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2005/2006 Edition 37
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to the city. But then, as KevinDonnelly says, there was an
“evaporation of the local promot-ers.” Consolidation moved in,and Donnelly moved out.
The promoter was a longtimeresident of Winnipeg, working atNite Out Entertainment, an affiliate
of Michael Cohl’s CPI network. Hemoved to Vancouver in the mid-’90sto take charge of the Universal Enter-tainment office, which transformed
into House of Blues Concerts.Meanwhile, with consolidation,
promoters focused on the entire
region, and Winnipeg got lost inthe shuffle.
“The shows didn’t come as
frequently,” Donnelly said, addingthat the country’s exchange rateadded to the dwindling traffic.
Over the years, Donnelly gota little venue experience. Hehelped save a 1,500-seat theatre
in Winnipeg from the wreckingball and, with the help of Houseof Blues Concerts, reopened
Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom.But he was, plain and simple,a promoter when the owners of
the team that replaced the NHL’sbygone Winnipeg Jets asked himto help build and run a privately
owned arena which would housethe new team, the AHL’s ManitobaMoose.
Oh, and while he was at it,would he run the existingWinnipeg Arena? Donnelly was
up to the challenge, but first he
had to convince the investorshe was the right man for the job.
“I said, ‘Fifteen years ago, thebest promoters were starting tothink as venues. Promoters started
to buy and operate sheds, andwere operating theatres and clubs.Today, the best facilities are think-
ing and acting like promoters.’“So, if they were worried
about my skill sets fitting whatthey needed, they needed to
consider that statement and weighwhether that made sense to them.It obviously did.”
He operated the Winnipeg Arenauntil November 15th, when the15,000-capacity MTS Centre de-
buted. At Mid-Year 2005, the facilityranked 23 on Pollstar’s Top 100Arenas chart, selling nearly 112,000
tickets. Along with hosting the JunoAwards, the arena has brought inFoo Fighters, Def Leppard, Hilary
Duff, and Cher, among others. Onthe books are Billy Idol, BackstreetBoys, Pearl Jam, Robert Plant,
System Of A Down, Gwen Stefani,Audioslave, Paul Anka, GeorgeJones, Celtic Tiger, Nine Inch Nails,
Andre Rieu, and Judas Priest.
When you were first hired, how
did your promotion experience
apply at the Winnipeg Arena?
A It was a challenging environ-
ment because the employees saw
the writing on the wall. Everyone
knew a new, privately owned
arena was likely going to be
built and I was going to be part
of that, so my arrival heralded the
beginning of the end for most
of these people, and also for the
patrons coming through.
Everyone had their own specific
complaints: The arena was too
old, the sound was too bad, the
washrooms were decrepit or not
functioning, and the seats and
concessions were not a winning
experience.
It was tough to come in with all
the best intentions but the market
had gone stagnant. I had to get
that market excited again about
seeing concerts immediately in
the old building, and re-excite the
staff into improving the patron
experience, the artist’s experience
and promoter’s experience. And
I had very few resources to rein-
vest into improving the space.
The upside is, I managed to
do both: I managed to get staff
excited about the challenge
because I presented them with,
“If you do a good job here, if you
see the vision that I see, you’ll
come with me to the new build-
ing.” I was able to weed out some
of the staff that weren’t part of
that picture and took some skilled
people with me who were excited
by all a new facility holds – new
opportunity, new challenges, new
tools and toys, new score clocks
and ice plants, new audio equip-
ment and a new loading dock.
And I worked the promoter
side, increasing traffic and getting
people excited, getting shows
happening and I was moderately
successful, given that the town was
lackadaisical about seeing shows.
When we opened the MTS Cen-
ter on November 15th, we were
able to excite the marketplace and
we’ve had a tremendous run since.
We’ve been extremely busy. People
enjoy the experience, padded
seats, great acoustics, great facili-
ties including washrooms and
concessions. Considering we’re
a $125 million Canadian building,
we got really great value out of the
money. I think the general impres-
sion of people in the arena indus-
try who’ve visited the building is
that it’s a more expensive building.
