Cullen Performance Hall is part of the management deal for Aramark at the University of Houston. VenuWorks will manage events there for Aramark.
In a reversal of traditional roles, venue management answers to the concessionaire in a deal that partnered VenuWorks with Aramark to service Aramark’s management contract with the University of Houston.
Alison Birdwell, Aramark regional VP, Houston, said Aramark Sports & Entertainment officially takes over management of the athletic facilities at the University of Houston Aug. 29 with the grand opening of the new TDECU Stadium, which is expected to draw a sellout crowd of 40,000. An alumni gala is set for Aug. 28.
Aramark’s Higher Education division has handled campus dining there for years and brought the Sports & Entertainment division in a year ago to prepare to manage the venues.
VenuWorks, as a subcontractor, will handle booking and sourcing events and event-day management, while Aramark administers the 10-year contract and handles food, beverage and operations. Aramark Higher Education still handles campus dining.
“This is a new model for us,” said Birdwell. The deal originated when the University of Houston approached Aramark Higher Education to guage what could be done about managing the new stadium. That division determined the university wanted one-stop shopping so they came to the Sports & Entertainment Division to provide all the venue services that will be greatly ramped up with addition of TDECU Stadium.
“We’re strictly about booking and running the events, athletic and outside events,” said Steve Peters, president of VenuWorks. “Ticket takers, ushers, and security runs to us. Field maintenance and groundskeeping is performed by Aramark.”
As to whether it’s a new model or a one-time deal, Peters didn’t want to read too much into it during this preopening and transition mode. It has been all about getting feet on the ground and all the work that goes into opening a stadium so far, he said.
Jeff Kossow, executive director for VenuWorks, said the transition has been going on officially since Jan. 1. He hired a marketing director, Lauren Stacks, last week. He has 13 VenuWorks staff on the Houston team now.
They are charged with event management for 3,500-seat Cougar Field for baseball; the 1,200-seat Cougar Softball Stadium; 40,000-seat TDECU Stadium for football; the 8,500-seat Hofheinz Pavilion; Cullen Performance Hall; John E. Hoff Tennis Courts and the Tom Tellez Track.
VenuWorks has had some success booking Cullen, including Gordon Lightfoot and John Legend shows, Kossow said. The arena is older and has little load-bearing capability and a low ceiling, so it is more of a challenge, he added.
The venue, outside the new stadium, which shows the most promise is “our little baseball field,” Kossow said. “It has artificial turf, a nice little seating section, its own amenities and we can do 12,000-13,000 in it. It’s a nice setting for an outdoor venue.”
Ticketing is handled by Paciolan and security by Five Star.
TDEC Stadium, named for Texas Dow Employees Credit Union, will host its first football game Aug. 29.
“We’re charged with bringing in new revenues to the football program and the university. We have to start driving programming,” Kossow said. “We are the only urban-setting venue in Houston.” In fact, they left a section of the stadium open for the downtown view, he said.
His main competition is “Houston. Do you know how many venues Houston has?” Kossow asked.
The contract with the public university went out to bid when the football stadium was first approved 18 months ago.
“We started understanding their needs and looked for partners to meet those needs,” Birdwell noted.
Aramark chose VenuWorks as subcontractor because they “had the best scope of business and expertise for us, specifically, the venue sizes and their ability to focus on the marketing of smaller as well as larger events,” Birdwell said. Aramark needed a partner to help create “what this looked like from scratch and they had the time and energy to devote to that.”
The venues involved have been transitioned in phases. Jeff Kossow is executive director on site for VenuWorks and has been in Houston almost a year.
As to the food and beverage component, Birdwell said the Micros point-of-sale system ratio is in the 1:100 mark. Aramark will offer a variety of food and beverage options, both local and national, including partners who have worked with the university before, like Papa John’s Pizza and Chick Fil-A, but with escalated service.
Concessionaires have been in the venue management business before, not subcontracting but serving in-house, including Centerplate and, before Aramark bought it, Ogden Entertainment. But whether it’s making a comeback is questionable.
“The true test [of this partnership concept] will be in the next month or two as we go live,” Birdwell said. “We may position ourselves to do it again. It’s definitely transferable, but getting it right in this environment is key.”
Interviewed for this story: Alison Birdwell, (832) 667-2515; Jeff Kossow, (832) 842-3101; Steve Peters, (515) 232-5151