Features
Necessity is the Mother of Reinvention
Probably all venues are in need of reinvention from time to time. They get old, competition arrives, or the community changes its taste in entertainment. And then there are the real tough nuts to crack.
Photo: Barry Brecheisen
Ken Wachter and Andrew Prince.
Ken Wachter, GM of the Resch Center’s venues, has a particularly difficult situation. There are 10 weekends out of the year where he refuses to allow events to come in. That’s because the Resch Center is next door to Lambeau Field, where the Green Bay Packers play. During the NFL season, roads in Green Bay are practically empty and even the golf courses are abandoned.
In a case like this, reinvention is an absolute necessity, especially because it’s municipal and the venues need to generate money for the county. Wachter is officially the president/CEO of PMI Entertainment Group, which manages the buildings and actually pays the county for the privilege then covers all the costs of the venues, so profit is difficult. For the NFL season, help came with the invention of the Bart Starr Tailgate Party. The Resch Center opened its parking lots to give people a place to party prior to the games.
For $35 participants get all the beer they can drink and bratwursts they can eat. As many as 3,000 people will arrive and the Resch Center will rent its rooms for VIP parties. Miller sponsors the event. Likewise, PMI has its own food & beverage and ticketing system, further increasing revenue.
It also owns the hockey team that plays in the arena, so there is no “asshole owner” arguing about the price of beer. “We just argue internally.” Also, in a city of 100,000, the Packers can use all the help they can get, so PMI will farm out up to 400 of its employees to help with the games’ ticket-taking and cleanup needs. Finally, there are the events like the truck expo, which will generate $55,000 in revenue for “two days of people looking at trucks.” Wachter estimates that PMI’s self-booked events generate about $1 million a year in revenue.
Expos and trade shows were key to most on the panel.
Tom Alexander, who books the Tacoma Dome, has hosted CannaCon, an expo for the marijuana industry. He realized there was no major expo in the Northwest for musical instruments and is launching one this year.
Other events mentioned by the panel included girls basketball tournaments, farmers markets, a four-day Elvis impersonation competition, the Pimps & Hoes Ball in Las Vegas. Todd Hunt in Tupelo, Miss., also lost a hockey team and its “asshole owner” but still had the hockey rink, which has been converted into a skating rink and generates about $150,000 gross.
It all comes down to knowing the community, and knowing how to find the positive in the tough situations. Or just do what Andrew Prince of Venue Coalition wants: “I want to just make every day a Saturday for the rest of my life.”