Outdoor concerts at Peace Center, Greenville, S.C.
With the majority of North and South Carolina and Georgia venues situated by more than one big city, it’s no surprise that these regions have become hot beds for major headliners, the latest Broadway productions and a growing number of collegiate sporting events.
Toss in Southern hospitality, new renovations and a bevy of amenities, and it’s obvious why these states have numerous facilities that have become destinations.
North Carolina Top Stops
North Carolina’s 22,000-seat Greensboro Coliseum has already benefited from its recent $25-million renovation.
“This has paid great dividends in terms of events within the last year,” said Scott Johnson, deputy director. “We’ve had one of the best years ever financially.”
The coliseum, which has an aquatic center with three pools as well as a 3,000-seat performing arts venue that will be completed in 2018, hosted country music star Garth Brooks for a record-setting run of five consecutive concerts in mid-November. The five shows combined sold more than 70,000 tickets and grossed more than $4 million in ticket sales. The final performance was nationally televised in conjunction with the American Music Awards.
In addition, a historic run of Disney on Ice grossed $1.8 million and led into 10 days of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
It helps that the coliseum is in the center of the state as well as in the middle of the East Coast between Miami and New York City. The venue also is the largest single seat arena in the Carolinas.
“We promote the fact that shows can achieve the biggest gross in Greensboro,” said Johnson. “We then put a deal on the table to attract more volume, and it has paid off.”
Part of Time Warner Cable Arena’s appeal is its booming Charlotte, N.C. downtown, which has attracted big city shows and events to the facility in recent years.
This includes summer shows by Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Fleetwood Mac as well as the 2017 NBA All Star Game, which the city last hosted in 1991.
There also have been building updates, including suite and locker room renovations for the 20,200-seat venue.
“Charlotte is a great place for events that take advantage of the entire city,” said Donna Julian, senior vice president of arena and event operations for Hornets Sports & Entertainment and the general manager of Time Warner Cable Arena. “We’re in a competitive market, but with all this growth and energy that surrounds the city, it makes it a great destination, and we sell that.”
A beloved local fixture in Durham, N.C., The Carolina Theatre also has undergone recent interior updates.
“We did a Kickstarter campaign with the goal to raise $25,000 and brought in more than $60,000,” said Bob Nocek, president/CEO. “Our 1,016 seats hadn’t been updated since the early 90’s, so we used these funds to put in high-back recliners that have changed the experience.”
From a programming standpoint, this was the theater’s biggest year to date, with more than 100 performances, which were internally presented and promoted.
The biggest challenge continues to be figuring out the right mix of events and capitalizing on downtown Durham.
“Being exclusive to one venue doesn’t hold as much weight here and makes for an interesting dynamic,” said Nocek.
Because the theater predominantly presents in-house, it can provide outside promoters additional expertise.
“We have a strong marketing team in place that can help sell tickets,” said Nocek. “We look for true partnerships and share the risk and reward.”
As The Carolina Theatre gears up to celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2016, there will be additional live entertainment on tap to mark the occasion, starting off with Kristin Chenoweth in January.
After upgrades such as the installation of 20x digital advertising panels located on the main concourse, refinished dressing rooms, an updated guest services area and refurbished ticket windows, a two-year, $2.4-million renovation project is underway at Raleigh, N.C.’s PNC Arena that will involve new public Wi-Fi and a stage right riser system.
The 18,700-seat venue’s location off of two major highways and by the airport, along with its collegiate demographic and city’s higher than average median family income have helped attract top names to the city.
“Disney on Ice’s Frozen was a blockbuster, as were Kenny Chesney and Eric Church,” said Dave Olsen, director of marketing. “Taylor Swift’s show also sold out.”
Its 2015 shows totaled 150 and brought in 1.5 million attendees.
North Carolina’s 2,800-seat Durham Performing Arts Center wrapped up its biggest season to date with 224 events and 450,000 attendees, and is on pace to host 250 events with attendance hitting the half-million mark for 2016. Last season, the center sold out over half of all its events.
“Guests this season will see some exciting improvements, including Daktronics digital marquees, a women’s restroom expansion and a new VIP hospitality area for our Johnson Lexus President’s Club,” said Bob Klaus, general manager. “In total, the City of Durham is investing more than $1.5 million in improvements.”