I think we got really great value
from the suppliers and the con-
tractors for the price we paid.
When you were on the
planning committee in 2001,
did your background help?
A Absolutely. I didn’t pretend to
know a lot about what the hockey
teams needed but I had a lengthy
list called my “rock ‘n’ roll list.”
It had dressing rooms,
it had everything from quantity,
furnishings and fixtures to the
layout, loading dock, loading
access, rigging grid, drapery
system and power – whether it
was the dispersal in the backstage
area, how much or where.
I have a moveable drape
on a track that can either frame
a full arena setup in a full concert
mode, it can dress the back or
it can slide 130 feet forward and
create a nice 3,200-seat concert
hall environment.
The old mindset used to
be that a promoter’s work wasn’t
necessarily the facility’s work. But
clearly the promoter’s success or
lack thereof directly impacts the
facility’s success. If the promoters
aren’t attracting people, you’re not
going to make any concession
sales or rent any parking spots or
sell any tickets, so we need to as-
sist them. Therefore, having mar-
Kevin DonnellyMTS Centre
About 15 years ago, Winnipeg, Manitoba, was
a rock ‘n’ roll town. Bon Jovi, AC/DC and
Judas Priest would make regular, successful visits
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keting people on staff not only
selling hockey tickets but circus
tickets, ice show tickets and
concert tickets needs to be essen-
tial. In today’s day of national
promoters –AEG, House of Blues
and Clear Channel – the venue
becomes the local promoter.
The network of promotion
companies in every market has
been replaced by the building,
which has to arrange for runners,
niceties in the dressing rooms
and putting posters around town.
When I was a promoter, I would
never think of calling a venue and
saying, “Hey, can you put up my
posters around town?” They’d
laugh at the request. They’d put it
up in the building but not at a mall
across town. But now, we do that.
We arrange for that marketing as-
sistance, we arrange for that artist
service whether it’s chiropractors,
limousine drivers or dentists. It’s
an easy day when
promoters come
to Winnipeg. We
can take care of
details big and
small for them.
If a promoter
in Los Angeles
calls [Fresno,
Calif.’s Save Mart
Center], it’s a lot
easier for the guy
in L.A. to under-
stand the market;
he may not know
the Winnipeg market.
It’s our responsibility that either
that promoter or the marketing
rep in the promoter’s office
knows the market. We help them
make the introductions, or we’re
there to provide the service.
Now, I’m not saying we pay
for the ads, but we will help them
decide on the right stations to
pick, the right campaign to go
with, the right schedule of ad runs
– all that stuff – because we know
whether Thursday, Friday, or
Saturday is the bigger impact date
for the newspaper’s entertainment
section. They may not know that,
sitting in Vancouver, Toronto,
New York or Los Angeles.
And physically putting
posters up?
A Yes. We’ll get a team of kids
to go out and guerilla-market
other events or hit construction
sites and paper up the boarding
or whatever the case is.
It depends on the event of
course. I just walked to Starbucks
and I noticed the construction
boarding across the street was
plastered with Nine Inch Nails
posters, which made me smile.
Our poster guy is doing his job.
But whether it’s an ice skating
show or something else, we
know where to hit. NIN is a
great product to put on urban
construction boarding down-
town where a lot of urban kids
are waiting for buses, but if it
were an ice show, you want to be
more suburban – in restaurants,
shops, whatever the case is.
I’ve got an exterior video
board where
we’re pumping
our message,
promoting all
our shows, right
there on the
main strip of the
town. We try to
do whatever we
think we can,
with every tool
we can think of.
What if NIN
requests a separate entrance
for its online ticket buyers?
A That hasn’t come up yet but
my reaction to that request would
be what I try to do with every
request: I say to the staff, “Figure
out how to say yes.”
People are asking for some-
thing because they need it. They
don’t ask because it’s not impor-
tant. Whether it’s on an artistic
level or a financial level or a busi-
ness level, it’s connected to some-
body wanting to make something
happen, so figure out how to
say yes. “Yes, but it’ll cost you,”
“Yes but it takes time,” “Yes, but
–” whatever. Always lead with a
“yes.”
