

“Lambeau’s seating is primarily benches, so we rent out about 8,000 seat-backs to fans each game day,” Wachter said. “They sell out every time.”

One word of advice from Wachter on renting seat-backs is to not brand them to the team.

“Keep them ugly … otherwise you’ll never get them back.”

Beyond Packers game days, PMI has a mix of tenants and in-house events that help keep the venue busy. They are the owners of the Green Bay Gamblers hockey team, and with two of the venues on the property able to house the games, they have great flexibility in booking shows that overlap with the hockey season. Add into the mix college basketball and arena football, and PMI is handling around 50 sports dates on the calendar each year.

With in-house food and beverage and ticketing, PMI produces 15 events a year that bring in an additional $1 million in revenue on previously dark days. In addition to the Wedding Show, a Taxidermy Show, and the Halloween Sweet Street, PMI  also produces the Tall Ship Festival, an off-site riverfront event that brings tens of thousands of visitors to Green Bay.

BancorpSouth Arena, Tupelo, Mississippi
He left a packed house of Jason Aldean fans the night before for an early morning, nine-seater into Nashville. Todd Hunt, director of the BancorpSouth Arena, joined the panel to offer his perspective on the challenges venues face.

Unlike the Resch Center, Hunt shared that sports tenants do not work as well in their market. Tupelo is only 35,000 people, so too many blocked dates (and the challenge of sustained ticket sales) keep the venue less flexible in bringing in relevant content.

However, where a hockey team wasn’t ideal, being the only ice rink in a 90-mile radius is. Skating events have proven to be a more relevant use of the ice and are now bringing more than $100k in profit to the arena.

Selling the arena as rehearsal space was also mentioned, as Hunt remarked that, “It’s good for our crew to get practice, and it tends to be good for local bars.”

Other successes mentioned by Hunt were in capacity conversions—using floor-to-ceiling curtains to take the 9,000-seat bowl down to 7,000, 5,000, or 3,000. This makes the arena—originally converted from a shopping mall—ready to handle concerts, theater, and other events that thrive in smaller configurations.

For Hunt, it is about knowing what his market can sustain.

“The worst thing is for a show to come and fail, and what that then says about Tupelo, Mississippi,” he said.

Venue Coalition
Representing a network of more than 60 arenas, Andrew Prince, executive vice president with Venue Coalition, shared that venue reinvention is relevant for the local community and for agents deciding where to book shows.

Knowing what will motivate a particular act matters. Having a venue that feels accessible to the community, supports charities, and is welcoming helps a venue stand out.

The Forum, Inglewood, California
A $100 million-dollar renovation can also help usher in reinvention. Geni Lincoln with the Madison Square Garden Co. detailed the recent rebirth of the “Fabulous” Forum in Inglewood, California.

Beginning with the back of house, Lincoln described redesigned dressing rooms that connect to meet-and-greet areas, an artist gym, and a new production area for crews that includes its own showers. Combined with new seating and improvements to the acoustics in the arena, the new experience at the Forum is noticed by guests.

“When acts like it, they talk about it,” Lincoln said.

Tacoma Dome, Washington
Renovations and improvements to the venue are relevant for the Tacoma Dome, as well. Tom Alexander, booking manager at the Dome, described the process of  “putting yourself in your guest’s shoes, then building a priority list of improvements that will matter most to them.”

For the Tacoma Dome, what matters to more than a few members of its community is a piece of art designed for their roof back in 1983. Bedier mentioned that a mural design for the Dome, submitted by Andy Warhol, has received approval by the city council and is now awaiting the $5 million in funding required to make it a reality.

At the airport later that day, I ran into a fellow Pollstar attendee. I asked if they had by chance attended the IAVM session that morning. The reply was the perfect summary of all of the examples shared by the panel.

“It was the most practical session of the entire conference.”

Remember when you were a kid and you WANTED someone to play 20 questions with? Remember how annoyed our parents got when we just forced them to play 20 questions without any regard to subject matter, location, and timing? There were never any reports to follow those games, either.

Thanks to VenueDataSource (VDS), you can now play 20 questions that could positively impact the future of your venue’s Capital Funding availability. And when you take the survey, there is a free report to follow, too!