DPAC hosted three sellout shows for Wicked, along with weeklong sold-out engagements of Kinky Boots, Motown and Newsies. In terms of concerts, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, Sarah McLachlan, Vince Gill and Harry Connick. Jr. were among the 40 concerts’ top grossing sellouts.
In 2014, the venue partnered with dedicated in-house concert and comedy buyer, Taki Pappas.
“Dave Chappelle and John Oliver were the comedy hits of the year, with Chappelle selling out three shows and Oliver selling out two,” said Klaus.
Managed by the Nederlander group out of New York City and Professional Facilities Management based in Providence, R.I., DPAC self-presents all its Broadway shows and self-promotes or co-promotes the majority of its concert and comedy events.
South Carolina Top Stops
Greenville, S.C.’s Bon Secours Wellness Arena’s $14 million renovation that included new backstage amenities, hospitality areas and new scoreboards, has helped improve its position in the marketplace.
The 15,000-seat venue hadn’t been renovated since it opened in 1998.
“We have a great location in the southeast between Atlanta and Charlotte, so it’s convenient for tour routing and a strong market for a variety of music and entertainment genres,” said Beth Paul, general manager. “We’re able to sustain strong ticket prices and entertainment sales.”
From Oct. 1, 2014 through Sept. 30, 2015, the arena hosted 35 events and total attendance was 490,000.
Among its popular performances were Motley Crue’s farewell tour, comedian Jeff Dunham, singer/songwriter James Taylor and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
“One event that demonstrated our versatility was the Bass Master Classic, which is the three-day Super Bowl of bass fishing,” said Paul.
The venue will also host Clemson University’s 2015-2016 basketball season, while the school’s facility undergoes renovation.
“Our long-term plan includes looking at how do we increase our economic impact from $60 million to $90 million a year and the steps we need to get there,” said Paul. “We will look at how we can create substance when we’re not hosting an event through nontraditional methods.”
From an event standpoint, Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C. had a very strong concert year. This included performances by Paul McCartney, Journey, Steve Miller, Def Leppard and Foreigner.
“In terms of trends, we’re definitely seeing an emergence of classic rock shows, which do very well here,” said Lexie Boone, senior assistant general manager.
With a centralized location, the arena attracts audiences from Greenville, Charleston and eastern Georgia.
“An artist can stop here and hit all of those areas at once,” said Boone. “With 18,000 seats, we’re larger than other venues in the state, and we’re also on a university campus, which offers more pluses than minuses.”
Celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, Peace Center in Greenville, S.C., will hold a number of events, but is currently focused on hosting the Republican debate in February.
The 2,100-seat venue is coming off a successful year of sellouts, including Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Jason Mraz and Earth, Wind and Fire.
“Next year’s Broadway season will be our biggest, with nine titles, starting with Dirty Dancing,” said Angela Lakin, vice president of marketing. “Because we hit three states, we attract world class performers and artists in their own backyards.”
As the largest arts organization in the state, Peace Center also serves as an economic driver for its region.
“We do a lot of community engagement on the education side,” said Lakin. “We’ve also recently rebranded our outdoor concert series, Rock the River, which features Carolina beach music that’s unique to our region.”
Its 2014-2015 season held 318 ticketed performances with 287,100 ticketed attendees. The venue’s revenue for the year was more than $19 million, including all revenue streams, such as programming, donations, rentals, etc.
Georgia Top Stops
Last year, Atlanta’s Philips Arena pulled off its first double header concert, with Garth Brooks shows at 6 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on the same day.
“It took a lot of work and coordination to pull it off, but the staff did a great job,” said Trey Feazell, executive vice president and general manager. “We’d do it again.”
A total of 32 concerts were held at the 20,000-seat arena this past fiscal year, but one of the highlights was the facility’s resident Atlanta Hawks making it to the National Basketball Association finals.
“We’re seeing more music festivals around our area, along with more stadium and outdoor shows,” said Feazell.
This year, Philips Arena hired consultants from the Disney Institute to train its staff members.
“We want to elevate our program, so are encouraging staff to think about one or two things they can do to make a difference,” said Feazell. “It’s about making people excited to be in our venue.”
In addition to looking into adding a performing arts center setup with 3,000 to 4,000 seats, the arena is in the early stages of the Atlanta Hawks rebranding, updating logos and colors throughout the building.
