Welcome to 2019, a year that will continue the successes we have all collectively achieved recently.

As CEO of the IAVM Foundation, we thought it important to get the new year started with a brief recap of what the capable Board of Trustees have been up to and their fund-raising strategies for the coming year.

We finished 2019 with a successful program of offering CFP Semi Finals Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic tickets to our members and the general public. We surpassed our goal of $6,000 and generated approximately $7,600 in funds for the Foundation.

The Foundation strategic plan is broken into four initiatives, and I want to focus this letter on one of those initiatives.  Our Fundraising Initiative of Venues donating has begun, and with a quick start, has raised $20,000 in less than two months work. The goal to reach prior to the end of the current Fiscal Year (March 31, 2019) is $60,000.

Most of our venues have a budget for community investment; for example, purchasing fund raising banquets, sponsoring golf events, social clubs such as ROTARY, Kiwanis, etc. These donations are a sponsorship and raise funds for our young professionals, students, and IAVM professional development, which pays big dividends to the individual and the venue they work in, while creating a strong organization in the community they and the venue serve.

Many of our professionals have been positively affected by the IAVM programs including Venue Management School, Venue Data Source, Diversity Leadership, 30|UNDER|30, UpStart, AVSS, SES, along with scholarships, internships, and Grants to attend important and relative professional development programs.

Thank you to all who have donated, especially those who make recurring donations, you are making our industry stronger and paving the way for inclusiveness for the Association.

Happy 2019!

Brad Mayne, CVE
IAVM, President & CEO

The San Diego City Council approved a partnership between the legendary and iconic San Diego Sports Arena’s management company, AEG Management SD, LLC, and Pechanga Resort Casino of Temecula, CA, for a new naming rights deal for the now Pechanga Arena San Diego. The venue, built in 1966 and able to hold up to 16,100 for certain events, was most recently named the Valley View Casino Center.

The venue has hosted the biggest and the brightest throughout its famed history, including artists Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, The Grateful Dead, KISS, Bee Gees, ABBA, Heart, The Scorpions, Van Halen, Dio, and hundreds more over recent years including Jason Aldean, Muse, Justin Bieber, Janet Jackson, Lana Del Rey, and Slayer.

Its sports history is as equally famed as the current NBA Los Angeles Clippers once called the venue home as the San Diego Clippers. It has hosted boxing, track and field, World Team Tennis, WWE, soccer, hockey, lacrosse, indoor football, and more.

The venue currently has three anchor sports tenants in the San Diego Gulls, San Diego Sockers, and San Diego Seals.

“We have several partnerships with organizations that are synonymous with Southern California entertainment including the Lakers, the Angels, and Staples Center,” Pechanga Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro said in a statement. “Believe it or not, the San Diego Sports Arena is the closest major arena to Pechanga, so when they reached out to us, we were excited by the opportunity to partner with this historic venue.”

“We are thrilled about this partnership with Pechanga Resort Casino,” added Ernie Hahn, senior vice president and general manager of AEG Management SD, LLC. “The Pechanga name and reputation carries a lot of weight in the entertainment industry. This partnership will afford us new opportunities and ensures that San Diego will continue to receive the best in premium entertainment and sporting events.”

“Large-venue naming rights opportunities rarely avail themselves within the Southern California entertainment landscape,” said Jared Munoa, President of the Pechanga Development Corporation. “We’re very pleased to have been considered for this possibility. We think it’s a reflection of the Pechanga brand and the refinement it carries. A lot of San Diegans are familiar with Pechanga and who we are, and this partnership helps us strengthen that connection.”

The five-year, $400,000-per-year deal gives the venue continued revenue for planned improvements. Branding for the arena was finished by December 21 and sets up an exciting 2019 with Justin Timberlake and Elton John already on the concert calendar.

The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas celebrates it third anniversary in April. If it seems like the 20,000-seat arena has been around longer than that, it should, as the venue has already hosted some of the biggest sporting and concert shows in the world. The National Hockey League also came to Las Vegas and the arena got to host the 2018 Stanley Cup Final between the homestanding Golden Knights against the Washington Capitals. While the final result went in favor of the Capitals, most everything else has been a win in a short period of time.

With success, even for venues, comes higher expectations.

