Tonight was my last event at the arena as my internship has come to an end. It was a very bittersweet day but we ended with a great show. The arena hosted over 10,000 patrons for the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert and it was packed! Prior to doors opening, the other interns and I did our typical suite walk through of the 35 suites that were to be occupied for the night. There were many catering issues that were being resolved right up until doors opening.
While doors were open and we waited for the show to begin, I was picking Christy’s brain about how much of the ticket revenue is kept by the arena. She said that not much was allocated back to the arena and most of their revenue came from suites, which is why her job was so important. She and I then talked about my internship semester, recapping what I learned, what I found the most interesting and so on. I really enjoyed the premium services side of the internship as it allowed you to really develop relationships with suiteholders and rental guests, and with great customer service (which Christy has), keep them coming back to the arena for more events (or future contract renewals of their suite). I was able to really learn a lot from observing Christy this semester, watching how she interacted with guests, handled crisis situations, and most of all, dealing with the catering company who often times made her job very difficult and stressful. Tonight, for example, ended up being extremely chaotic at the end of the night because suite bills were not efficiently printed and distributed to the guests so there was extremely long wait times for things to be received, let alone processed. There were even some suite rentals that were so frustrated and fed up with waiting that they simply left without paying, so now the catering group will have to go reach back out to them to try and collect payment information. There were some suites that were still waiting an hour after the show, so we were in situations where we had to profusely apologize on behalf of the arena. Overall, I really enjoyed my time at the Colonial Life Arena and with Christy. The staff there really works well together to make sure the arena is well represented and that they produce quality shows and products to their guests. I did not know much about arena management prior to this internship but I now feel confident in my knowledge, especially related to group sales and premium services
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Tonight was the long awaited Gamecock Gala at the arena. There was a lot to be done so we arrived at 10:00am and began putting together the table tents with the event’s programs. There were 63 tables for the event, and 59 of them received three table tents per table. The remaining four tables were reserved for VIP (USC President, Athletic Director, Senior Staff, Board of Trustees, etc.) and they received flat event programs at each seat.
Once those were all assembled, we went ahead and laid out all of the tablecloths that had been rented for each table. There seemed to be some miscommunication (unfortunately a frequent theme for the night) between the committee chair and the arena about whose responsibility it was to lay those out so I just made the executive decision that we would go ahead and do it since we needed to set out the programs and the centerpieces would be arriving soon and we would want that done beforehand. There was much confusion about the stage design as a psycholorama had been rented and what everyone expected it to look like is not appeared today. The impression was that a giant white screen would be set up that would display, in every point of the screen, the videos and anything else to be projected but instead, the screen was a tan color and there was a projector ‘box’ on the screen. It ended up working out fine, as no one else really knew anything different besides those of us who have been in on those discussions, but it was disappointing knowing what it could have and should have been. All 63 centerpieces had to be arranged so that took nearly 2.5 hours to complete. We did floral arrangements in them, used LED lights, and they turned out great; a very unique and modern look to add to the event. By the time we knew it, doors were near to open and the event would be off and running. There are always some issues to troubleshoot during an event of that size but once it was started, most everything went well. The chairperson was taking notes throughout of things to change for next year and I was giving her feedback on things that I saw. After the event, it was immediately time to breakdown the tables; disassemble centerpieces, collect LED lights, table numbers and stand, and throw away programs. I helped take several of the floral centerpieces to the main athletic building to be displayed and not go to waste. It was definitely a great learning experience to be a part of! Today started off with the final Gamecock Gala meeting before the event (Monday, April 17). There were a lot of areas to cover, especially confirming the audio/visual pieces of the event. New for this year, there will be a 50 foot psychlorama screen that will span the entire stage, plus some. It should be a very dramatic effect, unlike anything the event has previously included. The chair of the event strives to make sure that by the time the student-athletes are seniors, they have seen something different each year. There main audio and lighting group at the arena is providing those pieces again this year, so many conversations were taking place about different light shows throughout the event, highlighting different award winners and guests, etc. All of the deliveries will take place tomorrow (tables, chairs, overlays, etc.) and the main set up will be early Monday morning, including the construction of centerpieces and displays.
After the meeting (lasted from 9-11am), I started to check the groups and premiums email inboxes while Christy and Ti’nesha were out delivering the suiteholder gifts. There was another suite request for the Mary J. Blige concert, but all the suites are currently full so the guest was added to the waiting list which currently sits at 14 people. Christy and Ti’nesha left later in the afternoon to go deliver the rest of the suiteholder gifts and I stayed back at the office as I had to leave shortly after they left. We had a suite open up for Red Hot Chili Peppers this week so I was able to call a guest on the waiting list and offer it to him. Unfortunately, both he and the woman after him passed on it, after being extremely interested in it. I may some work on my selling ability! When I got to the arena today, Christy’s office was filled with gift bags! She explained that they were suite holder gifts, a gesture she does every year. She got them black Yeti brand travel mugs, customized with an engraved Carolina Block C logo and Colonial Life Arena. We may take time to go around and deliver them tomorrow, if not possibly in the coming week.
