Clockwise from top left, Brock Jones, Doug Drewes, Hank Abate, Shura Garnett and Charlie Neary.
Spectra Presents is a new paradigm in concert promotion, not exactly an independent promoter given it’s backed by Comcast Spectacor, but not an international promoter of the ilk of AEG Live and Live Nation. It was founded to serve the secondary and tertiary markets and has already begun promoting, co-promoting and even routing tours.
Brock Jones has been named SVP of Concert Touring and Events, Spectra Presents. He is one of three full-time buyers located in new Nashville headquarters. He splits his time between Nashville and Philadelphia, where John Page, who manages the Wells Fargo Center, serves as president of Spectra Presents.
Spectra Presents is working with venues managed by Spectra as well as non-Spectra venues, Jones said. He is currently booking a 21-date tour, to be announced Dec. 4, which includes both in-house and nonassociated venues. “This is not something AEG or Live Nation would do,” Jones said. “They are all secondary or tertiary markets. Six of the 21 are not Spectra-managed buildings.”
Jones and Page are not the only ones with new roles at Comcast Spectacor. Spectra has been reorganized geographically with four newly appointed Divisional Senior Vice Presidents. They are Hank Abate (Northeast Division), Doug Drewes (Southeast Division), Shura Garnett (Central Division) and Charlie Neary (West Division). They will report to Glen Brandeburg, who joined the company in 2015 as the President and COO of Spectra Venue Management and Food Services & Hospitality divisions.
In the next several weeks, Spectra will also be announcing new regional vice presidents, some of whom will be relocating, said Ken Young, founder and CEO of Spectra Food Services & Hospitality, noting it’s mostly a matter of geographical realignment.
“We felt it would be better to have additional supervisors in a location where they can get to accounts faster, easier and more often,” Young said. The RVPs will report to the Divisional SVPs. The GMs report to the RVPs. No one will be traveling quite the distances they have in the past, thus the opportunity to be with an account more often.
All of the DSVPs have food and venue management expertise, making them all one team. In total, there will be four geographic divisions and 19 regions.
Abate joined Spectra predecessor Global Spectrum in December of 2013 as Senior Vice President of Arenas and Stadiums for the company. He spent 20 years with SMG as a Senior Vice President of Stadiums and Arenas.
Garnett, a 12-year Spectra employee, recently served the company as General Manager of the St. Charles Convention Center in St. Charles, MO, and as a Regional Vice President, focusing on the convention center business for Spectra. She has been in the facility management industry since 1987. She is a past Chairman of the Board for International Association of Venue Managers.
Drewes began in the industry at the age of 20, and has managed some of the most prominent facilities in the country. Prior to joining Spectra Food Services & Hospitality in 2014 as the Executive Vice President overseeing operations in the eastern half of North America, Drewes spent 26 years with Centerplate.
Neary has been with the Spectra since 2001 when his company, FanFare Enterprises, a regional foodservice company, merged with Spectra. Formerly overseeing Spectra Food Services & Hospitality’s operations in the western half of North America, Neary was responsible for managing half of all food service client venues for Spectra.
SPECTRA PRESENTS GROWS
Jones said Spectra Presents has been a year in the making. He began drawing up the business plan in October 2014. It was made official Oct. 9, 2015.
But prior to that, he had done a couple of shows with Lee Brice at Enid (Okla.) Events Center, and Muskogee (Okla.) Civic Center and Third Day at the Budweiser Events Center, Loveland, Colo.
Upcoming, Spectra Presents has Dwight Yoakam in Enid (Oct. 22) and Curry County Events Center, Clovis, N.M. (Oct. 23).MercyMe at the Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk, Va., at Old Dominion University (Oct. 22) and at Sun National Bank Center in Trenton, N.J. (Oct. 23); and Matthew West at Bryce Jodan Center in State College, Pa., (Nov. 7), not a Spectra account.
Jones is working directly with agents and managers to make tours happen. The joke in Nashville is that “WME and CAA see me more now than they did when I worked at Bridgestone Arena [Nashville],” Jones said. He has been with Spectra, formerly Global Spectrum, for three years.
His strategy is to fill in holes in routing, book shows not yet touring and work entire tours as Spectra Presents. He always seeks a co-promoter, sometimes the building, sometimes a promoter suggested by the agency.
The tour to be announced will potentially average 3,500 tickets sold a night at $35-$39 average. It is a headliner with a strong support act, he said.
Full time staff in Nashville includes Jones, Beth Hamilton, and Kristan Pridgeon, both with booking agency, management and/or labels experience.
In the next quarter, Jones anticipates two or three more hires.
He is going after acts that make sense in a hard ticket scenario, a risk he weighs based on market research. The acts Spectra Presents books do not cross the radar of the big promoters, Jones said. His upcoming Third Day show in Fayetteville, N.C., is in partnership with Premier, and the State College date is in partnership with Creation Concerts.
Interviewed for this story: Brock Jones, (615) 642-7104; Ken Young, (813) 948-6900 X104