Comcast-Spectacor rolls up its sleeves and goes to work on most aspects of running sports facilities. One area where it lets someone else do the heavy lifting is providing content.
The company takes a pass on spending large sums of money to buy the concert tours and family shows that help keep its arenas and stadiums busy and profitable between games. It prefers to leave that business — and the risk that goes along with it — to the specialists, national promoters such as Live Nation, AEG Live and Feld Entertainment, plus the smaller regional firms that bring those events to the secondary and college markets where Global Spectrum and its sister companies have carved out their niche.
“Our feeling is that we have a great working relationship with Live Nation and AEG when it comes to the shows, and we don’t feel it’s necessary for us just to be bidding up tours against the people we work closely with,” said Peter Luukko, Comcast-Spectacor’s president and chief operating officer. “Our idea was to be ‘Switzerland’ and be neutral and work with everybody, and it’s been successful that way.”
Global Spectrum does work with its clients to determine whether it makes sense for the building owner to share in the risk to buy an event, whether it is a concert or a home show at a convention center, said John Page, Global’s chief operating officer.
“We are not looking to be a promoter per se, but we do want to control our own destiny,” Page said.