Every show is different so you
can’t assume that because one act
didn’t do it that the next act feels
the same way.
I’ve got a great event manager
in Alayne Nott and technical pro-
ducer Lloyd Fox who, with me,
figures out how to say yes. We
had a radio show in the building
on one day and the very next day
we had a sold-out Rod Stewart
concert. A week before the shows
played, Rod Stewart’s people
said they needed to do some
pre-production and asked if they
could do it the day prior.
We said yes. We rigged two
shows at the same time, built
extra depth in the radio show
stage and had Rod’s lighting and
stage being constructed behind
the current show.
I credit the booking team for
being able to figure out how to
make that work, figuring out how
to split the manpower we’ve got,
how to give both sides the riggers
and skilled labor they needed and
keep both productions happy.
It’s always a struggle, but we got
through it and here we are today.
You get requests every single
day, whether it’s meet-and-greets
or fan clubs or, as you mentioned,
special entrances for a thousand
people so there’s no scalpers.
There’s one of those every day.
“Can we come in early?” “Can the
truck stay late?” “We didn’t order
it but can you feed our drivers at
six o’clock in the morning?”
There’s one every day.
What is your closest
competitive market?
A It’s probably the Fargodome
(Fargo, N.D.) or the Alerus
Center (Grand Forks, N.D.),
just south of the border.
In reality, as a region, as an
arena in western Canada, we
probably compete and lose shows
as a group to the run that’s just
south of us. People, instead of
going to Calgary, Edmonton,
Saskatoon, or Winnipeg, they’ll
go to Spokane Boise, Ames, some-
place in Montana, then south to
Salt Lake City and Denver. Instead
of having an individual competi-
tor, it’s more the region.
As a region, as a group of
arenas, we get routed. Then, the
whole leg of the tour goes away
and gets replaced by five similar-
sized markets just south of the
U.S./Canadian border. I don’t
really have a close enemy, but we
definitely have competition where
us as a region, a grouping of five
or six arenas, don’t always get all
the shows we’re looking for.
Again, I think that 99 percent
of the shows could play the
HILARY DUFF SWINGS THROUGH the MTS Center in January. L-R: the venue’s AlayneNott and Jim Ludlow, Duff, Kevin Donnelly and House of Blues Concerts Canada’sDave Fortune.
Ken
t Hart
In today’s day
of national
promoters –AEG,
House of Blues
and Clear Channel
– the venue becomes
the local promoter.
2005/2006 Edition 39
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Alerus Center and MTS Centre,
without question. There’s a
border there, there’s a mindset
between the communities. One
community looks to their rink,
and north of the border, my com-
munity looks to mine. Whether
you’re Eagles or Ozzy or Cher,
you can play both even though
we’re only 140 miles apart.
I don’t really think of them
as a competitor on a market-to-
market basis. More often we’re
fighting to consider five markets
in western Canada as opposed to
five markets in the western U.S.
Regarding the curtain,
are you part of a network?
A There are discussions here in
Canada of creating a similar ini-
tiative to the ArenaNetwork, and
not so much to take advantage of
our cut-down capacity but shar-
ing information, creating new
kinds of shows. We have a very
active House of Blues Concerts
office in Vancouver that is doing
a remarkable job servicing us.
This year we’re quite a busy
region. I think the discussions
we’ve had about creating a
network or a coalition are really
to see what other kind of shows
we can get, whether it’s motor
sports or alternative sporting like
gymnastics. It’s not really to say
“I’ve got a theatre, let’s go after
a Barry Manilow date or tour.”
The network discussions we’re
having are more general, not
specific to a genre of music or
a facility setup configuration.
I’ve done under 5,000-seat
setups. I had a four-show run
with David Copperfield that was
very successful; I’ve had George
Thorogood and Canadian act
Blue Rodeo. Coming up, I’ve
got Paul Anka and Jann Arden.
