By Nadia Vanderhoof

Marking the largest event to date hosted at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) in Orlando, the Amateur Athletic Union’s (AAU) 48th AAU Junior National Volleyball Championships welcomed more than 135,000 attendees across two weeks, from June 18-29, 2021, creating an estimated economic impact of $173.3 million for the region.

“We appreciate the strong partnership between the Amateur Athletic Union and the Orange County Convention Center,” said OCCC Executive Director Mark Tester. “Our trusted relationship and our many years of collaboration has enhanced this event to become the largest volleyball tournament in the world. We are proud to be the premier destination for the AAU to host its events safely.”

For nearly 20 years, the esteemed volleyball tournament has been coming to The Center of Hospitality to safely and successfully host their sporting events for players, chaperones and coaches from around the world.

This year, the massive 12-day volleyball event implemented a series of modified health protocols to ensure the safety of all attendees. Facemasks were encouraged, no handshakes or gift exchanges took place between teams, spectators, coaches and athletes were encouraged to socially distance, courts were spaced apart to increase walkways and the event spread across both OCCC buildings – the North-South and the West.

“We are pleased to have been able to yet again offer the opportunity to let athletes do what they really want to do, and that’s to play,” said Jennings “Rusty” Buchanan, President/CEO of the AAU. “The 2021 AAU Junior National Volleyball Championships at the Orange County Convention Center welcomed our biggest numbers to date, positively impacting not only the AAU organization but also the Central Florida area as well. Hosting such a large event successfully would not be possible without the dedication, commitment and tireless efforts of the Orange County Convention Center team.”

As the largest event nationally in the convention industry since the pandemic, the AAU Junior National Volleyball Championships is a testament to how the live events industry has returned stronger than ever and how the OCCC is doing Business Better than Usual.

Nadia Vanderhoof is Marketing and Communications Manager for the Orange County Convention Center.

By Kristi Mexia

Hollywood Park, a near 300-acre sports and entertainment destination, and YouTube have partnered in an extensive multi-year agreement that names the development’s 6,000-seat performance venue, YouTube Theater. The partnership is the first-of-its-kind for YouTube, with the venue hosting a variety of live entertainment from concerts to comedy, award shows, esports competitions, community events, conferences, and distinctive YouTube creator events. YouTube Theater is part of the sprawling Hollywood Park mixed-use development in Inglewood, Calif., which is being developed by Los Angeles Rams Owner/Chairman E. Stanley Kroenke, and construction is set to complete for the theater in summer 2021. The first event to officially open the venue is slated for mid summer.

“YouTube Theater will drive the uniqueness of YouTube by combining physical, ‘in real life’ events that bring creators and fans together, while simultaneously sharing that same event experience with our two billion global monthly users through livestreams and VOD content,” said Angela Courtin, Vice President of Brand Marketing, YouTube. “YouTube creators and artists are the heart of YouTube and YouTube Theater adds to the portfolio of opportunities to drive their creativity, build their businesses, grow their communities and so much more.”

“When he set out to build YouTube Theater, Stan Kroenke envisioned an intimate, world-class venue that exemplified three core aspects: technology, creativity, and entertainment. We cannot imagine a better partner to help us bring this vision to life than YouTube,” said Jason Gannon, managing director, SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park. “YouTube Theater will be open to the public this summer as Los Angeles’ new home for esports, community gatherings, concerts, and all types of live entertainment. YouTube Theater is the next step for Hollywood Park as we develop and deliver on creating a true sports and entertainment destination across our 300 acres.”

YouTube Theater is designed to be home to a variety of live entertainment events. Hollywood Park and Live Nation have partnered in an exclusive multi-year booking agreement and have already confirmed Caifanes, Los Angeles Azules, Pitbull, Black Pumas, Devo, Trippie Redd, Alejandro Sanz, Christian Nodal, Marina, and Louis Tomlinson to play shows at the theater in 2021 and 2022. Guests at the theater will be introduced to state-of-the-art technology and premium finishes that elevate the fan experience.

The innovative features at YouTube Theater focus on interactivity, including a large scale digital YouTube play button icon outside the venue, which can transform into an immersive video screen that guests can interact with by mirroring themselves on the screen and by viewing highlights of YouTube’s creator and artist content. The venue also features a dynamic digital wall on the interior that will be used to celebrate YouTube creators and artists by showcasing them in a gallery-like setting.

