05-21 In-Venue Seating
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MAY 2021 VOLUME 20 | NUMBER 5 VENUESNOW.COM ARE YOU READY? THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL EYES A RETURN — AND THE POSSIBILITY OF FULL CAPACITIES C O N T SEA OF SEATS: A look at Hussey Seating’s handiwork from a recent project at United Center in Chicago. | VOLUME 20 | NUMBER 5 20 E MAY 2021 COVID-19 SPOTLIGHTS & FEATURES 20 INVENUE: SEATING 36 SUSTAINABILITY When COVID-19 came calling, seating companies Compromises may be essential in the short term, N didn’t stand still. but some say health, safety and sustainability are Relief Fund compatible. 30 FOCUS: SPORTS WAGERING 39 FOCUS: HVAC SYSTEMS As online sports gambling expands, some venues Music helps us through our toughest times. Together, are adding lounges that bettors can visit even Increasing MERV ratings and air exchanges per when events aren’t happening. hour are not the only way to clear the air. we can help our fellow music creators get through theirs. T 32 AMPHITHEATERS When crowds return to concerts, it will likely happen outdoors. A couple of amps talk to us Please join us in spreading the word about our Relief Fund. about their plans for ramping up. COURTESY HUSSEY SEATING HUSSEY COURTESY ON THE COVER: The Hollywood Bowl, Tinseltown’s iconic shed, is among amphitheaters gearing up for a return. (Adam Latham) S TK HERE CREDIT PHOTO musicares.org MAY 2021 3 PUBLISHER OVG Media & Conferences EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Rob Knapp [email protected] SENIOR EDITOR Don Muret [email protected] REPORTER/EDITOR James Zoltak [email protected] EDITOR/REPORTER Eric Renner Brown [email protected] EUROPEAN EDITOR Gideon Gottfried [email protected] HOT TICKETS/TOP STOPS [email protected] CONTRIBUTORS Marcus DiNitto, Christie Eliezer, Philip Brasor DESIGN ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER Pat Lewis PRODUCTION DESIGNER Karina Pacheco Rodriguez ADVERTISING & MARKETING MARKETING DIRECTOR Samantha Le [email protected] ADVERTISING Rich DiGiacomo [email protected], 310-429-3678 Brij Gosai (U.K.) [email protected] +44 (0) 207-359-1110 CAKES ALIVE: A sweet welcome greets To Subscribe to VenuesNow patrons returning to Billy Bob’s Texas. email [email protected]. 13 515-362-7480 For information about your Subscription 559-650-8546 Annual Subscription Rate: $249 (U.S.) OAK VIEW GROUP 16 AMPHITHEATERS PRESIDENT, IN EVERY ISSUE MEDIA & CONFERENCES Billy Strings helps former racetrack get off to fast start. Ray Waddell [email protected] FRONT ROW VICE PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS, MEDIA & CONFERENCES Jon Guynn [email protected] 18 CONCESSIONS 5 CALL TO THE FAITHFUL VICE PRESIDENT, Food service companies bringing SALES AND SPONSORSHIPS, Country star Eric Church leads workers back to ballparks in phases. MEDIA & CONFERENCES the way with return to arenas. Aki Kaneko [email protected] SENIOR DIRECTOR, INTEGRATED SALES 6 VAX OR STAY HOME? BOOKINGS John Walberg [email protected] Debate simmers over requirements. SENIOR DIRECTOR, FINANCE Maggie Nguyen 7 BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME 43 LIVE! LANDMARKS [email protected] New coffee table book chronicles Past holiday weekends that kicked SENIOR DIRECTOR, struggle, wonder of indie venues. off the summer live music season. MEDIA & CONFERENCES Erin Grady, [email protected] 10 Q&A WITH PAT NAGLE 44 LIVE! ROUNDUP SENIOR DIRECTOR, Allstate Arena GM recalls more It’s just one additional page, but MEDIA & CONFERENCES Taylor Johnson, [email protected] than 30 years in Rosemont, Illinois. our monthly charts are growing. COORDINATOR, MEDIA & CONFERENCES SECTIONS DEPARTMENTS Alexa Benudiz, [email protected] MARKETING DESIGN MANAGER Darrian Warach COURTESY BILLY BOB’S TEXAS BOB’S BILLY COURTESY 13 CLUBS 9 INTERNATIONAL BEAT SALES COORDINATOR, Billy Bob’s wrangles challenge of MEDIA & CONFERENCES 10 FACES & PLACES Elaine Lai-Lakusta balancing safety, personal choice. [email protected] 45 TOP STOPS / HOT TICKETS BOX OFFICE LIAISON Bob Allen [email protected] CIRCULATION MANAGER, MEDIA & CONFERENCES Jodi Di Pasquale VenuesNow is published monthly by OVG Media & Conferences LLC, 1100 Glendon Ave. Ste. 1000, Los [email protected] Angeles, CA 90024. Periodical Postage Rate is paid at Fresno, CA. EXECUTIVE EDITOR, POSTMASTER: Send address changes to VenuesNow c/o OVG Media & Conferences LLC, 1100 Glendon Ave. MEDIA & CONFERENCES Ste. 1000, Los Angeles, CA 90024. Andy Gensler [email protected] 4 MAY 2021 INVENUE Seating SETTLE IN: Spec Seats pro- vided portable seating for The Shell, new in San Diego. CUSHIONING THE FALL PROJECT LOG: Spec Seats Client: Las Vegas Raiders Cost: NA Venue: Allegiant Stadium, Project: Portable seating Las Vegas for ADA companion, locker SEATING COMPANIES WEATHERED room, event level, and Completion Date: meeting rooms. THE SHUTDOWN BY CONTINUING July 2020 Quote: “The beauty of our products is that they are designed and modified to meet each client’s specific