The 5,000-seat configuration has
been very successful in the six
months we’ve been open. Again,
that’s a new piece of inventory
I’ll continue to push aggressively.
You’ve had a very successful
launch.
A Absolutely. And it’s been a
combination of self-promoted
events and shows Clear Channel,
House of Blues or whomever
have brought through.
The opening ceremony festivity
we built ourselves. We put five
artists on stage that were all born
and bred in Manitoba – Randy
Bachman and Burton Cummins
(The Guess Who), Chantal
Kreviazuk (a recording artist
who’s lately been a successful
songwriter for Avril Lavigne),
Canadian icon Tom Cochran and
a country act called Doc Walker.
Each of them was onstage with
an orchestra. We sold out 12,000
seats, grossed just under $700,000
and had a nice little launch.
Then, the Tragically Hip
sold out 11,000 seats and I had
the four-show run with David
Copperfield where more than
14,000 paid. My opening week
was pretty solid.
In April, we had the Juno
Awards. It was a great coup to
have it in our first year. Every
Canadian manager, every Cana-
dian agent, every Canadian star
came into the building and we
were even fortunate enough to
get attention from our American
friends. Darin Murphy from
CAA Nashville came up because
he was here with Keith Urban,
who presented an award
(during his tour). Some of our
Canadian managers are Ameri-
can heavyweights as well – like
Sam Feldman with Norah Jones
and Ray Danniels with Rush.
We were able to walk these
guys through the building and
explain some of the investments
we made in acoustics and the
infrastructure that the audience
doesn’t necessarily see. We spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars
in acoustic baffling. They may
never have heard about it, seen
it or understood why the show in
Winnipeg was so great and why
everybody loved it. So, it gave me
a chance to point out the tile, the
ceiling, the material on the wall,
the fact that there’s no glass in
our concert setup, and so on and
so forth. It helps make the deci-
sion why an act plays in a theatre
setup rather than two nights in
a theatre across the street.
It helped reestablish Winnipeg
in their tour plans. Thankfully,
whether it’s Canadian acts or
American acts, I’m fortunate
enough to be considered for
virtually every touring property
that’s out there considering
Canada. You couldn’t have said
that a year ago.
What’s the population of
the area?
A The city itself is 700,000 and
the trading area is over a million.
That’s similar to Pollstar’s
home base, Fresno, and the
city’s newest venue, the Save
Mart Center.
A You know what? The architect,
Don Dethlefs, was our architect,
too. So there are some parallels.
Twenty years ago we were
quite an active rock town. AC/DC,
Judas Priest and Bon Jovi would
run through quite regularly. But,
with the evaporation of a local
promoter, everything got based in
Vancouver and we were worrying
about a bunch of markets. The
shows didn’t come as frequently,
and the exchange rate challenged
Canada to compete with compa-
rable markets in America. The
traffic dwindled and the amount
of interest dwindled. Going to
concerts became a really low
priority in the entertainment
experience of this market.
People had to go out of town to
another, newer arena. There was a
belief that if we could get the au-
dience to come back, they’d re-
member how great it was and be
impressed with the fact that you
could go to a big building and
actually hear what the singer’s
singing, hear what he’s saying
between songs, get something
hot to eat and cold to drink.
Any shows surpass your
expectations?
A Surpass our expectations?
Again, I was thrilled with David
Copperfield in my theatre bowl.
And Mötley Crüe’s tour caught a
craze and momentum of its own
that surpassed our expectations,
but I don’t think you can attribute
that to the building. That band
did a really great job of setting up
that tour and reestablishing them-
selves as a top-tier draw here and
everywhere else. We had 11,500
paid, and we didn’t see that com-
ing, but getting 14,000 paid for
Copperfield was great vindication
that there is a market for high-
caliber shows, a demographic
that’s beyond what you typically
think for a semi-arena setting.
ALAYNE AND KEVIN hand out Manitoba Moose jerseys to the Black Eyed Peas July15th with the help of HoB Concerts Canada’s GM of Western Canadian Operations,Paul Haagenson (R).
