Four NFL teams have joined to form the Football Stadium Network, an organization designed to book concerts and other non-football events at their facilities, said Art Rooney II, president of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Steelers at Heinz Field, Detroit Lions (Ford Field), Denver Broncos (Invesco Field) and New England Patriots (Gillette Stadium) hope to have the network “up and running by the end of this year to have an impact on the summer season next year,” Rooney said. Other teams have been approached and are interested, he added.
“We created this group in response to the fact that a lot of NFL teams either control their buildings or have the rights to do events in addition to football,” he said. “Our ambition is somewhat modest; if we can do two to four concerts per year, we feel like we’d accomplish what we set out to do.”
Tom Rooney, Art Rooney’s cousin and former president of the NHL Penguins, is coordinating the effort as part of his consultant’s role with the Steelers. He will hire a full-time staff that will work independently from the teams’ stadium operations divisions and be paid from fees contributed by each member of the nonprofit entity.
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| Pittsburgh's Heinz Field brought in the Rolling Rock Town Fair music festival in 2003. |
Tom Rooney worked previously for Pace, a regional concert promoter that was acquired by SFX Entertainment in 1997, which in turn was bought by Clear Channel in 2000.
Heinz Field hosted a Labor Day weekend rib festival featuring the Charlie Daniels Band and Little River Band, a special event that Tom Rooney helped organize. The stadium opened with ’N Sync in July 2001, and the Rolling Rock Town Fair, a daylong music fest, played there in 2003.
The NFL consortium is loosely based on the Arena Network, a Los Angeles-based company that represents 42 arenas in North America. The Arena Network is among the producers of the T.J. Maxx 2004 Tour of Gymnastics Champions, which begins Wednesday.
Art Rooney acknowledged that there were no stadium concert tours in 2004 and that the number of acts that can attract crowds of 40,000-plus has dwindled in recent years to a precious few. “There are some challenges to it,” he said.
Tom Lewand, Lions vice president and chief operating officer, said, “It makes sense in the industry and the league to have as much information flowing as possible on noncompetitive issues.”
CHANGE IN ORLANDO: Allen Johnson replaces the retiring
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| Johnson |
Bill Becker on Sept. 27 as general manager of the city-owned Orlando Centroplex, which includes T.D. Waterhouse Centre, and his goal is to work more closely with the NBA Magic to enhance game-day revenue in the 15-year-old arena. “The team doesn’t run the venue, which is unusual in this environment, where most franchises control their facilities,” Johnson said. “I’m going to approach this as a partnership and strengthen that relationship.”
Johnson, formerly GM of the Lakeland (Fla.) Civic Center, has attended Magic games and thinks the team and the building can do more things to boost per caps, such as planning pregame parties with live entertainment. “There hasn’t been a big push by either group to have the fans arrive early,” he said. “They have not completely captured that part of it. It’s the experience we’re all selling, the game and everything that goes with it.”
Becker leaves after 28 years in Orlando. He started in the business in 1965 at age 15 as a member of the grounds crew at old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minn.
HE’LL MANAGE: Roger Newton is on the move again. The veteran arena manager started last month as Centerplate’s executive director of facility management. Centerplate’s business is predominantly concessions, but the publicly held company does operate the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, S.C., and the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Conn. The firm is renewing its focus on facility management and will bid more aggressively for those contracts, CEO Larry Honig said during the firm’s second-quarter earnings call in July. Newton was most recently GM of the SMG-managed Ford Park in Beaumont, Texas.
Don Muret can be reached at dmuret@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
