ive entertainment had a very good 2017. Grosses reported to Venues Today for our Year End Report show worldwide live sports and entertainment tour¬ing revenue up an astonishing 32 percent from 2016 reports, partially due to more reporting but mostly to a stellar year.
According to the international venue operators we spoke to, the huge bump can be attributed to an strong economy, with fans willing to part with hard¬earned dollars; the solid number of quality acts touring; the big number of touring acts; cost cutting and new ways to capture revenue once the fans are in¬venue. All indications are that the great reces¬sion is truly over and the live touring industry is back and blazing, with no signs of it slowing down in 2018.
DOMESTIC
Concert giant Live Nation’s Bob Roux, co¬president of U.S. concerts, said that his compa¬ny had “another record¬setting year, and we wound up selling more tickets that any previ¬ous year.” He also said Live Nation produced more events than in previous years.
Roux said that Live Nation is expanding, building more local offices and increasing staff. “We’re always looking to expand and, with that, comes increased costs— but that increases revenue and event totals.”
Creating “promoter pods that can focus on individual markets” is a strategy that’s been working out. “Acquiring, marketing and pric¬ing tours are why we get to say at the end of each year that it’s been another record year.”
A lot of Live Nation’s growth is from increased show count, he said. “We’re definite¬ly working hand¬in¬hand with the artists to set ticket prices and ultimately to make sure the artists are maximizing revenue opportunity and all the dates they play have the potential to sell every ticket in the building. The grosses are rising and the artists are starting to see the ben¬efit of that work.”
Playing larger buildings has helped fuel the revenue¬rise, Roux said. “Artists are mak-ing more money,” he said, noting that the VIP and premium trend is not a key factor to the profit increase. “The uptick is not from VIP packages or premium seating but, instead, from getting more fans into the building. Acumen on pricing the seats in the first place is the key.”
Roux said the international live touring scene, while healthy, is still catching up to North American levels, and attributes some of the international shortfall to the U.S. dollar strength. “The silver lining is that the artists can number of touring acts; cost cutting and new ways to capture revenue once the fans are in¬venue. All indications are that the great reces¬sion is truly over and the live touring industry is back and blazing, with no signs of it slowing down in 2018.
DOMESTIC
Concert giant Live Nation’s Bob Roux, co¬president of U.S. concerts, said that his compa¬ny had “another record¬setting year, and we wound up selling more tickets that any previ¬ous year.” He also said Live Nation produced more events than in previous years.
Roux said that Live Nation is expanding, building more local offices and increasing staff. “We’re always looking to expand and, with that, comes increased costs— but that increases revenue and event totals.”
Creating “promoter pods that can focus on individual markets” is a strategy that’s been working out. “Acquiring, marketing and pric¬ing tours are why we get to say at the end of each year that it’s been another record year.”
A lot of Live Nation’s growth is from increased show count, he said. “We’re definite¬ly working hand¬in¬hand with the artists to set ticket prices and ultimately to make sure the artists are maximizing revenue opportunity and all the dates they play have the potential to sell every ticket in the building. The grosses are rising and the artists are starting to see the ben¬efit of that work.”
Playing larger buildings has helped fuel the revenue¬rise, Roux said. “Artists are mak-ing more money,” he said, noting that the VIP and premium trend is not a key factor to the profit increase. “The uptick is not from VIP packages or premium seating but, instead, from getting more fans into the building. Acumen on pricing the seats in the first place is the key.”
Roux said the international live touring scene, while healthy, is still catching up to North American levels, and attributes some of the international shortfall to the U.S. dollar strength. “The silver lining is that the artists can use the growth and revenue we’ve seen here in the U.S. to expand international territories.”
Roux said that Live Nation is high on adding venues to its list of holdings. “We want that whole portfolio,” he said. “It’s a very important part of our strategy.”
“2018 is looking just as strong. Early indi¬cators are great,” he said. “We’ve got a number of shows already on¬sale and they are doing fantastic. We’ve had shows on sale since October and they are selling briskly.” Roux said Live Nation data suggests that the opti¬mum on¬sale window is “roughly five months, longer than in the past. A longer on¬sale cycle gives fans more time to spread out their pur¬chases and it gives us spread between tours.”
At the end of the day, Roux said the spec¬tacular revenue numbers for the year were due to “quality acts in every genre of music.”
The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, was the highest grossing venue in our 2,001¬5,000¬seat category. Unlike most venues that have a revolving door of acts coming in and out of the facility, the Colosseum’s strategy of residencies with a handful of one¬offs kept the venue filled.
