The circus has invaded Columbia, SC and this weekend is packed full of shows. Since the circus announced that it was closing after their current tour, tickets have skyrocketed. As of yesterday, over 33,500 tickets had been sold, compared to last year’s 12,500 on opening day. I have fond memories of going to the circus as a kid so it was neat to be able to (somewhat) see if during its final run. Since this was a Friday morning show, it was designated as the school show so over 50 buses of school aged kids were brought to the event. I was in charge of facilitating drop-off and making sure the bus drivers had proper information on where to park, the shuttle that would bring them back to the arena, and details on when to bring the buses back. It was pretty crazy once multiple buses started arriving at once, and I realistically could have afforded to have one more person out there with me to divide and conquer. I made it work and the parking services crew definitely helped. Christy had printed off informational sheets with instructions that had previously been emailed to the teachers/chaperones on one side and a parking map on the other. It took over an hour to get everyone unloaded and inside. Once inside, other staff members had packets of where each school was sectioned to sit so they could help direct them to their seats. Christy had some seating issues she later shared where she inadvertently placed two groups in the same section and didn’t allow enough ‘buffer’ area for if they need more space. She was able to efficiently troubleshoot the problem but there were some definite kinks that can be worked out for the next big family show, Disney on Ice.
The show finally started and we were able to sit in a suite and watch most of it. Once it started to get towards the end of the program, I went back outside with the police officers helping direct traffic. As the show let out, the herds of students and chaperones came out of the arena so we helped them find their bus, get loaded, and head out. I’m going out of town tonight so I won’t be able to work anymore shows but I know getting this one out of the way was a huge relief for Christy!
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The men’s basketball team faced off against Auburn tonight and it ended up being a huge blowout in favor of the Gamecocks. We had some suite temperate issues again but there is ice under the basketball court floor for this weekend’s circus which is contributing to the chilliness.
Before the game started, Christy allowed me to process a handful of suite ticket orders for the circus and other upcoming family shows, and some group ticket orders. I did some work with this system last week and I wanted to get some more experience. The process is extremely detailed and there are so many different codes. Although I wrote down step by step instructions, I still needed to rely on Christy for a lot of it. I started to get the hang of it by the time I got through the stack and I hope to continue to hone my skills at this. It reminded me of when I learned the statistical software for our volleyball program. I was very overwhelmed at first because it was in a totally different ‘language’ but the more I practiced it, the better I became. I’m confident that the more I practice processing ticket orders, I’ll have a great grasp on it by the end of my internship. There was a special event going on in one of the suites tonight. There was a boy who had a terminal heart condition and he was fulfilling his Make a Wish night. They stocked the suite with hotdogs, flavored popcorn, dip and dots, cotton candy, etc. and he had the best time. Plus, his one wish was to meet Cocky, the USC mascot. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there when he got to meet Cocky but I’m sure it was so special. From what I heard, the boy had the best time and loved his experience. Christy recently shared a document with me called “What’s on Sale?” It contains every detail about every concert and family show; parking, ticket pricing, doors open time, event start time, event hashtag, discounts, arena information, etc. It is an important document to have and reference throughout the entire spring. The full document can be found here. Time for the circus! Tonight was another women’s basketball game but it was an exciting one as our 5th ranked team hosted #4 Mississippi State. It was a relatively quiet night in terms of suite holder needs; the only real issue was the temperature in many of the suites. Some were too cold while others were too warm but with a simple phone call to the operations staff, it was fixed. The game was extremely close and the atmosphere was definitely what pushed the Gamecocks to secure the win.
The staff is gearing up for the weekend; the circus comes to town! There are seven shows starting Thursday night through Sunday afternoon and with it being the last year of the circus, ticket sales have skyrocketed. This is great for Christy as many of the ticket sales are due to groups, her area of responsibility. She receives a commission from group sales so while her phone rings non-stop and emails are flooding in, she takes it in stride. I am looking forward to working one of the circus shows and seeing how different it is compared to everything else we’ve seen. February will be a month packed with basketball, concerts, and family events so it should provide a lot of interesting learning situations. Today was a great mix of office work and an event. I went into the office around lunch time and enjoyed some catered lunch from a trade out deal with a local Mexican restaurant. From there, I sat with Christy as she returned calls with questions about the upcoming circus. People had questions about parking prices, different pricing options based on space in arena and availability (utilized program in Ticketmaster to relay this information to guests), and more. Her phone has been ringing non-stop about group sales for the circus! Christy has started to send me meeting invitations for production meetings for upcoming events. In a couple weeks, I’ll attend a meeting for Monster Jam, so I look forward to seeing what those entail. Then we went over how to process suite ticket orders using their complex system. It was a detailed, step-by-step method that was quite complicated. She let each of us (me, Tanisha, and the new intern Vanessa) complete an order while she stood by and helped us walk through our notes. Each day, Christy has to complete a ticket batch of all the orders she processed. This includes calculating all the credit card, check, and cash payments she collected with the accompanying receipts. By the time we finished up the paperwork, we needed to do our suite walk through for the concert. Sound check for the artists was taking place at the same time and they were very particular about people watching sound check so we had to do what we needed to do but also not appear to be watching their warmups. Once we completed our walk through, I talked with the Marketing Manager, Chanelle, about the trade shots they do for each performance. The marketing team provides a gift to the performers, typically something specific to the city/state/university, and the artist takes a picture with the senior management of the arena. Chanelle then uses these pictures, ‘trade shots’, to market the arena in trade magazines to try and get other big acts to perform. The concert was great and even though sales were down (4,400), it was a great atmosphere. The concert ran until about 10:45pm, but guests lingered around in the suites longer than normal so it took us longer to close everything down, wrapping up at midnight. Tonight was a women’s basketball game versus Ole Miss and compared to the other games, especially last night, was relatively slow. There wasn’t too big of a crowd and many of the suite holders did not attend. Christy has pretty much turned over the reins to Tanisha and I with pregame setup, in game check-ins, and post-game close up responsibilities. She has told us how much she appreciates how fast we’ve caught on to everything and the initiative we take to get things done.
