SPTE Exam Review: Venue Types

• SPTE Exam Review included in the notes

Arenas (Coliseum)

• Indoor venues
• Have fixed/portable seats
• Feature an open floor with seats around
• Have portable/permanent stages
• Used for concerts, graduations, athletics, and public events

Performing Arts Center

• Smaller than arenas
• Feature permanent or portable seating
• Has a sloped floor and are decorated with a lobby area
• Used for symphonies, plays, musicals, and concerts

Auditorium (Little Arena)

• Feature a permanent stage.
• Have permanent or portable seating
• Characterized by a flat floor with many configurations and seats
• Used for high school events, concerts, rodeos, pageants, and plays

Stadiums

• Large venues with seats and bleachers
• Surround a field, and can be open air or domed
• May have a retractable roof
• Used for athletics, large concerts, and graduations

Amphitheater (Merriweather)

• Known as "Theater in the Round"
• Are open air venues
• Feature a permanent stage
• The seating consists of permanent, portable options, and lawn space
• Weather is a significant variable

Convention

• Stand-alone municipal venues that may attach to a hotel
• Feature large, flat spaces with many configurations
• Host multiple events at once
• Used for trade shows, conventions, exhibits, and conferences

Complex or District

• These can be athletic complexes or entertainment districts featuring two or more venues
• May include hotels, convention centers, restaurants, and theaters
• Typically have strong municipal ties
• Benefit from favorable financing

Sustainability in Facilities

• Sustainability is when an organization recognizes its environmental responsibilities
• This includes recycling, garbage removal, managing carbon footprint, using solar panels
• This also included LEED certification, and green roofs

Sustainable Venues

• Levi's Stadium uses net-zero buildings
• Climate Pledge Arena is the first net-zero carbon arena
• National Park & Soldier Field have LEED certification
• Sustainability is achieved through architectural design features
• Also Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
• And integration across operational areas (construction, cleaning, and scheduling)
• LEED certification signifies Leadership in Energy + Environmental Design

Current Facility Issues

• Preventing violence with preventative elements and reactive procedures
• Addressing threats posed to fans and potential terrorist activities (active shooters, pat-downs, bag checks, and clear bag policies)
• Technology is needed for capacity, connectivity, and full-sized cell towers to support LED lighting

The Roman Colosseum

• Built in 80 AD in 8 years
• Accommodated 850,000 people
• Had 12 stories
• Included a system for locating seats
• Had retractable roofs

Special Events

• A special event is a consciously planned gathering or assembly of people for some specific purpose
• Unique aspects of an event; include perishability, diversity, and emotional appeal to all ages
• An event should create a sense of affiliation, have an unpredictable outcome, offers no second chance, and promotes social facilitation

Event Management

• Event managers must manage the environment, employees, tools, resources, agencies, media partnerships, and facilities
• The functions of an event include hospitality, media relations, ticketing/credentials, emergency response, public relations, communications, website, merchandise, and novelties
• In the event triangle, the event manager is in the middle, with participants, spectators, and sponsors on each side
• This model is used to address key stakeholders' needs, wants, desires, and conflicts

Event Staffing

• Event staffing includes recruitment, training, and retention
• The event spectacle frame includes tool to plan events within the larger context of the venue and surrounding areas
• Spectacle frames define where the event takes place, field, court, or stage
• Consider target groups, foci, and the overall event concept
• Events can be one-time, recurring, annual, series, special, or ancillary

Event Conclusion

• The event requires cleanup and closeout
• Requires final accounting and reconciliation or settlement,
• Requires data collection for event evaluation (staff, customers, sponsors, and participants)
• Requires post-event debriefs

Venue Funding

• 135 new or replacement stadiums/arenas have opened; teams leverage new trends for popularity
• Government funding accounts for 73% of projects
• In the 1970s, government funding was almost 100%
• In the 2010's government funding dropped to 44%
• The goal is to avoid obsolescence or becoming a white elephant
• This requires land acquisition

General Obligation Bonds

• GO bonds have full backing of issuers
• Bonds are a "promise to pay," evaluated, but those don't give ownership rights
• Investors included companies and investment firms
• Bonds are paid via property taxes: assessment/value, including university fees, usually with public votes