“It’s the 15th anniversary of The Colosseum and our busiest year ever,” said John Nelson, SVP, AEG Presents, Las Vegas. Residents include powerhouse Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Rod Stewart, Elton John and Reba McEntire/Brooks & Dunn. John’s ending his residency in the spring, and Nelson is on the hunt for a replacement resident. “An announcement should come late spring,” he said, coyly.
The Colosseum tried a new concept this year, which was interspersing comedian Jeff Dunham playing once a week throughout the summer when the venue is normally dark. “Jeff played 14 consecutive weeks and the new concept worked great,” said Nelson.
Short¬term residencies, such as The Who, that played for two weeks, was another win¬ning revenue booster.
Nelson said that Las Vegas as a whole was in a heightened state of security awareness fol¬lowing the Route 91 Harvest incident in October and The Colosseum is no exception. “We’re very conscious of security here,” he said. “We were the first theater in Las Vegas to use magnetometers,” he said. “We’ve been doing it since 2003. We have an ongoing review of security policies, and we coordinate with local authorities and our casino security constantly.”
Merchandise, sold primarily from a dedi-cated shop, the Colosseum Boutique, in the Forum shopping mall, continues to be strong. “We offer high¬end goods and operate 365 days a year.”
Nelson anticipates 2018 to be “more of the same” and is looking forward to the increased visitor flow that is sure to follow Las Vegas securing their first National Hockey League (NHL) team and the upcoming move to the desert tourist mecca for the National Football League’s (Oakland) Raiders.
The Las Vegas Strip is also the home of the highest grossing venue in our 15,001 ¬30,000¬seat category, T¬Mobile Arena. The venue is about a year¬and¬a-half old and clearly fulfilling its promise as a destination for live entertainment in a city filled with choices.
“We learned from our 2016 opening and focused on maximizing the venue in 2017,” said Dan Quinn, GM there for AEG and MGM Resorts. “The addition of our NHL team, Golden Knights, as our tenant, with some other major events, really put us on solid footing.”
Big events included the highly¬publicized Mayweather¬McGregor and Alvarez-Golovin boxing matches, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events, major concerts like U2 and Jay Z and T¬Mobile’s George Strait residency. “Our ticket¬buyers are mostly out¬of¬town visitors with the exception of hockey, which has a whole local base,” he said.
New concessions from Levy Restaurants included a sushi concept called Tail & Fin, Chronic Tacos, L.A.’s Pink’s hot dogs and BBQ brand Rolling Smoke.
The free¬to¬all outdoor plaza is “a great canvas for our different events to come in from a guest experience standpoint and sponsor ful¬fillment platform to grow their revenues.”
On the other side of the country, Sean Saadeh, EVP, entertainment programming, Prudential Center, Newark, N.J., said his venue saw an increase in tickets sold by 22 per¬cent; show count was up 37 percent and grosses were up 44 percent. “We’re experiencing sig¬nificant growth year-over¬year,” he said.
Saadeh attributes the robust showing to “solid partnerships with AEG, Live Nation, Oak View Group and a new collaboration with MSG Entertainment and all the agents who have supported us greatly.”
New Jersey has been carved out as an independent and completely different market¬place from next¬door New York City, he said, citing data that shows that 27 percent of their guests are from outside the immediate area. “There’s a huge population who don’t want the hassle of going into NYC,” he said. “It’s easier to get here and parking is easy here. Every neighboring state is represented here.”
Saadeh was impressed with the sold-out shows featuring country stars, rock acts, K¬Pop and Latin artists. “We’re very diverse and pride ourselves on that diversity,” he said.
A cost¬cutting move was teaming up with another company to buy goods in bulk. “We can utilize their ability to make larger purchas¬es and that will save us money,” he said.
Another good idea was hiring a special events manager to book non¬touring events such as conferences. Also adding to the revenue pool was the opening of the Grammy Museum.
A new addition is the “largest arena video scoreboard in the world” that is four-stories tall, measures 9,584 sq. ft., weighs 88,401 pounds and has 29,600 million pixels.
Also new to the venue are bomb sniffing dogs. “Security is number one,” said Saadeh. “We’ve also placed a massive truck in front of the venue to prevent anyone getting close to the building with a vehicle.”
F&B, provided by Legends, was another strong revenue generator. “We were up in con¬cession revenue 22 percent,” he said. “We’re getting a lot of our produce from local N.J. farms and local meat purveyors and the fans have responded to that.”
