A rendering of the inside of Smart Financial Centre, Sugar Land, Texas.
Gary Becker likes to be surrounded by family, having come from the legendary promoter family that founded the former Pace Entertainment. To that end, he has hired veterans of production and promotion, including Randy Bloom as VP and general manager, to run a new venue, Smart Financial Centre, Sugar Land, Texas, which his company will manage.
Becker, who is president of ACE SL, likes the fact that “Randy’s family is so similar to mine,” referring to the fact that Bloom’s father, Allen, was a major player in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and a family show producer and entrepreneur, just as Becker’s dad, also Allen, is a promoter and producer of renown in the entertainment business. “And now my son (Morgan) is involved,” Becker said.
Morgan Becker will work as assistant to another veteran and key hire for ACE SL, Graeme Lagden, who is technical director for Smart Financial Centre. Lagden is a veteran of the tour management and production side of the business and even worked the Super Bowl halftime show this year and in years past.
The $100-million Smart Financial Centre will be a state-of-the-art indoor performance venue with a flexible capacity, from a full 6,400 to 3,400, through the use of a movable wall and curtains. Included are configurations for 4,500 and 5,400. There are 14 suites.
Randy Bloom
Bloom has moved to Houston from his former home in Maryland, where he worked as a family show producer. Now he’s “jumped on to the dark side,” he joked of his move to venue management. However, it’s a different philosophy, not the brick-and-mortar approach but more of a production perspective that motivated Bloom to make the move.
“Gary is from the production side, too,” Bloom noted. “We’re approaching venue management as a promoter and someone who understands selling tickets and making an event a great experience. We’re putting on a show and we’re all kindred spirits here in Houston.”
That family also includes Mike McGee, who is working with them as a consultant and whom both Becker and Bloom have known for decades. Bloom interned for him at the Summit in Houston.
After graduating from college, Bloom went to work for Bill Powell, who is still with Feld Entertainment, as a promoter for the Ringling Bros. circus. He left in 1995, the same year his father left, to own a NASCAR team and then produce shows through Super Sports and Entertainment, his father’s company. In 2001, after 9/11, that company shut down and Bloom went to work for Phoenix Productions, booking theatrical events.
Later he teamed up with Eric Eislund, forming ThemeStar, which they sold to AEG in 2008. He and Eislund teamed up again for Act 5 Entertainment, which Eislund still has. Following a brief flirtation with working for Cirque du Soleil, Bloom got a call from McGee and ended up with the opportunity to return to Houston.
He’s excited about the potential for the building in Sugar Land. It fills a niche in the Houston market, he said. “The first time I saw it, all that steel, it looked like someone had taken a pie cutter and removed a piece of an arena. It will have a proscenium stage, but from the size and feel, it’s like an arena,” Bloom said. Houston has plenty of performing arts centers, that is not Sugar Land’s niche. He likened it to Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie (Texas).
Becker said that after some delays due to torrential rain in February/March 2014, construction is well underway. “The roof is in; the dance floor is in,” he said. It will be weathered-in in two months. It will open late winter this year or early 2017.
Bloom moved to Houston Jan. 1 and Lagden is officially on board April 1. Morgan begins June 1. But all of them have already been participating in meetings and calls, Becker said.
The title sponsor was announced six months ago and is being joined by Mercedes-Benz of Sugar Land and Silver Eagle Budweiser distributors and Pepsi as sponsors. Spectrum Concessions & Special Events is handling food and beverage.
Sugar Land is a growing community, Becker noted in an earlier interview. Constellation Park, home of baseball’s Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League, opened in 2012. “They’ve sold all of their suites for 10 years,” he said. The town was named for Imperial Sugar, which was incorporated “the year I was born,” Bloom added.
Smart Financial Centre and Constellation Park are on opposites sides of a three-acre park owned by the Sugar Land Parks Department and that will become an entertainment district. Area businesses include Texas Instruments and Fluor. There are 10,000 employees within walking distance of the new venue.
Future plans call for a convention center and other office buildings.
Ace has a 30-year lease on Smart Financial Centre.
Interviewed for this story: Gary Becker and Randy Bloom, (713) 337-5680