Revenue Bond

• Issued only with potential revenue from the project
• Limited legal recourse if a project fails
• Sports venues cannot conflict with revenue sources shared with other owners
• Paid with hotel tax, stadium sales tax, and a percentage of sales tax revenue from the stadium campus and the county

Eminent Domain

• Land acquisition with eminent domain grants the government the ability to compel private citizens to sell public land
• It includes traditional infrastructure

Dodger Stadium/Chavez Ravine

• The Brooklyn Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles (Walter O'Malley - new stadium)
• New stadium displaced residents, leading to community efforts to help affected families
• Chavez Ravine encompasses 315 acres and 3 communities
• The area housed 300 families, mostly Mexican Americans
• Involved a new housing development (area of the “bright")
• Land was sold to the city and to O'Malley

Moody Center Arrangement

• The agreement between the Oakview Group and the University of Texas for the Moody Center represents a new business model
• Funded by OVG with $380 million in non-rent funding
• 100% revenue to partners: OVG, Live Nation, Austin City Limits Festival, Matthew McConaughey
• The arrangement provides the Longhorns with a free, state-of-the-art arena

Scheduling

• Scheduling is the master plan of events the facility will host over a certain period of time
• Booking is the execution of the scheduling plan by procuring contracts with desired events, blocking facility space, time, and price
• Venue's mission is important for philosophical alignment, which limits potential events due to legal issues or outside stakeholders
• Venue can't violate federal or state laws and must protect the health and welfare of all attendees

Markets

• Primary market: Large cities with a population usually exceeding 2 million
• Secondary market: Cities with a populatio of 1 to 2 million people - with different programming
• Tertiary market: Towns where the population is less than 1 million people

Influencing Parameters

• Demographics are population statistics
• Psychographics are people's attributes such as transportation, lodging, restaurants, and weather

Booking Process

• The General Manager usually handles the booking processes

CVB

• CVB considers parameters like hotel rooms, number of tourists, governing bodies, NCAA, University Calendar
• It takes into consideration Stakeholders like the Police, emergency personnel

SWOT Analysis

• Factors affecting the SWOT analysis when considering an event include the size and key amenities of the facility (capacity, multipurpose facilities, and technological capabilities)
• Facility staff capabilities (turnaround or changeover ability, schedules of specialized personnel) are influential
• The consideration that the facility may receive a Request for Proposal (RFP) from event organizers or promoters (understand the strength and weakness of your facility)

Event Qualification

• The consideration of a primary tenant for the event
• Consideration of priority in scheduling events and restriction on scheduling other events
• Specified number of guaranteed events
• Revenue sharing considerations
• A secondary tenant is someone where fewer events are planned and are booked only after primary events

Holds

• Moving an event form a prospect to securing a hold (reservation of space) on the calendar
• A confirmed or definite hold requires a contract and a non-refundable deposit which makes it impossible to continue to effect routing
• A tentative hold releases unused dates
• Block booking is when similar work with operates other venues to determine route
• A secondary or challenge hold results in the date being taken if released; can apply to several dates

Booking Calendar

• Booking calendars are usually computerized
• Also pen and paper versions exist for venue operations and even booking

Revenues and Expenses

• Revenue is the relationship between revenues and expenses and the importance of collecting revenue,
• The accuracy of projecting is also key

Budgeting Mistakes

• Common mistakes when budgeting include underestimating expenses,
• Having insufficient start-up capital
• Overstating revenue
• Trying to "trade out" too much, or not putting everything in the budget

VIK considerations

• To start determine the relevance
• Viability of its usefulness (does it offset a line item in your budget?)
• Consider how to account for it and activation

Event Planning

• Focus on 5 W's for all steps (WHY ALWAYS: why, who, what, when, where)
• Then schedule events, personnel needs, equipment, and draft a budget and final plan
• Hope is not a strategy

Suppliers

• Include pipe and drape and displays
• Its more than you think

Eminent Domain

• Government or council can take privately owned land for public good
• Public good is interpreted differently