THE FIRST THING THAT TICKETING STAR AWARD WINNER DAVID GREENBAUM, DIRECTOR OF TICKETING, NRG PARK, HOUSTON, WANTED TO EXPRESS UPON HEARING HE WON THE HONOR WAS THAT “IT WAS A TEAM EFFORT.” After 37 years in the industry, Greenbaum knows that nothing about running a multipurpose venue is a one¬man job.
A prime example of the teamwork at NRG Park was definitely on display when Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas city and lingered for three days, displaced thousands, caused millions of dollars in dam¬age and destroyed homes and facilities.
The carnage began even before the hurri¬cane hit. A sold¬out Coldplay concert was scheduled for the 48,000¬seat venue on Aug. 25, which got canceled the morning of the show.
“The hurricane was due to land sometime late that night,” recalled Greenbaum. “Everything was built, towers were put up, and the band’s equipment was loaded in.
“At noon, the band, the promoter (Live Nation), county officials and SMG, our manage¬ment company, decided to cancel the show. Even though the hurricane wasn’t expected to hit until after the show would have ended, we were con¬cerned that people who were coming from hun¬dreds of miles away wouldn’t get back home safely.
“It was the right decision — but it meant getting the word out to 45,000 people not to come,” he said. “We sent out press releases and got the message out on social media.”
Three days later, the building was turned into an emergency shelter for almost 10,000 hurricane evacuees, the last of whom left three weeks later. “We all pitched in and did what¬
“We all pitched in and did whatever needed to be done. It wasn’t a matter of what your job was; rather it was a case of what job needed to be done.”
DAVID GREENBAUM
DIRECTOR OF TICKETING, NRG PARK, HOUSTON
ever needed to be done,” said Greenbaum. “It wasn’t a matter of what your job was; rather it was a case of what job needed to be done.”
Subsequently, over 20 more shows and events had to be canceled. “Some were ticketed events, others were meetings, and it was hectic trying to make all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.”
Greenbaum’s being modest, it was a huge task, according to Mark Miller, GM, NRG Park. “David did a fantastic job post-Harvey. He oversaw the refunding process for all the canceled events, re¬ticketed the rescheduled events all while looking ahead at the next batch of events. He did it all without a lot of drama, or hand-wringing, and a less experienced per¬son would have buckled.”
“It wasn’t just me,” said Greenbaum.
“Everyone at NRG Park played a part in getting the venue through the crisis and back on track.”
In 2017, NRG Park hosted over 150¬tick-eted events over 200 event days with an atten¬dance of over 800,000. Highlights for the year included Super Bowl LI and the U2 and Metallica world tours.
Hosting a Super Bowl has its own partic-ular ticketing issues. “The National Football League (NFL) handles most of the ticketing,” explained Greenbaum. “The real issue was that the NFL threw up a security perimeter weeks before the actual event, which sealed our ticket office off from the public.”
With tickets to sell for post¬Super Bowl events, Greenbuam came up with a solution:create a satellite box office outside the perimeter.
“We set up a place in one of the parking lots and sectioned off a place for customers to park,” said Greenbaum. “It worked great except that the ticketing staff had to go through a security check every time we needed to get back into the venue. Our golf carts had to be checked, our credentials had to be exam¬ined, and it took a fair bit of time. It was like going into an airport eight times a day.”
“The HURRICANE was due to land sometime late that night. Everything was built, towers were put up, and the band’s equip¬ment was loaded in.” — DAVID GREENBAUM
In addition to overseeing these NRG Park events, Greenbaum also provides support for the Houston Texans NFL team and the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, the largest fair in North America.
His favorite part of the job is “the day-to¬day challenge of juggling different events,” and his least favorite is “managing the staff and HR issues.” Greenbaum’s ticketing depart¬ment has eight fulltime employees.
Wrapping up, Greenbaum came back to his first thoughts about his job: “This is not a one person award. The entire staff helps me do my job. Without everybody working in the same direction nothing would ever go off as planned.”