Now, the arena is using customer data in even greater ways, including how to determine how many staff is needed for specific events and to handle the always sticky situation of traffic in and around the facility. Purchase a ticket online and the venue can answer some of those questions from the purchaser’s data, including addresses from where the buyer will be coming.

Yes, it is an example of technology at its finest and geared to make the guest experience a pleasurable and seamless one.

Online activity has become one of the latest ways for such information to be gathered. Before, most data gathered on patrons arrived from trade publications or getting a guest to stand still for a moment to answer a few survey questions while at the venue. While those still exist to lesser extents, it is the online experience that drives more specific data today.

Crowds at T-Mobile Arena are 70 percent tourists for most events, based on the ZIP codes of purchases. For other events, like Golden Knights games, the mix is 80 percent local — adding that many more cars to parking and traffic around the arena.

That knowledge has helped reduce the time it takes to clear vehicle traffic from surrounding parking garages from 43 minutes to a more palatable 30 minutes.

Inside, technology is king, and the arena does its part to give guests fast connections to do what most customers do these days when attending events — share the experience through social media with friends.

Best for the venue is that those who use internet connection agree to allow data collection, another tool key for not only marketing but enabling T-Mobile Arena to be better equipped to serve and deliver. In all, the arena now has some 750 networking hardware devices that connects guests to the internet.

It is but part of the new experience for both venue and guest, and one example of delivering customer service in a different way.

The NFL entered a partnership with Caesars Entertainment as the league’s first official casino sponsor. Before proclamations come that the world is ending, it should be noted that the multi-year deal does not include sports betting or fantasy football. The arrangement kicks in immediately with the upcoming wild card round of the NFL playoffs.

It remains all about the guest experience as Caesars expects to lean on its vast properties including music and other entertainment to create unique experiences at venues. Caesars will have exclusive rights to NFL trademarks in the U.S. and United Kingdom, including the Super Bowl and draft, and will host parts of the 2020 NFL draft.

This is actually not the first foray into the casino world for the NFL, or at least some of the teams in the league, as the Dallas Cowboys, Oakland (soon to be Las Vegas) Raiders, New York Jets, Detroit Lions, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears, Seattle Seahawks, New Orleans Saints, and Atlanta Falcons have in place various ad deals with casinos.

The ruling by the Supreme Court has also undeniably played a hand in recent developments. Sports betting has expanded to other states following the ruling, and MGM Resorts signed on as the official gambling partner of the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and the National Hockey League.

Most recently, of course, came the move commencing in 2020 of the move of the Raiders from Oakland to Las Vegas. This comes on the heels of the city being awarded the Golden Knights of the NHL in 2017, the first major sports franchise for Las Vegas. The city will even host the 2020 draft and show off its new $1.9 billion stadium for the NFL franchise.

With this latest deal, it becomes easier to see others lurking on the horizon for the league as the landscape continues to change.

VenueConnect 2019 in Chicago is right around the corner. and the Foundation is gearing up for the annual IAVM Foundation Golf Tournament scheduled for a morning tee-off on Sunday, July 21^st. 

Harborside International Golf Center is the site for this year’s tournament.  Home to both the Port & Starboard Courses, Harborside has been Chicago’s home for golf since 1995. Located only minutes from Chicago’s Loop, Harborside offers the premier golf experience in the Chicago area.  Bringing championship style links golf to the Chicago area, Harborside’s two courses are regularly rated in Golfweek’s Top 50 Best Municipal Courses You Can Play in the nation and in the Top 15 in the State of Illinois.

This tournament is a best ball, par is your friend, scramble format, played on one 18-hole course.  Awards are given to the first, second, and third place teams, longest drive, closest to the pin and more. This all-inclusive event includes bus transportation to/from the hotel, food, drinks, golf and networking—now we just need you!  Registration for the tournament opens on February 11, with the opening of VenueConnect 2019 registration. 

Golf Tournament Sponsorship opportunities are open now!  Enjoy the benefits of supporting your Foundation through a golf sponsorship and receive complimentary golf registrations, branding of your organization and more!  Please contact Kathryn Eades to reserve your sponsorship today.

We hope to see YOU out at the IAVM Foundation Golf Tournament at VenueConnect in July!  Be sure to secure your spot early!