REPORTING FROM TORONTO – The second stop on Linda Deckard’s 2019 Awards Tour is now history, and I find myself learning a lot more about this business from a new vantage point. On June 13, 2019, my 72nd birthday, I received the highest honor the Event & Arena Marketing Conference confers – the Gigi Award […]
When the hottest band on the road insists on a sweetheart merchandise deal, a venue manager has to build his case thoughtfully, always assuming reasonable people will be reasonable. It was 1985 and Van Halen was playing the Houston Summit. At the time, it was standard for major arenas to ask for 40 percent of […]
Marilyn Manson’s opening act was Nashville Pussy. The show was set for April 28, 1999, at Five Seasons Center (now U.S. Cellular Center), Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a small and conservative town. “When we announced the show, the biggest issue was that on the marquee we advertised Nashville Pussy as the opener. So I would say […]
Richard Andersen was frozen in place for what seemed an eternity. Everyone at Candlestick Park in San Francisco for Major League Baseball’s World Series that day eventually realized they’d just experienced a major earthquake. But there was no information; no way to communicate. It was 5:03 p.m., Oct. 17, 1989. The San Francisco Giants were […]
At 9:15 a.m. on Monday, April 27, 1981, the sheriff walked into Cliff Wallace’s office with legal papers filed by the mayor of Pittsburgh saying Wallace was never to set foot in Pittsburgh again. Who says sports isn’t political? And, of course, there is a story behind the headlines blaring that Cliff Wallace and New […]
PHOTO: Michael Marion, the late Tony Ruffino, Trisha Yearwood and the late, newly departed Al Antee. (Courtesy of Michael Marion) Luckily, relationships still rule. But back in the day, it was easier to book secondary and tertiary market concerts because record companies footed a large portion of the bill to promote album sales. As concert […]
Photo: Legion Park, Greenwood, S.C., in 1976. Home of the Greenwood Braves Single A team. (Courtesy of digitalballparks.com) When you spend baseball season working with 30-40 guys on a Single A minor league team, and you’re the newbie, initiation into the culture is an eye opener. Richard Andersen, who became general manager of the Greenwood […]
Lee Zeidman was calmly watching load-in of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at Staples Center in Los Angeles in 2000. He had this. Staples Center had been open eight months. AEG, venue owners, sold their site to the DNC when it was a hole in the ground. It was built to handle two National Basketball […]
The Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, circa 1975. Legend has it that when Denzil Skinner privatized the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans in 1977, he faced extreme dangers probably unknown to venue managers today. When David, Denzil’s son, and Mike Noah, his son-in-law, first toured the stadium, they opened every door, and found people’s living rooms […]
Two years into Brad Mayne’s tenure as CEO of Center Operating Co., it was announced that Mark Cuban was buying the Dallas Mavericks. The deal was revealed during a press conference at the under-construction American Airlines Center’s marketing center. Cuban purchased the Mavericks prior to the arena opening in 2001, which meant he would be […]