Since being appointed to helm the Thomas & Mack Center, Sam Boyd Stadium and Cox Pavilion, Mike Newcomb has been laser focused on growing revenues around the iconic events his facilities host every year. A veteran of the building since 1996, Newcomb was first hired as external facilities coordinator and eventually worked his way into the event services side of the building before later joining the building’s senior management team. Venues Today caught up with Newcomb to discuss his vision for growing events at the three facilities and long term plans to revitalize Thomas & Mack Center and potentially build a new stadium on the campus of UNLV.
The Professional Bull Riders World Championship just concluded and National Finals Rodeo is only about a month away. How busy are you in the fall?
It’s one of our most active times. We just wrapped the Monster Energy Cup at the stadium and that event has really grown. It’s a one-off invitational and the rider that wins all three heats takes home $1 million. We’ve also hosted a couple football games already. Basketball starts on Nov. 2 and we’ve got eight home games throughout the month. It’s starting to get really busy.
Each manager who runs Thomas & Mack Center has been given the freedom to deliver on his own vision for the building. What is your vision going forward?
I spent a lot of time working with Pat Christenson and Daren Libonati, so I like to think of myself as a hybrid between the two. I learned a lot from Daren about how he attacked projects and made deals — I’d like to think I have a mindset like his. I’m a little more focused on input from our team — this job isn’t about me. I could leave tomorrow and they’d be fine. We have 82 full-time staff here and it’s my role to keep them happy and keep them busy. The diversity of what we get to do drives our team to succeed, whether we’re doing Supercross or Monster Jam, PBR or basketball. Nothing gets stale. If we’re stuck in an NBA-style building with just 50 basketball games, or 50 hockey games, it becomes easy to get stale and you start to lose track. With us having to think outside the box, develop new ticketing plans and control all of the food and beverage and front of house, it means that we have to stay sharp and focused. There’s always a big marquee event on our calendar and it’s my job to keep the team together, keep them motivated, keep them happy and make sure everybody is on board and has bought into what we’re trying to do.
From a bookings standpoint, how has your content strategy changed over the past three decades?
Concerts are a good example. We used to be in the concert game, but we had to branch out because everyone is enamored with playing The Strip these days and we don’t want to spend a ton of time fighting for shows when we can form relationships with other entities that bring in large groups. The corporate business has been good to us, and we’ve been working with the hotels to drive some business to our buildings. And, of course, maximizing our revenue potential on our annual events (National Finals Rodeo, NBA Summer League Basketball, UNLV Basketball and Monster Jam) is what gets us through.
Do you plan to grow through new events, or grow through improving the events you already have?
The key for us is making what we currently have better. We’ve got several anchor tenants — Feld brings us seven events annually, and NFR and PBR are very big revenue gains. We’re in our fourth year of USA Sevens International Rugby and it’s had tremendous growth. November through March is tied up with college basketball, but we’ve been able to add two more WWE dates and we’re bringing the Globetrotters back for a second year after a nine-year hiatus. We can squeeze a lot of things in and do corporate deals for private events. We’ll have a corporate show come in here next year for the entire month of September and half of October.
What steps have you taken to grow corporate business?
We have a team out in the field trying to generate business and we’ve struck deals with a number of the casino properties, including the Venetian. If they get a call looking for help with a private event, we’ve been able to assist with about four or five of their events. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino across the street has been a great partner and has signed on as a sponsor for basketball. There’s nothing we won’t try and we’re always going to go after the big shows.
How important have family shows been for your business model?
In the beginning we were the only venue in town so it was a natural to get those shows. Feld went over to the Orleans Arena when it opened, but we were able to get them to come back and consolidate all of our Feld shows including the three dirt events at the stadium, two ice shows and the circus. It’s a great place for locals to get to and it’s been a great niche for us. Being able to provide one or two events every quarter keeps the families coming back for more.
The gaming industry has transformed Las Vegas into a datacentric town. How do you utilize the Paciolan system to develop actionable data?
We’ve increased our UNLVTickets database to over 300,000 in the last six years — it’s a great way to touch all our people. We’re on-campus and we’ve had a chance to work with alumni who have another 95,000 people in their database, including the donors from the basketball and football programs. We can track all sales, find out if the buyer is a donor and create some opportunities for athletics. Oftentimes, we’ll create special presales that give our donors first crack at tickets.
That’s a good point — at the end of the day, your facilities are essentially university venues. What’s that meant to the way you operate in a town like Las Vegas?
I think our President has shown us his complete support. Our role is to bring events into the city and drive revenues through our ancillary streams. We support athletics and put money back into the campus.
What’s the latest on the proposed plan to replace Sam Boyd Stadium with an on campus facility?
They just put a committee together that includes people from the hotels, the campus and Las Vegas Convention and Vistors Authority. They have been tasked with evaluating what the facility is going to be and coming back with a report that will go to the legislature by September 2014. In 2015, when the legislature reconvenes, they could vote on whether or not to proceed. I think if we had a stadium on campus that was just a stone’s throw from the Strip, it would be unbelievable. Our stadium now is about eight miles off the Strip and transportation is an issue. For most of our big shows, we have to provide 30-50 buses for shuttle service and that’s another expense that wouldn’t be needed if we were on campus.
What capital improvements are planned for the arena?
We were awarded $47 million from the legislature and once we receive the money in the spring, we’ll start some construction in the fall. We’re 30 years old, so a lot of our systems needed to be updated. We’ll look at refreshing the concourse and adding some additional restrooms to get up to code, along with some ADA improvements. If we can work together with the UNLV Foundation, we can fundraise some more private dollars and make a small addition to the west side of the building.
How is the Las Vegas economy? Has it rebounded from the economic recession of 2008/2009?
I think it’s better — the traffic to town has been great. The airport brings in more people every month. People are probably waiting a little bit longer to buy their tickets, but the out-of-town events have been very strong.
What role does the Thomas & Mack Center play as part of the larger Las Vegas entertainment industry?
We’ve become a resource for driving revenues into the city. Working with Las Vegas Events and groups like PBR and NFR along with our stadium events, we could easily bring in 45,000 people for rugby, 35,000 people for Supercross and 100,000 people for NFR and there’s probably an additional 100,000 that don’t come to the event, but just visit in town. When I first started, an event like NFR would be the focal point for the city — the event is just two hours out of an entire day built around NFR. There’s shopping and every hotel gets vested and either supports an awards show, or some type of concert to attract guests.
Contact: (702) 895-1003