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A Conversation with Allan Vella - New Manager of the Saginaw County Events Center By Robert E. Martin In May of this year Saginaw County voters approved a modest 10-year operating millage to keep the doors of the Saginaw Civic Center open to the public and raise money for debt service on much needed repairs, renovations, and modernization of the facility. When the County took the facility over from the City of Saginaw, one of the first things they did was hire the top-notch management company SMG to handle daily operations of Wendler Arena, Heritage Theatre, and Unity Hall. Allan C. Vella is the new General Manager of the freshly renamed County Events Center. Charged with turning the facility around and diminishing the $739,000 subsidy that city taxpayers plowed into the Center last year, Vella is a young, personable, and driven man, optimistic about prospects for the future. Allan Vella - Manager of the Saginaw Events Center Recently we sat down with the new General Manger to talk about his assessment of the Events Center, his goals for the next year, and the constantly changing face of the entertainment business. Review: Lets start at the beginning. How did you first get interested in promotion? Vella: Back when I was in high school I was a drummer in a rock band; actually, a drummer in many rock bands. I was convinced I'd be a huge rock star and I grew up in a suburb outside of Chicago. I wasn't planning on going to college, but my parents convinced me to be a drummer with an education, so I agreed and went to the University of Iowa. While at college I realized that I was a lousy drummer so decided to get involved in the business aspect of entertainment. The University puts on the Riverside Festival which is a pretty big event that culminates in a huge concert, so I got my first taste of producing live events at college. The University also had an entity called SCOPE that involved students commissioning entertainment, and I was involved with them for two years. I started as an usher coordinator and then moved up to the point where I was working with the Director for a 50,000 seat arena, a 2,500 seat performing arts center, an 800 seat ballroom with a self-generating budget of about a million dollars. I got involved with talent buying there and worked with acts such as Elton John, Tina Turner, and the Psychedelic Furs. After college, I realized there were a limited number of avenues. You can work for bands, promoters, agencies, or facilities. With agencies you start in the mailroom and work to the top, and promoters are essentially personnel, a bank of telephones, and some cash flow, so I realized facilities are a lot more stable. I started sending my resume to promoters like Brass Ring and Cellar Door and got a lot of rejection letters, but then got offered a job with Olympia Entertainment in Detroit. I was very impressed because it was a well-run organization, although I never expected to end up in Detroit. At any rate, I started as a production coordinator and moved 55 concerts in my first year, working with the likes of Bob Seger, Bon Jovi, Prince, and Bruce Springsteen, so I definitely 'cut my teeth' at Olympia. After that I worked with Cobo Arena, Joe Louis and then got a job as Vice- President of Events at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Eventually I became director and worked there for five years, but decided to move to Glen Falls, New York, where I worked with a Hockey Club for about a year. When I returned to Detroit, I came back as Director of Merchandizing for the Red Wings, Second City, The Tigers, The Fox and Cobo, and eventually was asked to operate the Fox Theatre, where I was manager for four years. I've been involved with SMG for just a few months and have spent a total of 13 years in this business. A friend of mine, Dan Cooper, that I met at SCOPE followed me to Detroit when I moved to event booking. He left and went with SMG. When I was looking for something fresh, I called Dan and he put me in touch with the people here. So amazingly, it all comes back to college! Review: What do you feel makes a good events manager? Vella: First and foremost is customer perspective. You have to be aware of their needs and remember to maintain a grand sense of occasion around each event. You have to remember to provide for the wants and needs of your customers, provide adequate parking, a clean environment, and make sure your staff is customer friendly, which is true of any business. Review: It is very rare for most County Events Centers across the country to make a profit and for most of them the goal is to break even. What are your goals for this Center? Vella: Our goals are coming down to reducing expenses whenever we can, reduce or eliminate the subsidy on the part of the County, and provide a variety of entertainment that fits the needs of the community. We want to create a professionally run and operated