INTERNATIONAL
While not as vigorous as their U.S. counter¬parts, international returns were still impres¬sive.
“2017 was our biggest year in the history of our company,” said Canadian promoter Jim Cressman, CEO, Invictus. “With Live Nation purchasing The Union in 2016, and removing a strong indie from the landscape, we posi¬tioned ourselves as the viable alternative to the ‘big machine.’"
“We continue to focus on leveraging the best venue deals for legacy acts while keeping an eye on artist development — and that means playing chess, not checkers,” he said. “We work with agents and managers to invest in artists, nurture their career, build with underplays and reasonable ticket prices — and thus, grow their careers.”
Being an independent promoter, Cressman does not have to report quarterly numbers to a board of directors. “There's a lot of power in having the latitude to implement strategies to meet long term objectives for artists, instead of short term objectives for shareholders,” he said.
Cressman’s best strategy last year was to partner with as many venues as he could to promote shows. “Venues are more incentivized to keep costs to a minimum�, the artist wins, and the consumer wins, and then venue and promoter win as well,” said Cressman.
Across the pond, London’s 02 Arena was celebrating its 10th birthday. “We got to cele¬brate our 10¬year anniversary with some fantas¬tic birthday shows from alt¬J, Celine Dion, Ed Sheeran, Foo Fighters and Jamiroquai,” said Barnaby Hooper, communications director.
Music made up roughly 50 percent of the venue’s schedule. “Rock and pop were fairly evenly matched for the most popular genre, but we had some great variety this year, with events like Country to Country, Hola! London (a Latin festival) and the Boy Better Know Takeover in August. Sport and comedy were the next highest genres with approximately 12 percent and 1 percent respectively.
Security in the U.K. has tightened post¬Manchester bombing and The O2 Arena is leading the way. “There are security measures you can see, such as the sniffer dogs, screen¬ings and bag searches, and ones you can’t,” said Hooper. “We monitor the whole site each and every day, and staff are trained to ensure all our guests have a safe, secure and happy time.”
The 02 Arena completely redesigned and relaunched their level 1 concourse this year and opened 11 new bars and food outlets as part of the redevelopment, creating a new cus¬tomer¬centric food and drink destination.
“We now have a number of white label pop¬ups — flexible kiosks and concessions which can adapt their design, brand and food and beverage offering depending on the event and audience,” he said. “It’s been well received by our fans, and we’ve seen a near 20 percent uplift in food and drink spend. We’ve also introduced a new app for the venue with discounts and offers on food and drink and the ability to pre¬order merchandise for shows.”
Hooper is looking forward to the opening of the new Designer Outlet Village in Q4 2018. “It will bring a whole new dimension to the venue as a destination,” he added.
On the other side of the world, in Australia, live touring business was strong, if not spectacular.
“Overall we were up around six percent,” said Tim Worton, group director, arenas, AEG Ogden. “It is worth noting that the last quarter of 2017 was one of the strongest in recent years.”
Group buying of services for all of AEG Ogden’s venues, like electricity and gas, mini¬mized venue overhead while the procurement of venue sponsors and new commercial part¬ners also added to the bottom line. “Other projects that are being scoped at present are venue memberships, premium club seating, F&B up¬selling with tickets and event specific hospitality packages,” said Worton.
In light of the tragic incidents that have occurred in Europe and North America, new security protocols have been put in place down under, such as bag checks, restrictions on bag sizes and full wanding of all fans. “Magnetometers are used in some venues and shortly all will use them,” he mentioned.
Worton credited express lanes for bagless fans as encouraging more people to leave them at home, which expedites the entry process. “We have also installed vehicular protection bollards, use crowd profilers and implemented human behavior training to help identify potential trouble makers,” he said. “We are also looking at facial recognition technology. No doubt we will continue to review and fur¬ther develop security measures.”
F&B sales were up nine percent in 2017. A new beer garden in the AEG Ogden Brisbane Entertainment Centre has a putting green to amuse the fans. In Perth, in¬seat ordering in premium seating areas and upsells at ticket purchase for sports events have been success¬ful. An increase in high¬yielding cocktails in ICC Sydney has been a winner.
Worton’s crystal ball tells him that after a few flat years, including the first nine months of this year, 2018 looks like it’s going to be a return to the halcyon years up to 2014.
“Multirun concert tours, headed by Pink, Bruno Mars, Robbie Williams, Queen & Adam Lambert, Katy Perry and The Killers are all on sale already,” he added. “It will be a bumper year and be significantly up on 2017. It’s very exciting.”