Before we got started, I was asking Christy about sales projections for concerts and shows that come to the Colonial Life Arena. I asked how they come to project sales and ticket goals, especially for new acts that have not previously performed at the arena. She said that management buys acts based on their likelihood to sell in the area. From there, they determine the breakeven point from what the promoter is paying the artist. They can then determine how many tickets they need to sell in order to meet those breakeven numbers. I then asked her if she thought the time of year the act was performing affected sales numbers. She thought it did, especially being in a college town. In addition, she thought that if sale of an event opened with a significant amount of time before the actual performance, it could skew how performance is measured and tracked as many people would not likely purchase ticket six months out, unless they were a diehard fan. It was very interesting to discuss and she sent me the daily sales grid of each event with tracking information on box office sales, internet and phone sales, revenue from each, and how each event compared to last year (or last time they were in Columbia) in regards to number of tickets sold and revenue, in the same timeframe out of the event. Tomorrow will have a different look to my experience as not only will I be getting some office hours in with Christy but we’re hosting a country concert, Lee Brice! Tonight the CLA highlighted the South Carolina men’s basketball team versus the University of Florida. It was a top 25 showdown and the arena was packed. There were a lot of catering orders in the suites that Tanisha and I needed to check so it took us a little longer than normal to go through each one to make sure it was prepped.
Once doors opened and the arena started to fill up, we began our walk-throughs and ran into some interesting catering issues. Many suites had either not previously ordered food and drink and wanted to place an order or people wanted refills on beer, wings, burgers, etc. Tanisha and I laughed as it appeared the suite holders had not yet recognized us or haven’t realized that we aren’t suite attendants but we were flexible and helped place orders through the catering office. We submitted about 5 consecutive orders during our visits. I tried to track down the assigned suite attendants but to no avail, so we just handled it ourselves. We made our rounds and made plans to go back and check on those who ordered more items at the 5:00 minute mark in the first half. Those who ordered more drinks successfully received them but there were still some delays with the food. Tanisha and I met up with Christy and we went to the pantry office to check on the status, which they assured us the food would be delivered soon, and it was. Christy joked with us that she eased us in to the job with the first couple games and now we were really starting to see the craziness, especially on games of that caliber! The game resulted in a Gamecock win so many of the guests and suite holders stayed around to hear Coach Martin’s post-game press conferences. Once everyone had cleared out for the night, we walked through to close everything up, only to prepare for the women’s basketball game tomorrow night. Before tonight’s event got started, I was asking Christy about the impact on sales for the circus coming to town next weekend after it was announced that it would no longer be in production. She said that since the announcement, ticket sales have risen from 3,000 to over 15,000 and $75,000 in sales. Her phone has been ringing off the hook with group ticket requests, which is of much relief to her as she was worried about not meeting her sales goals. I’m looking forward to working a couple of these shows next week! We were back tonight for a Carolina basketball game and tonight featured the men’s team versus Ole Miss. The men’s basketball team has been resurrected over the past several years thanks to Coach Frank Martin and crowds are showing up to see the defensive minded team in action. Tonight was no different! Christy turned over the pre-game suite checks to my fellow intern Tanisha and I. We went through and made sure BEO orders were being prepared, turned on TVs, straightened up the rooms, and opened the bar and liquor cabinets. In the meantime, Christy was troubleshooting a possible catering issue. The athletic director was hosting guests in his suite and there was a very small catering order submitted, one that she felt was not enough for the number of guests they anticipated and different from what they typically order. There was some miscommunication between those responsible for ordering food for that suite, Christy, and the catering company and for a moment, it was quite tense. Luckily, Christy was able to clear up the situation, get the proper order and relay it to the catering manager, all before doors opened. Once the crowd had filled in and the game was getting ready to start, Christy had us go around and start checking in on the suites. Even though each suite is assigned an attendant to address any catering or bar needs, this is a nice touch to just extend the hospitality. Many of the guests recognized us from the women’s basketball game on Thursday night and struck up conversations, but most were into the start of the game and simply thanked us and went back to watching. It was a relatively ‘quiet’ night related to any suite issues, which allowed us to enjoy the game from the staff suite. Once the game was over (South Carolina won!), Christy, Tanisha and I went around closing up each suite. With three people helping, it gets done quickly and we’re able to go home for the night.
