9:30am - 10:45am

Moderator - Fred Rosen, Outbox Enterprises
- Jo-Ann Armstrong, Honda Center
- Rob Beckham, William Morris Endeavor Nashville
- Michael Marion, Verizon Arena
- Scott Mullen, i wireless Center
- Jon Petrunak, SMG
- Danny Zelisko, Danny Zelisko Presents

When putting dates on hold, promoters, venue representatives and agents have many issues to work out besides the obvious problem of having only 52 weekends per year when just about every act wants Friday or Saturday.

This year’s panel, led by former Ticketmaster CEO and co-CEO/president of Outbox Technologies Fred Rosen, discussed the differences between booking country and rock acts, ticket on-sales, and the importance of integrity and communication.

Scott Mullen of I wireless Center shared how difficult it can be to coordinate holds.

“We had a lot of holds, it looked like it was going to be one of busiest years ever and then I ended up with just two shows. Both of them sold out … But at the same time, I lost opportunities to other shows,” Mullen said. “Sometimes it’s just a shame when the communication isn’t there and the routing changes and it just creates chaos. And sometimes shows are scared away just because of the thought of another show that’s going to be near them and then the other show doesn’t happen and then you don’t get either show.”

Danny Zelisko, who promotes both country and rock shows, noted that there’s a big difference with the genres when it comes to placing holds.

“In the rock business, now I know why tigers eat their young,” Zelisko said. “They will put shows one on top of another. There’s one on the 16th of June, there’s one of the 17th of June. Van Halen’s here, The Scorpions are here. These people stack up all the time. I wish they would have the manners that the country people seem to have as far as giving some respect and some space.

“On the other hand, when doing country, sometimes these people are psycho. Saying you can’t do something 30 days in front or behind me. That means you can only do 12 shows a year instead of 24. I mean, I know buildings that want to do 80 shows. And everybody’s trying to get their own share of the pie.”

Asked to explain the 30-day window, William Morris Endeavor’s Rob Beckham said country is a niche market and, while it’s “really hot” today, goes through cycles.

“There was once six headliners, there was George Strait and Kenny Chesney and whoever, there was natural time there,” Beckham said. “Now there’re 14 headliner tours. All of these guys who were the opening acts and the middle acts are now headliners on these big tours.

“There are two philosophies. One, you’re a 900-pound gorilla and you just go shit on everybody, no matter what happens. And on the other side of this, you play nice. There’s always been a gentleman’s word in Nashville that everyone kind of lets everybody do their thing.”

To SMG’s Jon Petrunak, an issue that goes hand-in-hand with nailing down the show date is the ticket on-sale.

“What we really had a hard time with was Lady Antebellum was confirmed for January, George Strait’s in February, and Blake Shelton or whoever is in March,” Petrunak said. “And then everybody wants to go on sale Nov. 14. And that’s cost us some opportunities where a show can’t go up on sale whenever they want to.”

Rosen asked why on-sales are still mostly scheduled on Saturday morning.

“Almost everything is Internet-driven today. So why isn’t it Thursday night at 6? Or Tuesday afternoon at 4? The whole per-spective of what the Internet gives you is freedom. … Everybody’s fighting for the same on-sale times and why?”

JoAnn Armstrong of the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., which is home to the NHL Anaheim Ducks, talked about the challenges her venue faces when booking dates that must coordinate with the hockey team’s schedule.

“A lot of tours start right in the middle of playoffs,” Armstrong said. “I’m lucky that the general manager of my team is down the hallway. I’m able to kind of walk down there and say, ‘What do you think about this?

Is this a good date, can I move this around?’ I’m able to get an immediate answer, which is great. When you get into the later dates, like the Stanley Cup dates, they’re a little difficult.”

Verizon Arena’s Michael Marion stressed that communication is key.

“The moment an agent calls me about a show to put on hold, I immediately try and make sure they know about all the holds I have, the traffic that I have around it,” Marion said. “It falls on us to be the referees, be the policeman. I’ve lost shows over the years because of my effort to try to maintain some reasonable amount of play in our market. But I also think that’s paid off for me in the long run in that we continue to get shows and we’re considered a good market for most kinds of events.”

Speaking of philosophies, Marion says that he treats holds on a first-come, first-served basis.

“You do have situations where you had a smaller country show that you were going to do in the small theatre configuration and now you get a call to do a bigger show. I will call and say, ‘Hey, can we do this?’ and try and make it work. But at the end of the day I treat it as a first-come, first-served situation.”

Rosen praised Marion for this outlook, noting that “in the world we’re living in today, where every-body is looking for the quick buck and what’s expedient, in a small market, integrity counts for a lot.

I think that’s an important quality to have.”

| Sarah Pittman |