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By Brian
Melekian
During tough financial times
one of the things on the top of every American’s mind is their income and
how to spend it. As the pie gets smaller, people worry more about how to
divide it up; sports and entertainment are often one of the first things to
go. Those of us in the business of filling up arenas and stadiums have the
tough task of keeping them filled despite mounting challenges. Revenue
expectations continue to rise and so we start to look at increasingly
“risky” events. This may mean that we begin to take chances by promoting the
events ourselves or it may mean that we begin to look outside the box at
events that we never would have previously considered. There are several
types of events out there and it is time that we weigh the merits of each of
these categories with a more critical eye:
Sporting Events
Sure there are football, baseball and hockey events, but what about the
increasing domestic popularity of one of the world’s most followed sports—
soccer? Major League Soccer is quietly celebrating a decade of success and
promoters from Los Angeles to New York enjoy huge profits with club and
national team matches before crowds of 50,000 or more. What about
non-mainstream sports? Lacrosse, rugby, field hockey, cycling, tennis, beach
volleyball and many other sports have their own sets of avid fans, all of
whom have discretionary income. Perhaps one of the biggest growing niches in
the next 10 years will be in extreme sports; as a generation of skaters,
surfers and dirt bike riders grows up, there is a tremendous fan base
growing for events like X Games, Gravity Games and individual motocross
events that fill up otherwise empty off-season stadiums.
Concerts
Concerts are a no-brainer, but let’s take an honest view towards the future.
How many big-name acts filled up stadiums (not arenas) in 2004? Rolling
Stone listed some of the biggest moneymakers of 2004: The Eagles, Bon Jovi,
Celine Dion and Bruce Springsteen. These concerts are slam-dunks, but they
are in limited supply, and are attended by an aging demographic. What about
the next generation? How many new songs do you hear on the radio by a band
that you have seen in concert? Matchbox Twenty, Eminem, Coldplay, Norah
Jones and other new artists made the list, but they all languished together
alongside The Trans Siberian Orchestra near the bottom. So what is a venue
manager to do? Think outside the box: If your stadium has 50,000 seats, make
it a show in the round and put seats on the grass. With the advent of field
protection products like Terrafloor and Enkamat, this becomes a viable
possibility. If your arena holds 22,000, you can reduce the size with
blackout curtains and creative manifests to make it feel like an intimate
club or amphitheatre. The future of live entertainment in the music business
is more small shows, not fewer big ones. The days of blockbuster summer
tours are coming to an end.
Commercial, Television and Film Shoots
Long perceived as a nice filler for those dead spots in your venue’s
calendar, more and more facilities are turning to shoots as a consistent
revenue stream. All you have to do is watch Super Bowl commercials and you
are likely to pick out five venues that you recognize and maybe one where
you work. As you look towards the future for your venue, consider enlisting
the services of an agent to represent you rather than waiting for scouts to
come your way; there are several good companies out there that will work for
nothing more than a percentage of the business that they bring in.
Non-Traditional Events
This is where facility managers earn their paychecks. When all else fails,
what can we do to keep profits coming in when the big events aren’t? The
answer is simple – sell what you have. Tradition, fame, history and
mystique. It may sound like sacrilege to some to sell your stadium field for
a company football game, but what else is your venue doing on December 18 or
March 23? Consider making a classy, exciting event out of it: Corporate
Olympics or a company retreat that utilizes more areas of your venue
including press box (meeting space), kitchen (catered meals) and locker
rooms. What better way for a company to boost employee morale than saying
that they spent the day shooting baskets on an NBA court, meeting in an NFL
locker room or just sitting in a Major League Baseball dugout? Other options
include holiday parties, run/walks that include a lap around your pitch and
a historical “tour” of your venue at each stop,
parking lot rentals, rodeos, circuses and more ideas than can be discussed
here. Just sell what you have.
Over the years we have all
grown accustomed to the “If you build it, they will come” mentality, but in
today’s world where competition for an individual’s discretionary income is
intense, this simply isn’t true any longer. The solution is for each one of
us to be more creative than ever in how we attempt to fill seats. It really
isn’t that hard if you consider all the assets your stadiums hold, and think
of enterprising ways to utilize those assets, every day of the year.
Brian Melekian is director of
operations for the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. He may be
contacted at
bmelekian@homedepotcenter.com. |
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