need. We can TO MAKE PEOPLE COMFORTABLE customize seat heights, widths, armrests, accessories and more. Also, our storage cart systems can be designed to best utilize specific space areas.” — Jordan Hergott BY ROB KNAPP OVID-19 forced busy even as venues around the parts of the live industry world had gone dark. VenuesNow to a halt, while others spoke to the businesses as part of continued to hum along. InVenue, a new occasional feature Count seating companies, that offers a tour through some of which continued fulfilling the businesses that help make up Corders while taking on the occa- sectors of the industry. sional new one, among the latter. When the shutdown hit, some In conversations with companies companies at first didn’t have a that provide seating for arenas and way to fulfill orders. Both outside stadiums, theaters and convention suppliers and their own manufac- centers, as well as other kinds of turing units were emptied of em- institutional facilities, executives ployees as businesses and health said a healthy backlog of orders experts figured out safe ways for that had built up before the corona- production to continue. virus-caused shutdown kept them “Like many U.K. manufacturing 20 MAY 2021 CUSHIONING THE FALL PROJECT LOG: 4Topps Client: City of Austin / Cost: $1.75 million Austin FC Project: Manufactured and Venue: Q2 Stadium installed all 6,000+ pre- mium seats in the venue, businesses, concern for our staff educate them. And above all, it Completion date: March roughly 750 of which are led us to shut our factory for a was about communication with 2021 HighBack Suite Seats. period of time in spring 2020,” our employees. It was how do you Gary Pillinger, sales director for make sure that they’re aware of Audience Systems Ltd., said by what we’re doing as an organiza- Quote: “We are no longer a seating company that lives email. “Much of our supply chain tion to keep them safe and also to only on the margins of new stadium builds and renova- shut down too.” maintain their livelihood.” tions. We have a diverse product line to do it all. When Coke Irwin, senior vice pres- That community spirit included Austin FC chose our breathable mesh seats, it not only ident of sales and marketing for manufacturing 50,000 masks for showed they care about their fans, it deepened our belief Grand Rapids-based Irwin Seat- local hospitals, shelters and other in our core mission — to revolutionize the spectating ing, said, “In late March through nonprofits in need, he said. experience with products that focus on fan comfort and the first week of May, we were drive revenue.” — Deron Nardo actually shut down in Michigan,” ‘WENT OFF WITHOUT where the state government was A HITCH’ using some of the country’s most But for the most part, the restrictive measures at the time. sector’s COVID story was about Irwin has just over 500 employees manufacturing chairs and install- including manufacturing workers ing them in venues, which was in Michigan and at a telescopic good news for everyone. seating division in Altamont, Maine-based Hussey Seating is Illinois. fresh off playing a part in college In seeking a way forward, Irwin hoops hysteria, completing a said, the company emphasized major installation at San Anto- communication, both internally nio’s Alamodome just in time for and externally. “It was a lot of the NCAA Women’s Basketball networking here locally with Tournament. The job involved other firms and how they were replacing more than 12,000 seats managing their way through … to on telescopic platforms that were figure out how you can keep peo- designed for the stadium when it COURTESY SPEC SEATS SPEC COURTESY ple in the building, how you could opened. MAY 2021 21 INVENUE SEATING PROJECT LOG: The updated seats provide fans ADA companion chairs, which Hussey Seating with additional comfort, and the offer adaptations for armrests efficiency of the engineering de- with cup holders, and locker Client: City of Cost: $10 million-plus sign gives the Alamodome more room chairs and the different San Antonio flexibility, something every venue requirements for both. Both must Project: The largest tele- is seeking, said Sean O’Leary, be comfortable, but in the locker Venue: scopic platform in North vice president of sales and mar- rooms, “the NFL guys will sit on Alamodome America currently, the keting for Hussey. our stuff, so our chairs are pretty Alamodome boasts over Completion date: 12,000 Hussey seats on “Everybody has events that heavy duty,” he said. March 2021 you can convert from basketball Spec Seats found itself with a MXP telescopic platforms. to hockey, but where we really starring role in one COVID-era pride ourself is how quickly, how icon, thanks to its partnership Quote: easily can you do that? How little with the NBA. “This project epitomizes our focus on customer-first manpower can you use to make “We’ve been doing a lot of the solution development. We worked closely with the team that happen efficiently?” O’Leary player seating,” Hergott said.