By Ray Smith, Exhibit City News
A trunkful of lasting memories can be traced to Major League Baseball ballparks, and not all of them are no-hitters by Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax, or historic home runs by Hank Aaron and Willie Mays.
Sometimes it’s a monumental concert like the Beatles thrilling their U.S. fans at Shea Stadium, the Rolling Stones rocking Candlestick Park, Pink Floyd putting on a blazing show at Anaheim Stadium, Elton John’s iconic performance at Dodger Stadium.
Baseball games occupy about 25 percent of the calendar year, leaving the rest of the year open for private events, says Joey Nevin, vice president of the San Francisco Giants.
Speaking at a press conference at IMEX America, held Oct. 8-10 at Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevin promoted MLB ballparks as a premier venue for meetings, events, concerts and other non-baseball gatherings on vacant dates.
Dreamfest drew 26,000 for a charity concert by Pink and Imagine Dragons at Oracle Park in San Francisco while the Giants were out of town in September. How cool would it be to host a VIP dinner in center field? Or swing away in a corporate batting practice session?
“As we look to the future, to educate people on what we can do, it’s very visual,” Nevin says. “Our goal is to make meeting and events planners see what’s available year around.”
BALLPARK POWER
Chris Koenig, executive director of the Los Angeles Dodgers, emphasizes state-of-the-art audio and video capabilities at MLB ballparks, easily on par with hotels and convention centers. Stadium events are “elevated and experiential,” he says. “You’re going to do a lot of things you won’t do in a hotel bar.”
Many of the people roaming the aisles at IMEX America are the same people doing business at MLB ballparks, attests Andy Blackburn, vice president of the Chicago Cubs.
He mentioned a $10 million renovation of Wrigley Field to enhance guest experience inside and out. Club officials met with meetings and events planners in focus groups to hear their concerns about space design, the best location for hotel pickup, and how to handle Wi-Fi demand from 40,000 users.
You’ll see more MLB teams interacting at IMEX and other industry shows in the future, declares Carrie Campbell, vice president of Fenway Park Events for the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox partnered with Meet Boston, a private sector marketing organization, to set up a virtual reality batting cage in the convention center foyer.
“Why wouldn’t we want to show the power of ballparks, other than baseball?” Campbell implores. “It’s a cultural attraction. People are tourists first. When people come to our city for meetings, they’re going to go on tours of the city.”
INFRASTRUCTURE IN PLACE
Las Vegas, with some 15 million square feet of meeting and exhibition space, now has Allegiant Stadium, T-Mobile Arena and the Triple-A Las Vegas Ballpark, all available for corporate events.
In the midst of IMEX, the deteriorating Tropicana Hotel bit the dust, demolished to make way for a proposed $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat domed stadium for the MLB Athletics, whose ownership failed to negotiate a stadium deal with the city of Oakland.
Sporting events have long been an attraction for Las Vegas, from championship boxing matches to the National Finals Rodeo, UNLV Rebels and plethora of professional sports franchises. The NHL Vegas Golden Knights, NFL Raiders, WNBA Aces and Formula One Grand Prix turned the city into a sports destination.
It’s a natural evolution to capitalize on sports infrastructure, says Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Super Bowl LVIII brought more than 60,000 fans to Allegiant Stadium, and they all “legitimately felt like they were VIPs,” Hill boasts at an IMEX educational session.
Las Vegas sets itself apart with unparalleled infrastructure and a “can do” attitude, he says.
“Vegas is a Category One destination, and we want to continue to separate ourselves and be different, to stand out. We’re in a position to take risks that other cities can’t,” the tourism executive says.
Las Vegas Raiders President Sandra Douglass Morgan is focused on understanding attendee behavior and preferences, applying them to conferences and tradeshows to create engaging experiences. “We’re investing in crowd ID, looking at different people’s emotions. We want to know who they are, what areas they’re going to.”