This agreement builds upon YouTube parent company Google’s previously announced partnerships with Hollywood Park that made Google Cloud the exclusive cloud partner of the Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers and their home SoFi Stadium. Google Cloud is the exclusive cloud partner of YouTube Theater as well. YouTube will be the exclusive video services and music streaming services partner of YouTube Theater, SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park and the exclusive video services partner and an official music streaming services partner of the Rams and Chargers.

YouTube Theater is a 227,000 square foot, three-story indoor venue. Built to be a best-in-class event venue, the 6,100 square-feet stage is an expansive area to get creative, and every seat is close to the action on-stage, with the farthest seat in the house only 164 feet away from the stage. The venue itself is blended seamlessly in at the southernmost corner of the same roof canopy that stretches over SoFi Stadium and American Airlines Plaza. Complete with a two-story Kaynemaile chandelier, the theater will feature six luxury boxes, a 1,200 square-foot premium back-of-house hospitality space — with adjacent dressing rooms — and a 3,500 square-foot private club with 140 premium seats.

Legends Global Partnerships division sourced, negotiated and represented Hollywood Park in securing this partnership.

Kristi Mexia is Director/Head Corporate Communications for SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park.

By StadiumBusiness

The National Football League (NFL) will open its 2021 season at full capacity after the Indianapolis Colts became the final team to secure clearance for full attendance at its stadium.

Lucas Oil Stadium is set to operate at its normal capacity of 63,000 after the Colts were granted permission following extensive consultation with the Marion County (Ind.) Public Health Department (MCPHD).

As COVID-19 is still affecting the city and state, the Colts said they will continue to be vigilant about keeping fans safe and healthy, but added that most in-stadium protocols from last season will be relaxed or eliminated.

Single-game tickets for the entire 2021 season are on sale now, with the Colts stating that inventory is already very limited for the opening two home games against the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams.

“We were fortunate to be able to host fans in 2020 through the pandemic, and those fans were as loud and proud as ever,” said Colts owner and CEO, Jim Irsay. “But gamedays at Lucas Oil Stadium are like family reunions, and it wasn’t quite the same without our entire Colts family alongside us.

“So we can’t wait to open the stadium doors to all our fans so they can take this journey with us as we work to bring a Super Bowl title back to Indianapolis.”

Last season, the Colts were one of the few teams to host fans at every home game. The Colts were ninth in attendance figures last season with a total of 79,560 fans, or an average of 9,945 per game, admitted to Lucas Oil Stadium. Capacities peaked at 12,500 last season.

The NFL appeared to be closing in on its goal of having stadiums at full capacity for its 2021 season last month after it was disclosed that only two teams were yet to receive permission for this course of action.

The NFL 2020 season saw 119 games have fan attendance in some capacity, with around 1.2 million fans in total. Fan attendance was determined by teams’ local COVID-19 restrictions. Notably, the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers (SoFi Stadium), as well as the Las Vegas Raiders (Allegiant Stadium) were forced to play their entire seasons behind closed doors at their new homes.

In March, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expressed his hope that full capacity would be achieved for the 2021 season and recent weeks have seen a number of teams make announcements to this effect.

At the NFL’s two-day spring meeting, Peter O’Reilly, the League’s executive vice-president of club business and events, stated all but two teams had gained approval from state and local governments to open their stadiums at full capacity for the new season.

The two teams that had yet to receive authorization were the Colts and Denver Broncos. The latter was subsequently granted permission to operate Empower Field at Mile High at full capacity for Broncos fans on June 2.

In May, the NFL announced a return to international play with Tottenham Hotspur Stadium confirmed to host two games during its 2021 regular season, the only outings for the League in the UK this year.

Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars will be the home teams for the games, taking on the New York Jets on October 10 and the Miami Dolphins on October 17, respectively.

By TicketingBusinessNews

Testing requirements could lead to a dramatic drop in ticketing sales conversion according to data released from the Events Research Programme (ERP).

Information garnered from test events held in the UK from April showed a 90% drop in conversion rate among those visiting ticketing websites, with researchers suggesting this was a result of increased sales friction.