facility and provide a venue for local attractions and events, local organizations such as the Orchestra, Saginaw Community Concerts, and the Choral Society, as well as national events. Review: What do you think was the problem with the way the City was running the Center? Vella: The rate they were charging for the facility wasn't adequate to cover expense, plus the event load was not covering overhead. I want to increase the event load and adjust the rates. All ancillary revenue is important because the artist is guaranteed their cut. They get the lions' share. Even the promoter doesn't walk away with a lot of money, and the promoter is the one taking the risk. Review: What do you perceive as the frequency and caliber of shows for this size market? Vella: Well, I think we're restricted in two ways. One is capacity. Major artists want to know how much money they can pull out. Secondly, I think frankly we are more of a market for up-and-coming artists or those in a slight downslide. JoDee Messina is a good example of an up-and-coming artist that we are bringing in for a show on September 30th. Frankly, for most major rock shows, you need a large capacity. Review: Isn't it true that today a lot of the major venues put radius clauses in their contracts, so acts that are playing down at the Palace are unable to play an off or second night here in Saginaw? Vella: You see a few of those, but that doesn't affect it much. Actually many times you can get lucky because Saginaw is in a good geographic location for routing. It isn't far from Grand Rapids, Lansing, or Detroit. Review: What about Unity Hall? Are you going to market that stronger? Vella: I think Unity Hall has been undervalued. It will be renovated, revamped, remodeled and have new equipment. Plus we've hired a bona fide Chef with a culinary degree, so we'll be in an ideal position for banquets and wedding receptions. People will be impressed when we're finished with it. Review: How about the staff? Did SMG hire all new people, or are there still some holdovers from when the City ran the facility? Vella: Apart from myself we recently hired Matthew Rich as our new Finance Director and John Stark as Director of Operations. The Box Office Manager is the same and a handful of other people we've retained, but we have cut the staff levels down. Maintenance is down from 14 to 5 and the Box Office staff has been trimmed, but we've also hired a Chef, as I mentioned, and a new payables person. Other areas are shifting, so we're gearing up now. Review: What do you see as your biggest challenge? Vella: Looking everything over I am optimistic. I see the glass half-full and not half-empty. The building is in good condition and the renovation is mostly cosmetic. The infrastructure issue is being addressed. Actually, I view the biggest challenge as letting the national event producers know we're back in business. There was a period where the future of the facility was uncertain, and a lot of the major shows are booked 36 months out, so a lot of people took us off the routing sheet. Now we've got to get back on it. Review: How does major concert-booking work today? Isn't it true that one big company will bid on an entire tour, as opposed to individual promoters like Cellar Door handling it? Vella: In the old days you had individual promoters, but today SFX has bought most of them up. Plus SFX has been bought up by ClearChannel Entertainment. They own radio stations, promotion companies, and venues. Rick Frank is formerly of Cellar Door and he's their Regional President of North America. Rick is bright, shrewd, and an intelligent businessman. But yes, basically they approach an artist and buy the entire tour. ClearChannel has the lion's share of the industry because they are vertically integrated, so there is no real bidding process anymore. Review: Doesn't that affect the price of tickets, or is it the artist demanding a certain amount of money? Vella: Well, the cost of touring has gone up dramatically, You have more stage production, plus many artists have lost record company support. Now the record companies invest $150,000 or more into videos, so the artists need to generate revenue they lost from the record companies in order to tour, lease buses, the whole nine. Review: What are some of the key events you have coming up at the Events Center? Vella: We have the WWF coming up on October 13th. They haven't been here in five years, plus the JoDee Messina concert that I mentioned. And I'm very pleased about the Broadway series. Cabaret and Titanic are top-notch shows. We're working with all the local groups and hope to make them profitable and are working on long term deals with Sesame St. Live, plus I'm talking to the Disney folks and Thunder National Motor Sports. As I say, I am very optimistic. We have a great facility in Saginaw and intend to keep it filled with entertainment and keep people happy.
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