By R.V. Baugus

Time to fess up. I am not into Comic-Con (picture me now cowering and covering my head as rotten tomatoes are thrown my way). I would say that I am not the demographic, but that wouldn’t exactly fly as I do know people in the general vicinity of my unshared age who would beg to differ.

The differences in our DNA is what makes the world go round, right? I can’t watch any type of horror movie. I know it is a MOVIE, but my stomach just can’t take it. Guess that’s why a list of Mel Brooks’ movies stands tall in my group of favorites.

But back to Comic-Con. It did not take place this year at the San Diego Convention Center, the first time since 1991 for that to happen — or not happen. When I received an email from Maren Dougherty, the venue’s director of marketing and communications, sharing a brief video posted to Twitter and entitled “You Are Comic-Con,” it felt as though she was indeed talking to me. I clicked to watch the 1:13 message from the Center to the Comic-Con fans around the world that in essence said that we miss you but we will see you next year.

Comic-Con 2020 was slated for April 10-12, but obviously COVID-19 canceled this year’s event. Next year the venue will host Comic-Con March 26-28.

“The volume and content of the replies and retweets demonstrate the incredible communities that form around live events,” Dougherty wrote. No kidding! I scrolled down to read the comments, many of which contained emojis dominated by tears due to the powerful and emotional message. In all, to date there have been almost 1,000 retweets and comments from the July 21 posting.

And when it comes to numbers, these do not lie. A visit to the venue’s website reveals that the 2019 Comic-Con was to bring in an estimated 135,000 attendees from over 80 countries and more than 2,500 media personnel from over 30 countries, with guests generating an estimated $149 million in regional impact to San Diego. Enough said!

The website goes on to share fascinating and impressive statistics when it comes to the super-sized appetites of attendees with Centerplate answering the call to feed guests. Sustainability is another area of remarkable statistics.

But you are here because we really want you to enjoy this video, so without further ado, please click here.

Just bring Kleenex with you.

By R.V. Baugus

When Zane Collings, Assistant General Manager of the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., managed by ASM Global, thought back to the last event held in 2020 at his venue, he had to pause before answering. After a few seconds, Collings recalled that it was an East Coast Hockey League game involving venue tenant Jacksonville Icemen in a March contest.

That is, until the venue scored a major draw back on May 9 when Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 249 was

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA – MAY 09: Fabricio Werdum prepares to fight Aleksei Oleinik of Russia in their heavyweight fight during the UFC 249 event at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on May 09, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

held on May 9 with no fans but with a television audience of more than 700,000 shown on ESPN+. As we all know, this was firmly inside a time frame when COVID-19 was all the news and concern, much as it still is today.

It marked the venue’s first hosting of UFC since the arena doors opened in 2003, but it is safe to say the sport will be coming back to Jacksonville and the venue after a successful visit. Collings shared everything involved in putting together the event on an IAVM Arenas Town Hall, and more recently took some time to chat some more about the experience.

We have to ask off the bat how the venue came to host UFC 249?

It took a number of folks involved. First, it took a progressive governor in Ron DeSantis and a progressive mayor in Lenny Curry to want to be open to sports events in the state of Florida. We have them to thank for that. It started with a conversation from the president of ASM Global, Bob Newman, and Peter Dropick (Executive Vice President, Event Development & Operations) at UFC. They were looking to start some live TV events, because at that point they had been shut down in the state of Nevada at their training facility. Bob Newman said, “How about Jacksonville?” Between the folks in the city working their part with the athletic commission and my boss, Bob, and Bill McConnell, working with UFC, we were able to put things together.

How much lead time did you have to get everything organized and ready for UFC to come to town?

We had about three weeks lead time. The short lead time is a challenge that you have to overcome in the industry we are in. You plan as best you can and then you have to overcome what you don’t know. The challenge here was trying to figure out how to do it safely. That was the main goal. How do we open back up even though there are no fans? How do we open back up and do it safely? The challenge was using all the information from ASM, developing protocols here locally, working with UFC because they have their own set of protocols and melding them together and then having the local and state authorities approve it. It was a teamwork approach and we couldn’t do it with anyone better than UFC. They are a real button-up organization in having their stuff together.

And the last event you held before UFC?

You would think I had that etched in memory. The last four months have been a blur. It was the Jacksonville Icemen in ECHL hockey.

Talk some about protocols from your needs and applications.