As I was reading through the groups and premium sales inbox, I noticed an updated ‘What’s on Sale’ document had been sent out, with a note that the 3rd Annual Black Rodeo event had been cancelled. There is a note in the new document that all purchased tickets would be refunded in full. The short reason of why the show was cancelled is because proper payment was not submitted from the show to the arena and after failed attempts to reach out to the show, the arena decided to cancel it. It was a slow afternoon so I tried to dive into Photoshop, a program that I do not have much experience with but I know is extremely valuable. The computer I work on during office hours will (oddly) not let me adjust the volume so I tried to follow along to some YouTube tutorial videos and then try different things out on my own. I feel like Photoshop was introduced and became popular after I graduated college (undergrad) so it was never a requirement for me to learn. It is important for me to stay up to date with technology and how it impacts my work environment, no matter my age. Photoshop may be commonplace for current students so I don’t want to fall behind in any competitive advantages so I know this is something I need to become knowledgeable about, even if it is a basic understanding. I headed to the arena this afternoon for some quick office hours after a busy day at work. Ti’nesha mentioned that a lot of the arena staff was out of the office due to sickness or other reasons so it was a pretty quiet day. She said that they had a busy spurt in the middle of the afternoon but things had slowed down. We went over emails that had come through the premium and group sales inbox and they were primarily regarding group tickets for Disney on Ice shows, suites for graduation, and suites for Mary J. Blige. I helped Ti’nesha with phone calls Christy had asked her to make which were returning calls of patrons with questions similar to the subjects of the emails. The suites for USC graduation have a lengthy waiting list, and with the event being nearly a month away, the call volume asking for updates has started to pick up. At the end of the day, Christy had me draft and email out receipts to patrons who had recently purchased suite rentals for the following upcoming events: Disney on Ice, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Thomas Rhett. An example of the receipt is below: I went to the arena this morning to complete some office hours – with so few events during April, I am looking forward to doing some office work to get a better idea of day to day operations with group and premium sales.
There as a buzz around the office today as two future shows went on sale: Anthony Hamilton and Thomas Rhett. Thomas Rhett opened at 10:00AM and Anthony Hamilton opened at 12:00PM and there was a small line of people in line for the Rhett concert. The staff entrance to the box office is near all the staff offices and cubes so we can see and hear a lot of the action. It is always a stressful couple of hours for Shannon, the box office manager, as she watches sales come in to make sure Ticketmaster is working properly. Christy was working on her quarterly commission reports from her group and premium sales this morning. She explained that when the arena was previously owned by Global Spectrum, she would make nearly 50% of revenue generated from those two tickets groups but now, since the arena is owned by the university, and therefore, the state, she makes about 2%. I asked if her base salary has been adjusted to compensate for that and she laughed, saying that would be part of her annual review discussion. Disney on Ice is coming to the arena at the end of April and like the circus, will host a school show. Christy had Ti’nesha and I call to follow up with a list of nearly 15 people who had reserved group seating for the show to collect payment. Most schools will be on Spring Break next week so we need to collect payment by April 14 (soft deadline) or April 21 at the latest (hard deadline). Ti’nesha asked if I would do most of the calls as she wasn’t super comfortable with it. I have a lot of experience in those types of calls (and calls in general) so I had no problem doing that. We followed up with everyone via email and attached their accompanying invoice based on their ticket reservation. It tends to be a slower process because the schools have to request the check through their district and that takes time. Today was a busy day with different things going on at the arena. In a few weeks, the athletic department will host the annual Gamecock Gala, an event that honors and recognizes the athletic achievements of student-athletes from the last year. The event will be held at the arena so today was one of the final planning meetings. While there are no suites involved, there are major event management aspects that I am able to assist with, including stage design, floor layout, catering, lights, music, and overall program entertainment. Many of the arena related tasks have been able to be worked out over the last few weeks but with the success of both men’s and women’s basketball teams, many items of the event had to be put on hold and have just recently been decided (i.e. award winners). There was some discussion about changing the seating layout but due to stipulations from the Fire Marshall, we had to direct the group back to the original stage design. I returned back to the arena this afternoon for office hours and worked with Ti’nesha on returning phone calls to people who inquired about suites for the upcoming Red Hot Chili Peppers, group sales for Disney on Ice, and suite rentals for USC graduation. There is currently a waiting list for all the sessions of USC graduation and people are becoming impatient with knowing if they will receive a suite or not. We discussed how the Disney on Ice school show is different from the previous Circus school show, because ‘regular’ patrons were buying tickets for the Circus because of it being the final run of the show. An example of a group sales order form that we use is below: We then went around and did a suite check from last night’s concert and replaced the calendar of events sign stand that are found in each suite. We recorded some different issues we found in some suites and sent them to Christy, color-coding them based on whose department it is (catering and operations).
Back in the fall, a student tweeted at USC Alumni and famous country singer, Darius Rucker, to see if he would host a concert on campus if the football team went to a bowl game. The team had a new coach last fall and was in need of a revival so Darius agreed to the wager. Sure enough, the football team went to a postseason bowl game and Darius held true to his word. There has been a lot of excitement around USC lately, especially in athletics. Our men’s basketball team made an extremely surprising run to the Final Four and the women’s team won the National Championship. So tonight was a great way to celebrate all three of the programs. From the start, the concert was only open to USC students, faculty, and staff which made it intimate and truly a celebration of the student body.
The city (and region as a whole) experienced some very severe weather this afternoon, which led to the university cancelling classes from 1:00PM through the rest of the day. There were tornado warnings and the city is extremely prone to flash flooding. This caused a lot of confusion for the concert as many worried about the conditions of heading into the arena. Christy was fielding several calls from suiteholders (who were able to purchase suite tickets) about seeking a refund or transferring their tickets to another concert this summer, but after consulting the arena’s general manager, issuing a refund would only occur if the governor issued a state of emergency. The show went on as scheduled, likely because the university had invested a great deal of money to cancel it and nearly 8,000 attendees made it to the arena for a great concert. We encountered more issues with the catering group prior to doors opening as well as during the event. It is frustrating because their unapproachability makes it difficult to relay issues or troubleshoot problems. I am often met with an eye roll or challenged on the information I’m providing but I hold my ground to get the suites what they need based on what they ordered. |