Pope Francis is a Trotter

In the midst of all the management changes and milestone anniversaries, international business is a major area of continued growth for family shows. 

“We put the ‘globe’ in Globetrotters, that’s for sure,” said Howard Smith, president of Harlem Globetrotters International. “I recently returned from Paris and London meeting with our promotional partners and our promoters. The audiences there are just as fanatical about the brand and the experience as the ones in the U.S. Our primary goal over the next few years is to really build a presence in Asia and particularly in China. We go to China virtually every year and there’s no reason why that market couldn’t sustain upward of 100 or more shows.’

Sixty years ago, the State Department dubbed the Globetrotters ambassadors of goodwill.

“Whether we play in an NBA arena in the U.S. or on a dirt basketball court in Africa or on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific with our troops, we’ll go anywhere. All we need is a basketball and a hoop and we can put on a show,” Smith said.

Feld’s inventory of Disney On Ice, Monster Jam and Disney Live! plays in 75 countries worldwide with more debuts on the way.

“We continue to look for opportunities to expand our international reach,” said Juliette Feld, COO. “In fall 2016, we are proud to debut Marvel Universe Live! in Europe for the first time.”
Nitro Circus considers its target audience to be young men ages 18-25, a group it expects to reach all over the world.

“We are a 100 percent global brand,” said Greg Terlizzi, global head of publicity for Nitro Circus. “We have sold out stadiums in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia and are looking at potentially doing shows in South America in the future. So the international market is incredibly important to us.”

VStar will play in over 100 U.S. markets this year with Discover the Dinosaurs touching close to 150 cities. That said, the international market is important to the company and continues to grow.

“We have received a lot of international interest for Paw Patrol: Race to the Rescue, and will be visiting both Canada and Mexico in addition to U.S. cities,” said Kevin Kulas, senior vice president of marketing and booking for VStar. “Our Sesame Street Live show continues to tour internationally and we recently remounted a new international production of ‘Make a New Friend,’ which will debut in Hong Kong in July of this year.”

Byron Allen, producer of Stars on Ice, said Stars on Ice is a natural international show and, especially now, in the skating hotbed of Japan. He called Japan the “best figure skating market in the world at this point” and described Canada as second with the U.S. somewhere down the list. “We try to take our product into places where there’s demand for it,” he said. “About 10 years ago it became apparent to us that Japan was going to be the place to be and has continued to be such for the last decade. We’re certainly very excited about its prospects moving forward as well.”

It might be tough for anyone to trump the well-known global audience member that the Harlem Globetrotters brought on board as the 9th honorary Globetrotter — the Pope.

“I just shot a note to a friend of mine who was working for Pope Francis at the Vatican and he put me in touch with the people who do the scheduling for the Pope,” explained Brett Meister, senior vice president of communications for the Globetrotters. “We happened to be playing in Italy at the same time as when we went to meet the Pope. He was our fifth Papal audience as we had met a couple of Popes twice.

“Pope Francis was very engaged and very friendly and had fun with the players and messing around with the basketball,” he said of the ninth honorary Trotter, adding that newscaster “Robin Roberts as our 10th honorary Globetrotter.”