In the ‘Operational Learnings’ section of the ERP study, released last week following a legal challenge, researchers found that only 1.7% of site visitors bought a ticket, when previously, without testing requirements, their conversion rate was 18%. It added that users were spending an average of three minutes and 15 seconds reading the terms of entry specifying supervised testing requirements.

Researchers also found higher-than-usual ‘no-shows’ for games held at Wembley Stadium. They added: “This may indicate that people received their tickets and then didn’t want to follow through with the home or supervised testing requirements. Tests for pilot events were free; if consumers had to pay for tests, it would be likely to have a knock-on impact on demand and participation, and could exclude or disproportionately impact some demographic groups.”

As widely reported, the data showed just 28 cases of COVID-19 recorded out of the 58,000 people who attended during the first nine events.

However, while some saw the low number of cases as proof that events could be staged safely, the data also highlighted low levels of compliance with rules of attendance. The proportion of participants returning PCR tests varied between 8% and 74% for the ‘pre-event’ (days -1 to 3) test and between 13% and 66% for the ‘post-event’ (days 4-7) test. This “significantly limited the ability to estimate rates of infection after attending events”.

Researchers found that test return rates were higher for the events where tests were posted to attendees and when an incentive, such as the chance to win free tickets, was offered. “The music festival offered an incentive of the chance to win future festival tickets and saw a three-fold higher return rate of both PCR tests when compared with the Circus Presents ‘The First Dance’ (nightclub) event held on the same weekend with an approximately comparable audience in Liverpool,” researchers found.

“Across all events, of the 15% who returned both PCR tests, there were 28 PCR-positive cases recorded, with 11 considered potentially infected before an event and 17 at or after an event. It should be noted that some individuals were potentially infected before an event despite admittance being conditional on a negative LFT result before the event.”

Pilots highlighted “significant issues” in matching event bookings with test results and wider public health data, except in Liverpool, where an enhanced combined intelligence system is already in place.

“This test to ticket matching requirement underpins the testing and tracing infrastructure,” the report said. “Without it, it is impossible to reliably associate attendees’ test results to events and therefore to reliably operate outbreak prevention and control for events. Given some individuals infected before the event were admitted despite admittance being conditional on a negative LFT result, robust contact tracing capacity is necessary.

“Higher levels of audience participation in testing and thorough data linkage with public health surveillance systems are needed to better understand the transmission risks around events.”

The ERP began with a series of indoor and outdoor events allowing limited capacities in April, including the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield and concerts and club nights in Liverpool.

A second phase of pilot events has completed, with group stage UEFA Euro 2020 matches hosted at Wembley, the Download Pilot music festival, the England v New Zealand test match at Edgbaston and Royal Ascot having taken place this month. Research into the events is still being gathered and analyzed by the ERP science team.

The third phase of the ERP will include Wimbledon Championships, The Open Championship, and Latitude festival.

Gina Brydson, Director of Membership shares that “IAVM’s members are the absolute best at spreading the word about the value of membership. We are grateful for their continued support. Let’s give our network a boost and kick our recovery efforts into overdrive!”

iCommit is a member referral campaign. The challenge is to increase membership by 10%. The official launch is today, July 1^st. Start now by reaching out to your employees, colleagues, suppliers, interns and more and encourage them to become an IAVM member!

The campaign runs from July 1 – October 31, 2021. For each new member you refer by the deadline, your name will be entered into a raffle to win one of five, $500 Apple Gift Cards. The more members you refer, the more chances you have to win!

Prizes

• The grand prize will be a complimentary registration to VenueConnect 2022 (value up to $1,000).
• Win one of five, $500 Apple Gift cards – receive one raffle entry for each new member you refer.
• The IAVM Region that adds the most new members will choose one recipient to apply for the CVP designation; we will waive the $125 application fee (the Region Director will choose the recipient within the winning region).

 
To ensure you are eligible to win one of the prizes, ask your applicant to do the following:

• List your name in the Application Section titled, “Who Recommended IAVM To You/How Did You Hear About IAVM?”
• Enter “iCommit” in the Promotional Code field in the online membership application.
• For new Professional or Allied members only, the $150 one-time initiation fee will be waived*

 
*Some membership types do not have an initiation fee; the dues will not be discounted.

All winners will be notified in January 2022. Contact membership@iavm.org if you have any questions.