KNOW YOURSELF WORKS IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Finding the right niche is key to success for venues in the Pacific Northwest. Managers know better than to be all things to all people.
Venue operators in the Pacific Northwest saw tons of traffic and revenue in 2016 and have much to say about last year’s success. They are even more optimistic and hopeful for a prosperous 2017.
The Top Stops in the Pacific Northwest region brought in hundreds of thousands of guests and millions in cash flow.
KeyArena at Seattle Center was the Top Stop for its capacity and class in the Pacific Northwest, posting  the highest amount of gross revenue at roughly $26.4 million from 42 shows with 329,194 people in attendance, as reported to Venues Today.
“KeyArena is the premier large concert venue in the region,” said Deborah Daoust, director of communications for the Seattle Center — a massive campus that houses eight venues, including KeyArena, which seats 17,500 for basketball and 13,000 for ticketed concerts.
The venues at Seattle Center sit on 74 acres, which has a 2,900-seat concert hall and several theaters.
Much of Seattle Center’s KeyArena success is pinned to thriving relationships with sporting and entertainment presenters.
“We have a wonderful partnership with Live Nation and AEG,” Daoust said. “Plus, we do some other non-concert events throughout the year.”
The arena is home to Seattle University’s men’s basketball team, the Redhawks, as well as the WNBA Seattle Storm, which is Seattle’s professional women’s basketball team.
“We hosted the Pac 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament last March, and they’re coming back in 2017,” Daoust said, highlighting the additional revenue the event brings in.
Yet KeyArena officials aren’t just banking on sports to fill their coffers and seats, as they also hosted a huge global e-gaming competition last August.
Dota 2 chose KeyArena for its global event, and participating teams had an opportunity to win millions from a $14 million purse, Daoust said.
“It’s a huge four-day event for us at KeyArena,” she said.
KeyArena may have hosted 42 shows in 2016, but it also hosted more than 100 public events that, altogether, brought nearly 570,000 guests to the arena.
Daoust doesn’t expect 2017 to slow down.
“Coming up in 2017, we have a lot of big names (and events),” she said, including Ariana Grande, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Diamond, Lionel Richie with special guest Mariah Carey and the Harlem Globetrotters, to name a few.
“The story about KeyArena is very exciting,” Daoust said. “The NBA left KeyArena in 2009, and arenas that host NBA teams don’t usually have a good track record after (NBA teams) leave.”
However, the arena has been able to thrive by expanding its roster of events, and it’s survived beautifully since the NBA left, Daoust said.
“It’s just thriving,” she said. “KeyArena is the little arena that could and it did. We are really pleased with KeyArena becoming a successful venue post-NBA.”
To help continue the arena’s success, in venue officials put out a Request For Proposals out to bidders on Jan. 11 for a complete redevelopment of the arena, including seats and other aspects of the venue.
“There have been some interested parties in the world that would like to spruce it up and make it really shine as a large concert venue,” she said.
Economic drivers in Seattle include Amazon’s headquarters and the fact that Expedia is moving its headquarters to the city, which is sure to help KeyArena excel in 2017, Daoust said.
Four hours to the east, another arena is experiencing positive growth and had an excellent year in 2016.
Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena was the number one stop for its capacity in 2016, logging $11.2 million in gross revenue, with 52 shows.
With a seating capacity of 11,000 to 12,500 (depending on the event) and since it is the only arena in a 200-mile radius, it’s no wonder the venue was the Top Stop for 2016, said General Manager Matt Gibson.
The venue doesn’t have to compete for shows with other arenas, as does the Boise, Idaho Taco Bell Arena. Taco Bell Arena has several competitors in close proximity to the venue. It also took second in a top stop venue for 2016, just behind Veterans Memorial Arena.
“We just want to make sure that everyone who wants to bring an event here has the flexibility to do that,” Gibson said. “We’re very good at marketing and we’re very good at communication. The most important thing is to have good relationships.”
Gibson has been with the arena for 18 years and has seen the ups and downs of the venue industry, but it knows what concerts work and which ones don’t.
“We’re very much a country and classic rock market,” Gibson said. “I think being smart about your population base and what there is to do around town is important.”
The regional core around the arena is roughly 500,000 people.
“We’re real close to Idaho. All told, you have maybe 2.5 million in the region, but there’s not a lot of industry. There’s lots of hospitals, medical real estate and sports tourism.”
Pop concerts, on the other hand, are not worth the financial burden, and the arena often steers away from booking artists like Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5 or Pink.
“For Spokane, we’ve had to make due with a lack of pop shows,” he said, noting that such acts usually go to bigger cities in the Pacific Northwest like Seattle.
It’s not that Veterans Memorial Arena doesn’t want to host pop concerts, Gibson said, it’s that they just don’t have money on the return in ticket sales, especially with how much money pop artists charge venues these days.
“We have to offer a ticket price to our guests that makes sense,” Gibson said.
Keeping that in mind, Gibson has found that when the arena books a country or classic rock show, there must be multiple headliners in order to sell tickets.
“I think overall we are very smart in knowing our population,” he said.
Concerts aside, sporting events do well for the arena.
“We have a lot of sports activities in the form of youth sports,” he said. “We’re a regional hub for that activity.”
They host the volleyball Pacific Northwest Qualifier each year, and the arena tends to do very well with the National Collegiate Atheletic Association basketball tournaments, Gibson said.
In 2016, Veterans Memorial Arena tried new things, some successful and some not — much of which will be looked at for trends in 2017.
“We took a chance in 2016 with a beer festival,” Gibson said. “We lost a lot of money. We’ll be looking at changing up the structure of that for 2017.”
Taking such chances on events is important to learn what works and what doesn’t, he said.
Currently, the venue has no big renovation plans, and it will continue to focus on sports — including hockey — in 2017, as well as booking top-notch country and classic rock shows.
ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash.,  ranked number one in the Pacific Northwest for a venue with a capacity between 5,001 to 10,000.
The 7,600-seat venue logged $4.8 million in gross revenue, hosting 40 shows.
“The Pacific Northwest is a very competitive market with approximately 20-plus venues within a 50 mile radius of ShoWare Center,” General Manager Tim Higgins said in an email. “That being said, it has taken ShoWare Center a few years to gain traction, develop relationships and earn recognition in the industry and our market. We now boast over 200 event days per year.”
The venue is located 15 miles south of downtown Seattle and 15 miles north of downtown Tacoma, which Higgins said gives the center a “distinct competitive advantage.”
“Location, location, location! Working with promoters like Emporium Presents, Knitting Factory, Feld, Globetrotters, as well as local independent promoters on a true partner level, has contributed significantly toward ShoWare Center’s success,” Higgins said. “This is ShoWare Center’s third consecutive year finishing as the ‘Top Stop’ in the Pacific Northwest, and as we work all shows and promoters this success will continue.  As an SMG-managed venue, agents and promoters know they will receive exceptional service from the on-sale date through load-out.”
Like most venues, ShoWare Center can adjust the bowl for different configurations and seating capacities, allowing the center to offer intimate concert settings, Higgins said.
“Artists continue to look for that intimate setting, connecting with their fans. ShoWare Center offers this connection,” he said.
In 2017, Higgins is confident that business will continue to grow.
“We have seen this positive growth throughout the last three years. We continue to see an increase in culturally diverse concerts, including Hispanic and Indian/Bollywood shows.  These shows have proven very successful in our market along with country, R&B and classic rock. We are very excited for the future of ShoWare Center,” Higgins said.