Plans for a Major League Soccer (MLS) presence in Las Vegas took another step toward reality on August 26 when the city, The Cordish Companies, and Findlay Sports & Entertainment announced a term sheet outlining key points. The plans include construction of a 24,000-seat stadium in Symphony Park at a cost of US$410 million. An independent analysis shows that the stadium will generate an estimated $9 million in annual tax revenue and create 700 permanent jobs.

“The time to bring professional sports to Las Vegas is now,” said Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman. “The deal negotiated with Findlay Sports & Entertainment and The Cordish Companies will be a win-win for the city of Las Vegas and its residents. I love that both our partners are family-owned companies with great reputations.”

The city council will vote on the non-binding term sheet on September 3. Even if it’s approved, no construction will start until MLS awards Las Vegas with an expansion franchise. The city council will receive a binding agreement from Findlay-Cordish in December 2014.

“The Cordish Companies is excited to be a part of the downtown’s historic revitalization efforts,” said Blake Cordish, vice president of The Cordish Companies. “Las Vegas deserves and will absolutely support professional sports. Time and again, downtown sports venues are a proven catalyst for broader urban revitalization.”

(Image: Findlay Sports & Entertainment)

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion in the United National Maintenance vs. San Diego Convention Center (SDCCC) in June, agreeing and affirming a district court’s conclusions. This month, the Ninth Circuit denied a rehearing of the case, with Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz stating that, “No jury could reasonably find that SDCCC engaged either in monopolization or an attempt to monopolize by mandating that its own employees clean its building.”

The district court had previously concluded that the SDCCC decision to implement an exclusives policy for cleaning services was immune from antitrust scrutiny under the state action doctrine.

“This is a win for San Diego, but more importantly a landmark win for the facility management industry as it will allow venues to operate and manage their buildings as they see fit,” said IAVM member Carol Wallace, president and CEO of the San Diego Convention Center Corp.

The IAVM Foundation, too, played a role in the appeal by submitting an amicus brief supporting the district court’s reasoning.

“As a Foundation, this is what we are about, having the resources on hand to fund something that makes a significant difference to the industry when an urgent issue arises,” said Jason Rittenberry, the IAVM Foundation chair, in an earlier story about this topic. “We are honored that we were able to step up quickly and support our members.”

(photo credit: Justin in SD via photopin cc)

IAVM, and specifically VenueDataSource, received some love from architecture firm HKS earlier this month.

“Several years ago, we learned that IAVM initiated a project called VenueDataSource, which gathers data on operational costs and revenue in IAVM member convention centers, stadia, arenas and performing arts facilities,” wrote Ken Stockdell, Jr., director of convention center practice for HKS. “This data provides a benchmarking tool that facilities can use to measure their operations against the industry as a whole. Although the project is fairly early in its life cycle, some helpful information is emerging. A conference session, presented by Steve Schwartz, senior research policy analyst at EventsDC, and Frank Ingoglia, research manager with IAVM, provided a report preview on facility operating costs and revenues. The picture it paints helps quantify industry trends.”

I encourage you to visit the HKS page to read about what was learned by the firm’s team at VenueConnect during the research session.

And if you’re planning on attending either the upcoming Arena Management Conference (AMC) or the International Convention Center Conference (ICCC), be sure and attend the VenueDataSource sessions.

At AMC, Russ Simons—managing partner at Venue Solutions Group—will moderate a panel session titled “Using VenueDataSource to Your Advantage.” Attendees will learn about VenueDataSource and the type of data available and how it can be used by senior leadership.

During ICCC, Schwartz will participate in a panel discussing how to turn data into information. Session attendees will explore how to use benchmarking data to maximum effect, with VenueDataSource as an example.

Registration for AMC and ICCC is still open. See you there!

Sure, we humans have a lot in common with one another—we breathe oxygen, we need water to survive, our bones give us structure—but when it comes to work, we definitely are not all the same. Some people like to work alone; some like to collaborate in teams. Some employees work for money; some work because they love their jobs. And some people quit because they’re dissatisfied with their employers; some quit even when they’re satisfied.

Yes, it’s true. Dissatisfied and satisfied employees equally quit jobs. That’s the finding in a recent study by a Texas Tech professor and two colleagues titled “Understanding the Drivers of Job Satisfaction of Frontline Service Employees, ‘Learning from Lost Employees.'”

“Mayukh Dass and his team discovered a company’s desire to invest in satisfying employees because it helps with retention may be fundamentally flawed,” George Watson reported for Texas Tech Today.

Dass told Watson that companies should analyze how their employees vary in satisfaction.

“This information will be helpful in developing better employee retention programs, and be successful in retaining the best talents,” Dass said.

The researchers found that employees who quit were not tempted by better offers from other companies. In fact, an employee’s starting salary at a new job was about the same as it was at the previous job.

“Dass’ group also discovered another aspect to employee retention that challenges preconceived notions,” Watson reported. “It is generally assumed the reasons an employee leaves a firm due to dissatisfaction translates all across the employee spectrum. However, Dass and his group discovered the ‘model of satisfaction formation’ can vary from employee to employee.”

Dass suggests that employers evaluate employee motivation on an individual level to better understand why a person would stay or leave.

“I would encourage companies to move away from ‘one-size-fits-all’ retention programs to more ‘multi-dimensional’ retention programs,” Dass said.

(photo credit: StoneLeaf via photopin cc)

The notable rise of eSports is sparking an entirely new content opportunity for venues of all types, as stadiums, convention centers, and everything in-between prove to be a potential host for the on-screen battles. Joining the mix is the new eSports Arena, the first venue in the U.S. dedicated to hosting live gaming events. The venue—opening soon and located in downtown Santa Ana, California—will feature modular gaming stations that can be moved to facilitate conversion into a 1,000-seat auditorium. The arrival of this new arena mirrors the rapid growth of online gaming as a spectator sport, evidenced by this graph included in a 2014 report available from SuperData Research:

As the pool of online viewers continues to rocket upward, venues are responding by becoming the real-world space for this massive online community. On October 4, 2013, a US$1 million cash prize was awarded to the winning team in the League of Legends Season 3 Championship. In addition to the 32-million online viewers, the finals were hosted live at the sold-out Staples Center, with all 18,000 tickets being purchased in one hour.

This morning, a new BBC story highlighted Insomnia, a recent eSport event held in a massive tent covering the football pitch of Ricoh Arena in Coventry, England. The reported debate over using the term “sport” to describe this new live event might be interesting to a few, but the more important conversation for the IAVM community is—how is your venue going to connect to this immense new pool of spectators?

Additional slides from SuperData Research: