As Chief Marketing & Revenue Officer for Circuit of the Americas, GEOFF MOORE's plate gets more full every day. The burgeoning motorsports and entertainment venue already hosts an annual MotoGP event and the only F1 race in the states, and will welcome the X Games for the first time next summer. Prior to working for COTA, Moore was the first employee hired by the Stars when they relocated to Dallas in '93, and ran the team's business operations for six years. He says working for COTA has led to a different mentality than his time focusing on several games per week with the NHL team. "There were a lot of Tuesdays and Wednesdays, things like that," Moore said. "But when you're a venue like us, MotoGP only comes once a year, so it's like Christmas. F1 comes once a year, so it's like Christmas too." THE DAILY caught up with Moore at the '13 Motorsports Marketing Forum in Las Vegas, where he spoke about what's in store for the X Games, the importance of a glass half-full, and the advantages of living in a music Mecca.
Target audience...
There are literally F1 fans all over the world, it truly is a global league, and the opportunity for F1 is immense. You're really going after people based on their affinity for F1 versus their geographic distance from you. If you really care about attending an event, the amount of money you'll spend and the distance you’ll travel to do it increases. Our marketplace is all of North America, all of Central America. We get a lot of visitation from Latin America and Western Europe as well. We sell tickets in all 50 states, and something like 55 different countries.
X Games X-Factors...
If you went to the X Games in Los Angeles, you bought individual tickets for different events. If you wanted to go to the motorsports events, you had to go outside downtown L.A. The benefit we have with our facility is that you can sell a festival ticket. I think there's a lot of upside there. People are going to spend a lot more time overall at the facility during the weekend because they have access to everything. We see that as a big opportunity.
Looking for in a job candidate...
One is optimism. Someone has to feel that their effort will make a difference, that they can change things. They can't just feel that fate is going to do what fate is going to do and they're a passive player. They have to feel like their effort matters and can make a positive change. The second thing is unselfishness. The organizations have to be served, the fans have to be served, and your coworkers have to be served. You have to have a servant attitude towards the organization.
Sports industry needs more...
The industry is diverse. When you are making decisions about your products and your messaging, if you don't have any diversity in your organization, it's really hard for you to understand how that message or product would be interpreted over the entire marketplace. I don't think you ever want to do things that limit the market you can speak to. You don't want to assume that all of your fans feel the same way about any issue.
In my downtime...
I've got four kids, ages 13, 7, 7 and 5. The 13-year-old is a boy, identical twin daughters and another daughter. When I go home, interacting with them just takes you to another place -- a different world. Nothing that you do interests them. They want to show you things they've done, they want to tell you stories, they want you to come into their world.
Austin eateries...
We're lucky because we're downtown, so we're close to a lot of great places. There's a place called Manuel's for Tex-Mex and Lamberts for barbecue. You cannot go wrong with either of those. (Manuel's) is just a great southern comfort barbecue place. I'm not saying you'll go run a marathon after you eat there, but it is a great place to go.
Minding my music...
My old-school stuff would be R.E.M. and U2. Then living in Austin, you get exposed to a lot of new kind of Americana bands. THE LUMINEERS, FAMILY OF THE YEAR. We have an amphitheater at our facility, so we'll bring in 20 big acts a year. It's a great mix of bands.