Ken
t Hart
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The Foo Fighters were here Au-
gust 10th and we were happily the
highest-selling market in western
Canada, so we’ve been surprised
and proud of our achievements
on a number of occasions.
We had a great night with
Black Eyed Peas, sold out Hilary
Duff, sold out Rod Stewart, sold
out Green Day, and did great with
the Foos. We’ve got a 15,000-seat
night coming up with Pearl Jam,
sold out in the round. We’ve got
the Toronto Raptors coming for
an exhibition game, the event is
75 days away, and I’m 40 percent
sold. It’s going to sell out.
Your website includes reviews
for shows.
A Yes, and we get a lot of kudos
from the hockey side. We’re up to
date by intermission for the stats
to that intermission. We know no-
body in the AHL makes that kind
of commitment to their informa-
tion sites and their Web sites.
On the concert side, I’ve got
a really excited young staff and
they come to me with these sug-
gestions. The website is not just
yellow pages anymore. It becomes
a real selling tool that people use
as a resource. We’re still having a
lot of fun and wondering where
we can go with the Web site.
Any favorite shows so far?
A Well, I’m a huge Tragically
Hip fan. In my past promoter
life I did a lot of dates with them,
traveling across the land,
representing House of Blues and
Universal Concerts as they did
record-breaking national tours.
But, you know, Green Day
was a good one. Having the Juno
Awards was a real achievement
– not that I had anything to do
with the actual show or product
onstage, but landing it here in the
marketplace, seeing the impact
it had on tourism and hotels
and the amount of money that
was plowed into the city. It was a
pretty nice moment for me when
I got to sit back and go, “Yes, this
is an idea I had over lunch and
now it’s happening.”
What’s your radius?
A Predominantly, the patrons
are only Winnipeg. We don’t rec-
ommend promoters spend a lot
of money in the rural areas. We
think because of where we are,
it has to work with the 700,000
people in town or it ain’t gonna
work. From a routing perspec-
tive, of the 30 shows I’m getting
here, the majority are traveling
east to west across Canada and
electing to stop in Winnipeg.
If I had an area I wanted to
target, it’s reminding agents that
you can route Minneapolis into
one of the new facilities in Fargo
or Grand Forks up to Winnipeg,
and that it’s a 200 mile drive from
Minneapolis to Fargo or Grand
Forks, and it’s a 200 mile drive
from one of those centers to here.
There’s another natural corridor
there for them.
Was building
the arena
in historic
downtown
controversial?
A I think the
vast majority
totally got the
notion that
this was a great
location for this
kind of facility.
There was a
small minority
that decided they liked the
90-year-old empty Eatons Depart-
ment Store more. We actually had
to fight this vocal minority right
to the Supreme Court of Canada.
It altered our schedule by 12
months but I tell people that it
was a blessing. We never canceled
a meeting, never canceled a
session with the architect or
any of the designers, and we put
those 12 months into good work,
redrilling into every design
element of the building including
the exterior facade, the complete
dressing room layout, the loading
dock concept and got right down
to the basics and built a much
better building. It cost us some
money and some time, but I think
we’re better off. We learned more
about building an arena, learned
more about managing a construc-
tion project and delivered a better
building for the city, the users,
and everybody’s better off.
Because we’re in an urban
center, we have a bunch of
overhead walkways that
connect to neighboring malls
and hotels. We see about 100,000
people a month walk through
the building without a ticket.
And they can walk through
during event times and not
interfere with a ticketed
restricted area. Because of that,
we’ve developed areas that are,
at certain times of the day,
open to the public without a
ticket and, during event times,
they morph and become a
ticketed-only area.
And we figured out a way
to open up concession stands
to street traffic from 7 a.m. to
7 p.m. six days a week and do
so quite successfully.
Every building in every city
is a unique story. What can you
envision that improves yours?
What offers you a new revenue
stream or new marketing
opportunity or makes your
building more ingrained in
the community?s