The VenueDataSource Capital Funding Survey is a short, 20-question survey that should take less than 10 minutes to complete but make an enormous impact on your venue and others. There also are three $100 American Express Gift Cheques on the line that will be given randomly to three venue managers who complete the survey. Everyone that completes the survey will receive a report of a comprehensive look at the findings for no charge.

That’s right, complete the survey and the collective results will be compiled into a handy report and given to you for FREE. Just by taking the brief survey, you’ve already saved money that could now be slated for capital improvements. Good job you!

The Capital Funding survey is one of the most important documents produced by VDS. Every venue manager knows that financing our venues is a tricky tango between increasing sales and decreasing expenses.

But what about capital expenses? How do you finance major construction, renovation, or other large-scale projects? How do you and your peers pay for capital improvement programs? How many of our peers have a major tenant or vendor investing in our venues as a condition of their contracts with us?

We want to find the answers to those and other capital funds-related questions in this survey.

In mere minutes, you can help the future of venue operations and maybe learn more than a thing or two about where you can turn over a new leaf and find capital dollars.

In this ever-expanding age of technology, we are constantly trying to better our venues, our operations, and our staff. Change, more often than not, costs money. Our surveys are a way of gathering great information, from all over the venue family, quickly, confidentially, and succinctly—and have helped our members save thousands of dollars in annual operating costs. Now we’re working on helping members find thousands of new dollars for capital expenses.

The Capital Funding Survey invitations were sent out February 12-13 to one person per venue. If your venue has not received the invite, contact VenueDataFrank, Frank Ingoglia, at frank.ingoglia@iavm.org. Frank can help with this or any other survey question.

VDS is here to help our members achieve amazing things. Information is empowerment and we rely on you and the other members to keep moving forward and accomplishing our goals.

You can find us on this monthly blog, on Twitter @VenueDataFrank, in weekly newsletters discussing trends, facts and asking poll questions, at the sector conference, and VenueConnect—everywhere you VDS, you’ll find us. No matter where you go—there we are.

(Image: frankieleon/Creative Commons)

Is love still in the air?

Even though Valentine’s Day has passed, we may still have the reminders of those heart-shaped candy boxes lying around. Check to see if the boxes are all or partially recyclable, or consider re-using them for another gift or possible storage. America Recycles Day offers this thought, “That box could live on to ship a care package, carry a birthday cake, or conceal the perfect gift! Recycle boxes this month, and beyond!”

Go to http://americarecyclesday.org/ for more information on this or other recycling tips.

[photo credit: Love Birds Like Chocolates, So I’m Sold via photopin (license)]

IAVM’s get-a-member campaign, iCommit, is under way. We are three months in and have added more than 320 new members. Our goal is to add 600 new members by March 31, 2015. We have five weeks left before the campaign ends, and we are halfway there.

Your support may be rewarded with one of five $500 Apple Gift Cards! So what do you need to do to get your name in the drawing*? Encourage your employees, colleagues, students, and customers who are not connected with IAVM to join!

To ensure you are eligible to win, make sure the new member who joins lists your name in the Application Section titled “Who Recommended IAVM To You?” and enters “iCOMMIT” in the Promotional Code field in the payment method section of the membership applications. By entering the promo code, the $150 one-time initiation fee will be waived.

What’s In It For You?

We are getting very close to a community of 5,000 members. Be a part of history. More members means more collaboration, a bigger and more diverse network for you, and a greater pool of experts to create inspiring and motivating educational sessions at IAVM events. Encourage new ones to join our ranks, the largest non-profit organization serving the needs of the venue management industry. And possibly win a $500 Apple Gift Card (generously provided by Ungerboeck Software Intl.).

If you have questions, please contact me or Summer Beday at 972.906.7441 or membership@iavm.org. We value and appreciate your support of IAVM!

*Drawing – Win one of five-$500 Apple Gift Cards. For each new member that lists your name on their new IAVM membership application, your name will be entered in a drawing. Winners will be announced in April 2015.

(photo credit: SimpleSkye via photopin cc)