We had to go through the daily health questionnaire and temperature screening, but also short-term and long-term antibody testing before they worked the first run of shows. These included mandatory masking, blood tests and nasal swabs.

You shared quite a bit of valuable information for attendees at the Arenas Town Hall, including cleaning, catering, social distancing, and much more. What were some of the questions that attendees asked?

I had a lot of questions in regards to where do we get the testing, where do we get the electro-static disinfecting gun and how much it cost, what kind of chemical is in there. Is the test required or do we just do it? It was probably a combination of both. When we work through the process, we required of ourselves because the ultimate goal was doing this safely. We put our own protocols into place, because no one ever said we require you to do this. So, the goal was to do this really safely and that costs money. There were also questions about catering. You don’t do buffets and you’re not gathering people. The meals were for fighters and staff, too, provided by our caterer SAVOR. The best way to explain it is a to-go order from a restaurant.

What feedback did you receive from UFC after the event?

Dana White (UFC president) said we’re coming back to Jacksonville when we can max the place out. I’m glad we could work together and we can get back to work and they can get back to work and we’ll be very excited when we get UFC back in here. When we get fans back in the arena that will really be cool.

What is it like in an arena with no fans as far as any noise goes?

I learned that the guys who work the corners talk a lot. It can still be loud when there is no crowd. You hear every cuss word. You hear every hit. When you hear flesh on flesh and you see the dude get knocked out, it’s just different.

Finally, what takeaways can you offer your colleagues after having successfully hosted a major event like UFC in such a time of uncertainty?

Do your research because there’s a lot of information that’s out there now, and do what’s right to produce a safe event, because that’s what we do.

To Collings’ point about UFC wanting to return and their experience at the venue, please enjoy this brief video by clicking here.

Andy Long, friend to countless in the industry and most recently Director of Conferencing at Grand View University in Des Moines, IA, passed away on July 17. He was 55. In addition, Andy was employed for seven years with VenuWorks as regional vice president in 2011-2012 and also as vice president – events and entertainment from 2007-2014.

As tributes continue pouring in on Andy’s Facebook page perhaps the comment shared by Tamera Frank Skrovan sums it up best: “As I’ve followed all these tributes to Andy, it strikes me that many of us met/spent time with him at specific segments of our lives and we all benefitted from the same Andy: joyful, thoughtful, energetic, optimistic, talented. And, even as we moved on from those life stages and miles separates us, we still felt his love. What a great gift Andy was to all of us!

“Anyone who ever knew Andy Long for any length of time was bound to hear him use his favorite line from the movie Animal House. He’d extend his hand and say, ‘Andy Long, rush chairman, damn glad to meet you!’ He had a heart full of good will and a smile that could light up any room. And I swear he knew somebody in every town in America! His super power was friendship. Andy was in his element when opening new venues, and we opened a lot of them together. You could go to any of those venues today, and I guarantee there would be somebody there ready to tell an ‘Andy Story.’ And that is an incredible legacy,” said Steve Peters, CVE, VenuWorks President.

The following moving obituary was penned largely by Robert John Ford, playwright and Andy’s longtime friend.

Andy Eugene Long was born on November 17, 1964 to Ray and Joan (Miller) Long in Marshalltown, Iowa, the yoest of three children. He attended grade school in Melbourne and graduated from West Marshall High School in 1983. Andy grew up in a small town with a close-knit community; his father owned a gas station – the site of many shenanigans – and his mother was the church organist. Andy and his siblings, Dwight and Jody, made up the rest of the church music team, singing for services and leading worship. He and Dwight also ran small businesses in town, including a paper route and lawn-mowing business; on his route, Andy was known for taking breaks to share a glass of lemonade and a cartoon or two with his customers. Childhood blessings also included close proximity to his grandparents, with whom he was very close, and summers at Clear Lake, which left him with fond memories of weekends at the family cabin.

After graduating from high school, Andy attended Iowa State University to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Business Management. During his time there, he was a devoted member of the fraternity Alpha Tau Omega, and he was an avid performer, spending his spare time on campus singing and producing musicals, and his summers on Adventureland’s “Soda ‘n’ Sounds” stage. After graduation, he remained a lifelong fan of the Cyclones, and loved spending Saturdays at ISU games.