The biggest change recently at the Infinite Energy Arena, formerly Gwinnett Center, was its name change.
“In August 2014, we entered into a naming rights agreement with Infinite Energy for the next 20 years, which changed our name to Infinite Energy Center,” said Joseph Dennis, general manager. “The venues will become Infinite Energy Arena, Infinite Energy Theater and Infinite Energy Forum.”
Along with numerous artists and events like Eric Church, Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Buffett, Bob Seger, Leadercast and JapanFest, in May, it was announced that the Georgia Swarm National Lacrosse League team would be housed in the venue starting in January 2016.
“We are also working on finalizing our master plan for Infinite Energy Center, proposing to make our local area an entertainment district as well as adding more seats to the arena and theater and expanding the forum,” said Dennis.
The 13,100-seat arena has a super grid of high and low beam steel that can support over 150,000 pounds of rigging, which is a big selling point. It also has the Infinite Energy Forum convention center and Infinite Energy Theater within walking distance.
One of the biggest events and revenue drivers of the year was the SMITE World Championships, a four-day televised international video gaming conference.
Comedy continues to be the juggernaut for Atlanta’s Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, with sold-out shows for Jim Gaffigan and Ron White. Other popular performances in the last year included Harry Connick, Jr., AC2 with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, Josh Groban, Wild Kratts Family and the I Love Lucy Live tour.
“Not only do our 2,750 theater seats offer an intimate setting, but we have a 6-percent sales tax versus 8 percent in downtown Atlanta,” said Michael Taormina, managing director. “Our load-in situation is also top notch, with four loading docks and only 75 feet to the stage, which saves a lot of time.”
As of August, Cobb Energy hosted 200 events in both the theater and ballroom, with attendance at 192,470 and $5 million in gross dollars.
At Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, the big news was about Broadway performances, specifically Phantom of the Opera, Wicked and Motown.
“A few years ago, Georgia began providing tax credit for individual movie producers, so we’ve learned to work with the movie industry on different films,” said Allan Vella, president/CEO. “This has been a good revenue stream for us.”
Musical tributes also have been well received. After a successful Greg Allman tribute in 2013, the theater put on a tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd in November 2014, both produced by Blackbird Productions and recorded to DVD.
“Lynyrd Skynyrd was part of the 40th anniversary of saving the Fox Theatre, and the band donated some of its proceeds to our charity,” said Vella.
He said it’s the 2,750-seat theater’s historic nature that lends to the event experience, allowing for premium ticket prices.
“Our history contributes to the seating capacity and gross potential,” said Vella. “We’re also a promoter and co-promoter, with a professional production, box office and marketing team in place.”
From October 2014 to October 2015, the theater’s 190 performances brought in 508,108 attendees.
Despite its closing in just over 500 days, Atlanta’s 71,998-seat Georgia Dome continues to attract sellout concerts, including Jay Z and Beyoncé; One Direction; Taylor Swift; and Kenny Chesney and Eric Church. Its eventful 2015 included the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and Southeastern Conference football championships as well as the Gold Cup soccer semifinals. In 2015, the venue had 200 license use days and a total of 90 public and private events.
“We’re seeing a big trend in stadium shows for concerts, and on the sporting events front it’s all about Wi-Fi and connectivity,” said Carl Adkins, general manager.
The Georgia Dome was one of the first stadiums to provide free Wi-Fi.
“We function like a big arena, rather than a stadium,” said Adkins. “The goal is to attract as many diverse events as possible, which helps sell club suites and sponsorships.”
That includes annual sellouts, such as the Monster Jam and Supercross events, and college football playoffs, which are slated for December 2016.
Just 80 feet away from the Georgia Dome, the new Mercedes Benz Stadium is currently under construction to replace it in 2017.
“The Dome will go away, but we’ll continue to have events on campus,” said Adkins.
Interviewed for this story: Lexie Boone, (803) 576-9050; Joseph Dennis, (770) 813-7511; Trey Feazell, (404) 878-3005; Scott Johnson, (336) 373-7449; Donna Julian, (704) 688-9056; Bob Klaus, (919) 618-9980; Angela Lakin, (864) 679-9208; Bob Nocek, (919) 560-3041; Dave Olsen, (919) 861-6173; Beth Paul, (864) 250-4936; Michael Taormina, (770) 916-2802; Allan Vella, (404) 881-2104