Driving to Mammoth, Jane Kleinberger, founder of Paciolan, got a call from Mark Mettes, chair of IAVM and CEO of Hersberger Theater Center, Phoenix. She immediately jumped to the conclusion he was returning her call about a closer association between IAVM and INTIX, which she chairs.
“It is a topic I had been encouraging ever since Brad Mayne got the job (as CEO and president of the International Association of Venue Managers). I just assumed this was the call,” Kleinberger said.
So she went right into her pitch for INTIX. Ten minutes later, she thinks they’re done and Mettes said, “Oh, about the reason I was calling. I wanted to congratulate you; you are the winner of the Joe Anzivino Distinguished Allied Member Award.”
“Oh. Oh my.”
That’s Kleinberger’s MO. She is always on, always jumping ahead, always humble. “I was extremely humbled and a little embarrassed,” Kleinberger said. The Joseph J. Anzivino Distinguished Allied Award recognizes those Allied members who have made extraordinary contributions to the sports, entertainment, convention and exhibition industry. Kleinberger has done that.
At INTIX next year, she will oversee the Awards Committee. As recipient of a few, she’s very excited about the process.
TRANSITIONS GALORE
Having cofounded Paciolan when a starving student with two men, one of whom left in 1985, the other in 1992, Kleinberger was well aware she was the junior of the cofounders, but she is the last one standing. “I just kind of stuck around,” she says deferentially. “I don’t really think I chose the industry; the industry chose me.”
And she has stuck around through a continuing series of transitions, first an equity split when a co-owner left, then a leveraged buyout when the next co-owner left.
“We had been in business for 20 consecutively profitable years since inception before the first round of outside capital in 2000/2001,” she said.
The next big transition was taking in outside capital. That changed the complexion of the company. “We had been a mom-and-pop shop until then,” Kleinberger said. During that era, she realized the big, publicly-owned companies like Ticketmaster and Tickets.com were going to leave Paciolan in their dust without new money to build the resource.
“We had to step on the accelerator. Outside capital was needed for growth and rewriting product,” and when you bring in outside money “you have a lot of smart equity people on your board. We needed a balancing of the board,” she said. So Kleinberger and company went to Peter Luukko and Ed Snider of Comcast Spectacor and said, “‘We could use some industry folks.’ They were our first strategic investors; it was 2004.”
In 2005, Dave Butler, current CEO of Paciolan, came on board, and in 2007, lo and behold, Paciolan entertained an unsolicited purchase offer from Ticketmaster.
“Dave came into my office and said, ‘You’re not going to believe who I got a call from — Ticketmaster.’ What did they want? ‘To buy us.’”
They chuckled all the way to the bank that year. Live Nation was threatening to leave Ticketmaster and create its own ticketing company at that point. Paciolan brass didn’t think the purchase offer was serious, but they made a counter and Ticketmaster accepted, she recalled.
“We were all a little surprised. But our goal in that transition was to be the best acquisition Ticketmaster has ever made.” Butler came up with that mantra and “by stating that and believing that, it created an environment where people on the Ticketmaster side could trust us.”
The transition commenced. And then Live Nation wanted to merge with Ticketmaster. “We married for life and, a year later, the Department of Justice said you guys are too big,” Kleinberger said. Ticketmaster had to divest assets, including Paciolan which, furthermore, had to be purchased by a company large enough to be truly competitive.
“Which is why we went back to Comcast Spectacor,” Kleinberger said.
Fortunately, they had kept the Paciolan signage in storage, so Ticketmaster’s name came off the building and Paciolan went back up.
There was a hiccup when Comcast Spectacor opted to change the Paciolan name to Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement, but Paciolan stayed on the building.
Today, acquisition number six or so, Learfield Sports has bought Paciolan and restored the original name.
“Spectra sold us to Learfield primarily because even though Comcast Spectacor has a deep commitment to live entertainment, they saw sports, venues and food and beverage as aligned, but ticketing kind of operates independently,” Kleinberger said. “Learfield, who we know well from our college athletics days, is extremely well respected and very Paciolan-esque in culture. They have humble roots. They’re self-grown. People from the beginning are still there. It’s very similar growth.”
“They’ve had five years of various equity firms investing in them to become a high tech, data and analytics based company,” she said of the similarities. “Their core is sponsorship and media rights in college athletics. In the last five years, they’ve invested heavily in companies serving fan, donor and data analytics needs.”
A year ago, Learfield was sold by Providence Equity Partners to Atairos Group, led by Michael Angelakis, former CFO of Comcast. It’s a small world in sports and live entertainment.
This time, to Kleinberger, it’s the best acquirer possible, but still, the mantra returns. “We will be the best acquisition Learfield ever made,” she said, quoting Butler.
Every acquisition has brought lessons. She says Ticketmaster and Paciolan learned a lot from each other.
Learfield is completely different. “Our customers are their customers, but we’ve never been competitive. Every company they’ve acquired over the last couple years swears by the acquisition,” Kleinberger said. “They love Learfield, how they’ve been treated, the way they’ve been able to maintain independence.”
A WOMAN OF INFLUENCE
Kleinberger said Venues Today’s Woman of Influence Award was “the first award that had me stop and realize that if we’ve been so fortunate to get a little more recognition, we need to accept that as a responsibility to do more to lift others up,” Kleinberger said. Her commitment to lifting the Allied world is no less.
“It was a pivotal time for me, the first industry award that recognized me as a female leader. I was saying, ‘It’s not about gender,’ but I think that was a defense mechanism because I felt intimidated.”
Kleinberger has become a big fan of Patty Philips, executive director of Women Leaders in College Sports. With 37 years under her belt (Kleinberger was among the founders of Paciolan on July 17, 1980, date of incorporation), she has always worked in a male-dominated industry.
It shouldn’t be about gender and some day it won’t, she adds. “I’m confident in our youth and changing attitudes, but as long as we’re having the conversation, it is still about gender. I began to realize, there was so much more I had to do to give back. I’m having fun doing some of the most meaningful work of my life. I have a passion right now to help women lean forward, step up and achieve business equality in live entertainment and sports.”
She is working that angle through Paciolan, encouraging women in fan and patron relationships management, donor engagement, marketing, and ticketing. “There’s not a business on earth and, certainly not in live entertainment, where people who can generate revenue don’t make it to the corner office if they so choose,” Kleinberger believes.
“We are Paciolan. Life is good.”