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Trans-Siberian Orchestra at Show Me Center,
Cape Girardeau, Mo. Below:
Keith Urban at Alerus Center, Grand Forks, N.D. Image courtesy
of Alerus Center. |
By Carly L. Price
 THE
BACK of the typical concert T-shirt displays a familiar roster of cities
— New York, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Los Angeles — but often a
surprisingly small town pops up on the list. What is it exactly that
entices the Rolling Stones to Missoula, Mont., or Cher to Grand Forks,
N.D., or The Eagles to Tupelo, Miss.? And how can your smaller market
get a piece of that action?
Such big-time, high-profile events rarely just fall into a facility
manager’s lap. They often require strategy and cultivation that can take
months and even years, but with a bit of ambition and creativity, it’s
certainly possible to score major acts in your smaller market.
Blaze a Trail
The first step to making an impression with promoters who handle
well-known acts is to establish a track record. This may involve making
some financial investments and taking some calculated risks — perhaps
doing what no one else has done before in your town.
“You’ve got to start somewhere,” says Larry Gawronski, vice
president/executive director of the Vicksburg Convention Center and
Auditorium in Vicksburg, Miss. “See if you can create a pool of money —a
marketing war chest — so you can buy an event or co-produce one with
somebody. This way, you can show not only are you interested in doing
the show but also that you’re willing to put some skin in the game.
“Many times we’re doing our own events in order to spur interest from
outside promoters. If they see that we’ve done a concert that we bought
the act outright, and they see the box office grosses, immediately it
shows up on their radar. They call and say, ‘What are you doing down
there?’ ”
 Buying
your own event does come with some risks (the worst of which is the
possibility of losing money), but many facility managers in smaller
markets report success with this approach. Often it only takes one or
two shows to get the attention of promoters who might not have
previously noticed your town on the map.
There are also some benefits to running the whole show yourself. For one
thing, it eliminates the legwork and waiting that may be involved in
winning over your first big-time act, and with total control over
everything you can make sure it runs as smoothly as possible.
“If you buy your own act, you can get the show and you know what’s being
paid,” says David Ross, CFE, director of the Show Me Center on the
campus of Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Mo.,
which has welcomed top acts like Tina Turner, Bob Hope and ZZ Top, among
others. “Otherwise you’re at the mercy of somebody
 else
bringing you an act. You can control some of your expense factors. “At
the same time you also get all the expense factors. Until you’ve bought
some shows and done it, you don’t have a track record. They’re not going
to risk their own careers. You have to prove it and work your way up.”
Partners in Promotion
If buying a performance outright is beyond the budget, there are also
many ways to partner with promoters to make an unlikely venue seem
worthwhile.
“There are very few straight rentals that a small market or small
facility will do because if they’re waiting for the straight rental,
they might starve waiting for it,” Gawronski says. “When I’m in touch
with a promoter or an agent, I ask, ‘How can we make this work?’ Usually
when we start building a deal, we know that we have fixed costs involved
in our facilities, and we know we have variable costs. We also know the
act itself, whether it’s the circus or Sesame Street Live or a concert,
and that they have fixed and variable costs.
“We put it all out on the table and we look at how we can construct a
deal where everyone will at least be made whole. There are probably
1,000 different ways that we construct a deal.”
One obvious way to take the pressure off the promoter is for you to take
on the marketing plan, public relations and promotions as part of the
deal. You know your market better than anyone else — and if you don’t
already do it, specific event promotions are a natural extension of your
facility’s usual marketing activities.
 Unity
in the Community
If partnering doesn’t get the job done, it may be time to turn to your
community to show the promoter how much your market wants that gig. City
government, local media outlets, universities and local businesses can
make great allies. Many of them are happy to provide support for
cultural and music events if it excites the community and generates
positive press for them.
“Our city believes that sometimes you’ve got to lose some money in order
to raise the quality of life for all,” Gawronski says. “So they’re not
opposed to investing in certain things. If you don’t have that marketing
war chest, see if you can line up community sponsors who would
potentially put their money on an event in order to have their name
associated with it.
“The ones we usually lean on are the convention and visitors bureau in
town, of course the city, and we are blessed in our small town with
having dockside legalized gaming, so we’ve got four casinos in town. We
certainly can reach out to them. We look to the local businesses and
industries — car dealerships, medical centers.”
 Find
an Audience
Of course, you would never want to invest in an event until you’re
certain you can pull in an audience. That’s why knowing your market is
of utmost importance.