One neat event from the game was the honoring of the USC student who was recently named a Rhodes Scholar. His story is really fascinating and I’ve linked the NBC Nightly News story below for your enjoyment! Tonight was my first event with the Colonial Life Arena and it went great! The Gamecock women’s basketball team hosted Georgia, which is typically a big rivalry in any sport. The women’s team is ranked #5 in the national polls but Georgia held it very close, coming down to late free throws to secure the Gamecock win. Below is a timeline that outlines my night:
Arrive to CLA @ 3:30 p.m. (1.5 hours before doors open) Upon arrival, I met with Christy and was introduce to the other intern, Tainisha, who is a junior at USC. They were finishing up some ticketing tasks and we soon began our suite walk through. During this time, Christy emphasized the importance of relationships with the companies and people who purchase the suites. As we saw tonight, those who had bought suites for basketball games were likely to purchase for other arena events (concerts, Monster Truck, etc.). During our walk through, we checked all 37 suites to make sure everything was properly arranged and presentable, TVs were turned on, and if any of the suites had catering orders, made sure that the food had been set up (remain wrapped to ensure freshness). Christy talked about the different tendencies of each suite holder; how they liked their suite arranged, what type of food they typically ordered, what their tie was to USC, etc. It was evident that she has really invested in her job and the relationships associated with it. After all the suites had been checked, we went back to Christy’s office to review any pending items for the night. Once completed, we received the game programs from the IMG marketing interns and placed two in every suite. Doors Open (5:30 p.m.) Christy was called into a suite of a woman who was interested in buying the suite for the women’s basketball game versus Tennessee, a marquee matchup. It was great to watch Christy interact with this woman who you would have thought she had known for years. She immediately connected with her, talked about pricing, and soon were exchanging contact information to get the woman set up for the suite. We waited in an empty suite as the reserved suites began to fill up. Once the game began and the patrons had started to fil the suites, we revisited each one and checked in to make sure everyone had all they had requested and needed. Everyone was so appreciative of Christy’s hospitality and kindness! Once we made our way through each of the suites and addressed any particular needs, we went back to the empty suite to watch the rest of the game and grab a quick bite to eat. Halftime The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Baily Circus are coming to the CLA at the end of January so for promotional purposes, they had two clowns visit the game, watch the first half from a suite, and then do a 4 minute half time performance. We visited them in their suite and as we entered, there were the two clowns casually sitting on the couch! See below for a picture and quick video from their performance. Today was my first day at my internship with the Colonial Life Arena and I was very eager to get started. I had arranged a meeting with my internship coordinator, Christy Catoe, to talk about my schedule and start going on some details about her job and what I would be helping her with. We decided that with my work schedule, it would be best if I worked in the office with her on Fridays and then assist with venue events which include South Carolina men’s and women’s basketball games and what they call ‘family shows’; concerts, performing acts, etc. Christy provided me with an extensive breakdown of all the spring events, event times, door opening times, and when I should plan to arrive to the arena. I love the organization! Christy is responsible for two primary areas; group sales and premium seating. She shared that she likes the premium seating piece better as it allows her to develop relationships with the suite holders. Christy provided me the grid she uses to keep track of which suites are sold, to whom, and their catering needs. There are 42 suites, 4 entertainment suites, and one major suite (called the McGuire Club) that are available for purchase. The picture below is the grids for an upcoming women’s basketball game and for an April concert. The different colors represent paid, unpaid, complimentary suites, and suite holders with tickets. I asked about the difficulty of selling certain suites based on their location in the arena and she said that certain ones are very difficult to sell for basketball games because their location in proximity to the basket. Christy then shared the 2016-17 suite packages projections which lists all the events the cost of the total package, suite ticket price, number of tickets, rental fees, food credits, the number of suites budgeted for that specific event and the number rented. For basketball events, the CLA staff sets the suite price based on the quality of opponent. For example, in men’s basketball, a suite for a game against Kentucky or Florida will run higher than those suite prices for other conference match-ups where the opponent is not so highly ranked.
I have my first event on Thursday night as the women’s basketball team hosts Georgia! |