Upon receiving his degree, Andy did what most of us only dream of as children – he ran away and joined the circus, serving as the Regional Marketing Director for Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus for 2 years. He then spent the next 24 years in event venue management: first as a Director of Marketing, which took him to Dayton, OH, Ames, IA, and Charleston, SC; next, he moved to Wilkes Barre, PA, where he was the General Manager of the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza; after that, he returned to Iowa to serve as the General Manager for the Iowa Events Center; finally, he held various executive positions with Venuworks. Most recently, he brought his event management experience to Grandview University as Director of Conferencing.

Over the years, in addition to assembling an impressive collection of photos with the many celebrities who played his buildings, including Elton John, Cher, Neil Diamond, Reba McIntire, AC/DC, and more, Andy also assembled a collection of true VIPs in his life, most notably a young woman named Karen Van Riessen, whom he met in 1990. Like the thousands of people who had previously encountered Andy, she succumbed to his charms – only this time, Andy became hopelessly devoted to her in return, and they were married September of 1993. He loved fiercely, and always kept Karen laughing, even when he was “patiently” playing the piano while waiting for her to get ready.

Together, they welcomed their first child, daughter Samantha, in 1996, and completed their family quartet with the birth of their son Eric in 2001. His family (including two beloved English bulldogs) became his life – his pride, his joy, his strength, his inspiration, his greatest achievement, and his de facto test audience for his infinite Dad jokes. Along with coaching both kids in various sports, he beamed with pride at every one of his children’s musical performances, and he loved to volunteer at their events. As per anyone’s request (or not), he would share their videos at a moment’s notice.

Andy excelled at engaging an audience. He was, in the best sense, a human magnet – he exuded a force that no one within his sphere could resist. He took command of any room he entered, and genuinely enjoyed striking up conversations with strangers – not because he felt that he was someone to get to know, but because he felt that every person was someone worth getting to know. And then, as if his gift of friendship wasn’t enough, he felt the need to keep the people in his life endlessly entertained. Music was Andy’s constant companion, and he knew it was a gift he had to share; therefore, no piano within his sight remained unplayed, no Muppets song was left unsung, no occasion was too formal for a mediocre Elvis impersonation. However, he never did this for the benefit of himself – it was always to bring joy to everyone else.

All this to say that, whether he be the loving husband/father/son/brother/uncle, or the leader in his workplace, or the truest of friends, Andy always knew his role and played it to perfection. His superpower was optimism – an unwavering belief in the good in humanity, the good in this moment, and the good that was still yet to come. It was this “always look on the bright side of life” attitude about his health challenges that made it easy to believe he was invincible. Of course, no one is invincible, but for those who love and remember him, Andy’s spirit will never truly be gone.

He is survived by his wife, Karen; children, Samantha Long of Houston, TX and Eric Long of Johnston, IA; father, Ray (Patt) Long of Ankeny, IA; brother, Dwight (Lynn) Long of Johnston, IA; sister, Jody (Bob) Gibbs of Rhodes, IA; brother-in-law, Verl Van Riessen of Cape Coral, FL; brother-in-law, Mark (Susan) Van Riessen of Urbandale, IA; nieces, nephews, and extended family members.

He was preceded in death by his beloved mother, Joan Long, and his grandparents.

Memorial contributions may be directed to the family in loving memory of Andy. Additionally, close friends of the Long family have established a GoFundMe page to assist with medical, funeral and educational expenses at Andy Long GoFundMe Account.

The family invites you to view the service on Friday, July 24, at 11 am via live stream on Friday by clicking here.

David M. Olson, former Communications Director at VenuWorks, died Friday, July 17, 2020 at the Israel Family Hospice House in Ames, IA. He was 77. Following cremation, Dave’s cremated remains will be scattered by his family at a special place.

In his memory, support your local performing arts and please make memorial contributions, made in Dave’s name, to the Israel Family Hospice House, 400 South Dakota Avenue, Ames, Iowa 50014.

Online condolences may be directed to www.grandonfuneralandcremationcare.com

“Dave Olson has been an important part of my life for nearly fifty years,” said Steve Peters, CVE, President of VenuWorks. “We had worked together at the University of Iowa Center for the Arts and the Iowa State (University) Center before he came to work with us in 1998, the third person hired for the corporate office of what was then Compass, now VenuWorks. He carried himself with a quiet wisdom and a ready smile. He had a dry wit, and a calm demeanor that made him unflappable in even the most stressful of situations. He was my mentor and friend. Always bearded and philosophical, with an almost magical twinkle in his eye, he was our Obi-Wan.”