Fact #78304
When:
Short story:
A new music arena, Sydney Entertainment Centre, opens in Sydney, Australia, Oceania, with a concert by Barry Manilow.
Full article:
Kevin Jacobsen of Arena Management became an arena pioneer when he founded the Sydney Entertainment Centre in 1983. Still ranked high among the world’s most prominent entertainment entrepreneurs, he remains a proudly independent operator. Johnny Black gets his insider view of the arena biz.
You opened Sydney Entertainment Centre on May 1, 1983 with a Barry Manilow concert…
That’s right. It was built by the state government, so we were the first public/private partnership in that field in Australia, Oceania.
As a fiercely independent entrepreneur, do you feel the big multi-nationals are squeezing the indies out of the arena biz?
I have a bit of a philosophy regarding the entertainment business which is that it’s really not suited to huge conglomerates … but we shall see.
It’s a business where individuals need to be given their space, or their head, to be creative and do their own thing. Being bogged down by the bureaucratic structure of a huge company just won’t work in the long run. It’s like the artists, you know? A creative individual like, say, Bruce Springsteen, has to do his own thing.
I just don’t know what these people can offer to venues in Australia unless they buy on a worldwide basis and hand it over to some promoter here. It suits the agents and managers to have the promoters buying independently.
Some of these international players have approached Australian promoters, but they’ve been knocked back. They go on their own.
What changes have you seen in the arena business since you started?
One obvious change is that there’s a lot more of them, and that the major companies have a lot of them tied up.
Also, the content is moré wide-ranging now. The Wiggles (massively successful Australian children’s group) is a good example. They do a huge Christmas show which runs for three weeks with up to ten shows a week. Then you have Disney On Ice and the like, and of course basketball. We also create our own shows, such as the Public Schools Spectacular, where creating the production becomes part of the school curriculum for almost every school in the state. It involves about three and a half thousand kids, a huge spectacle, some great talent, and it sells out for five nights. Three thousand kids, of course, means six thousand parents.
Is the credit crunch affecting you?
We’re not seeing any drop as yet. Pink went on sale the other day and has sold out eight shows already and I think she’ll end up doing ten or twelve at Sydney Entertainment Centre, which is twelve times 11,000. Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Chris Isaac … they’re all selling well.
As the financial crisis deepens, do you worry that people will spend less at the venue?
We’ve just spent $5.5m rejuvenating the Entertainment Centre. We’ve demolished the old bars and put in huge open foyers, new backstage facilities, re-painted, refurbished, re-located the merchandising areas, so we’ve actually increased our food, beverage and merchandise take by 20%. It’s important, of course, because that can be the difference between making a profit or a loss.
We control our own food and beverage which enables us to fine-tune what we’re selling to suit the type of show that’s on. So if we’ve got a truck-pull in, we’ll sell a bit of hard spirits and lots of beer, but for Disney On Ice it’s candy floss, soft drinks and ice cream.
(Source : Interview with Johnny Black for Audience magazine, 2008)
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You opened Sydney Entertainment Centre on May 1, 1983 with a Barry Manilow concert…
That’s right. It was built by the state government, so we were the first public/private partnership in that field in Australia, Oceania.
As a fiercely independent entrepreneur, do you feel the big multi-nationals are squeezing the indies out of the arena biz?
I have a bit of a philosophy regarding the entertainment business which is that it’s really not suited to huge conglomerates … but we shall see.
It’s a business where individuals need to be given their space, or their head, to be creative and do their own thing. Being bogged down by the bureaucratic structure of a huge company just won’t work in the long run. It’s like the artists, you know? A creative individual like, say, Bruce Springsteen, has to do his own thing.
I just don’t know what these people can offer to venues in Australia unless they buy on a worldwide basis and hand it over to some promoter here. It suits the agents and managers to have the promoters buying independently.
Some of these international players have approached Australian promoters, but they’ve been knocked back. They go on their own.
What changes have you seen in the arena business since you started?
One obvious change is that there’s a lot more of them, and that the major companies have a lot of them tied up.
Also, the content is moré wide-ranging now. The Wiggles (massively successful Australian children’s group) is a good example. They do a huge Christmas show which runs for three weeks with up to ten shows a week. Then you have Disney On Ice and the like, and of course basketball. We also create our own shows, such as the Public Schools Spectacular, where creating the production becomes part of the school curriculum for almost every school in the state. It involves about three and a half thousand kids, a huge spectacle, some great talent, and it sells out for five nights. Three thousand kids, of course, means six thousand parents.
Is the credit crunch affecting you?
We’re not seeing any drop as yet. Pink went on sale the other day and has sold out eight shows already and I think she’ll end up doing ten or twelve at Sydney Entertainment Centre, which is twelve times 11,000. Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Chris Isaac … they’re all selling well.
As the financial crisis deepens, do you worry that people will spend less at the venue?
We’ve just spent $5.5m rejuvenating the Entertainment Centre. We’ve demolished the old bars and put in huge open foyers, new backstage facilities, re-painted, refurbished, re-located the merchandising areas, so we’ve actually increased our food, beverage and merchandise take by 20%. It’s important, of course, because that can be the difference between making a profit or a loss.
We control our own food and beverage which enables us to fine-tune what we’re selling to suit the type of show that’s on. So if we’ve got a truck-pull in, we’ll sell a bit of hard spirits and lots of beer, but for Disney On Ice it’s candy floss, soft drinks and ice cream.
(Source : Interview with Johnny Black for Audience magazine, 2008)