The size of your facility isn’t necessarily a limitation as far as how
big of an act you can attract. The level of enthusiasm of the audience
is also an important determinant. If you believe you can charge a high
enough ticket price, it may be possible to convince even the biggest
name to perform for a few thousand people.
Knowing how much you can expect different audiences in your market will
pay requires thorough market research. Don’t just rely on a hunch or
general data about your population. Take a scientific approach with
focus groups and surveys. Study the demographics and socioeconomic
makeup of surrounding communities. Extend the research geographically to
rural audiences that may be willing to travel for high-profile events. A
complete market segmentation may reveal audiences for types of events
you’ve never even thought of before. Also, stay knowledgeable about
trends and trust your own instincts.
“We talk to our media and our radio stations,” Ross says. “We do
marketing surveys. We read trade magazines and talk to other building
managers, and we know as a tour is developing or moving across the
country what traditional sales numbers have been.”
Once you’ve done the research, take an active role in pursuing the
event. If it’s a well-known music act, know their tour schedule and try
to capitalize on downtime they may have. If you’re positioned between
major markets, you might give them a reason to perform instead of sleep
on the night they pass through town.
 Once
you get the promoter’s attention, having detailed information about your
audiences will impress and can also help them (or you) create a better
marketing plan because you know where to find the targeted individuals.
“We have a lot of direct mail campaigns,” Gawronski says.
“Over the years we’ve built lists of people who come to country shows,
family shows, religious events. And we’re on Ticketmaster, which is
wonderful because they have marketing and promotional systems built in.
(For example, the system automatically notifies past ticket purchasers
of upcoming events.) We also still work the old-fashioned system. We go
to church groups, youth groups, garden clubs and service clubs, and we
pitch them to buy blocks of tickets.”
This audience information will also help you determine how high to aim.
Even if your building size is a significant limitation and your market
research shows you can’t stir up the audience to support the cost of a
Cher concert, there are still big-name performances that may be a good
fit.
“We’re a very small facility in a very small market,” Gawronski says.
“We can’t change the size of our venue or market. Our market is 26,000
for the city and 50,000 for the county, so it’s touch and go every time
we do a show. We have to be very choosy.”
Gawronski reports great success with shows like Dragon Tales Live,
Sesame Street Live and other family shows, and the facility welcomed
folk singer John Prine with a nearly full house.
 Deliver
on Promises
Any experienced facility manager knows that logistics can make or break
your event. For the most part, hosting a big-name event isn’t that
different from hosting a lesser-known act (although it may be much more
anxiety provoking for you). National and regional promoters are keenly
aware of building codes and limitations in smaller and older facilities,
and are typically willing to work around them.
“The biggest struggle that may come on the larger scale tours is that
some of them get pretty heavy, as far as what they can and can’t rig up
on your ceiling or your rafters. Those weightbearing capacities are one
of the things that may limit some of the older buildings,” says Charlie
Jeske, executive director of Alerus Center in Grand Forks, N.D., which
has welcomed such big names as Cher, Aerosmith, KISS, Alabama and The
Backstreet Boys, just to name a few.
Managing larger-than-normal traffic flow can also be a challenge.
Smaller cities may have to reach far and wide to surrounding towns for
audiences of the size needed to pack a house for top performers.
 “Anytime
you deal with that large of a populous in the Dakotas, a lot of people
drive,” Jeske says. “We don’t have the mass transit that they do in a
lot of larger communities so with people driving from rural communities,
that means a lot of cars. Our biggest challenge is the parking and
getting people to and from the building. On our site we have 3,800
parking spots, but it’s not uncommon for people to drive more than 100
miles. We’ve used a shuttle system for all our larger events.”
If negotiations do come down to a detail that your facility is just too
small or ill-equipped to fulfill, it’s important to be honest about it.
Don’t put yourself in a position where you want an event so badly you’ll
commit to things you can’t deliver.
“This world of concert promoters and booking agents, they all talk to
each other,” Gawronski says. “If you get a bad reputation or a
less-than-positive one,
 it
spreads quickly, but a good reputation spreads even quicker.”
Even the smaller events you host will impact your reputation and ability
to attract larger acts. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a superstar act or a
smaller act,” Ross says. “If we’re going to be a professional facility,
we’re going to treat each and every one of them like the stars they are
or want to be.”
Ultimately, it all comes down to word of mouth and personal
relationships with promoters. Put yourself out there, talk to people,
network, negotiate — even beg. If you truly believe you can pull off a
moneymaking, big-time event in your smaller market, be persistent, and
eventually someone will listen.
Carly L.
Price is a Dallas-based journalist who has written for national trade
and consumer publications, including Cooking Light and Southern Living |
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