VenuWorks Commends Professional Cooperation Among Management Companies

VenuWorks Commends Professional Cooperation Among Management Companies

For Immediate Release: February 4, 2011
Contact: Steve Peters ph 515-232-5151

VenuWorks President Steven Peters commended the venue managers in communities across the country who work in cooperation with managers from other management companies to further the event goals of the communities they serve. Peters’ comments come in reaction to concerns voiced in Evansville, Indiana, concerning the potential for competition between VenuWorks and SMG if the contract for the management of the new Evansville Arena is awarded to VenuWorks. SMG manages The Centre, which is across the street from the site of the new arena.

Peters quoted Frank Russo, Senior Vice President of Business Development & Client Relations for Global Spectrum, a Philadelphia-based venue management company with management contracts worldwide. “Global Spectrum operates venues in two cities where SMG also manages a venue,” Russo told Peters. “The first is in Sioux Falls, SD, where we manage the convention center and SMG manages the arena. Both venues are literally under the same roof. The client for both companies is the City of Sioux Falls. At least from our point of view, we work cooperatively with SMG for the benefit of our mutual client.”

Russo continued, “In Richmond, VA, we manage the convention center and SMG manages the Coliseum. SMG’s client is the City of Richmond and our client is the State-appointed Greater Richmond Convention Center Authority, which includes both the County Manager and the City’s CAO on its Board. Here again we manage the convention center cooperatively with SMG.”

“Furthermore”, Steve Peters points out, “all of Evansville’s facilities are owned by the public sector. Among the owner’s many rights, regardless who operates, is the right to approve all booking policies recommended by the operator. This is another safe guard built into how these facilities will be governed. Each management contract will spell out how the venue is to be operated in a sound business manner in an effort to maximize both social and economic benefit to the community, and financial stability of the facility.”

Peters also pointed to Topeka, Kansas, where VenuWorks manages the Topeka Performing Arts Center (TPAC) while SMG manages the local arena and exhibition center, which are owned by the County. According to VenuWorks’ Barbara Wiggins, TPAC executive director, “Our two management companies run these venues using common sense. When potential clients contact us about events that we know we can’t accommodate because of the size of our stage, or the size of our performance space, we refer them to SMG. Any great event that takes place in Topeka is a win for Topeka. Everything we do is for the good of the community as a whole.”

Also weighing in on the subject was Carol Pollock, VenuWorks’ Executive Director of Hoyt Sherman Place, a restored historic theatre in Des Moines, IA. “VenuWorks manages Hoyt Sherman Place and Global Spectrum manages the Wells Fargo Arena. Throughout the years both management companies have been working side by side in Des Moines, there has not been one instance in which
we were in competition for a show. Arenas and historic theaters are distinctly different venues. But at the end of the day, the ultimate decision on where a show is going to play is not in the hands of the venues, it is a decision that is made by the artists themselves.”

BACKGROUND

VenuWorks provides comprehensive management, booking and marketing solutions for arenas, theatres and convention centers throughout North America. We are committed and innovative facility operators and presently manage of 36 separate facilities in 17 communities in 10 states. Based in Ames, IA the company was founded 14 years ago. For more information, please view www.venuworks.com.