June 18

I suppose the only news that could be better than the announcement from Toyota would be that the plant is opening next week instead of next year. What a great day for northeast Mississippi! As an entertainment facility we depend on area residents having disposable income in order to support our programming. Over the past 18 months we have been somewhat restrained in our approach to the concert business as a direct reflection of the local economy. Toyota’s renewed commitment to the Blue Springs facility (and the 2,000+ jobs that come with it) will allow us to ramp up our entertainment offerings accordingly. We’re poised and ready for growth.

With the talk about growth I think it’s important to mention what we’ve been able to accomplish so far this year even in the throes of the great recession. Attendance for the fiscal year to date (our year began on October 1) is over 200,000 for the third straight year which hasn’t happened since 1995-97. Not including our Broadway series we will host 10 concerts for the year even in this down economy. Past total concerts per year have varied from a high of 17 in fiscal year 95 to a low of 4 in fiscal years 2000, 2001, and 2007. Thanks so much for your support!

January 22, 2010

So who ordered the March weather for January? Much better than the subfreezing temps we had just a couple of weeks ago. Believe it or not, it was so cold that pipes inside the cooling tower for the ice plant froze. That’s just not right…

Speaking of ice, the skating rink has officially left the building for the season. We had great turnouts for the two hockey games between MSU and LSU (nearly 6,000 people for the two game series) and our public skating numbers continue to grow. Each year we add more skating sessions and it looks like that trend will continue in 2011.

As I type we have over a foot of dirt on the arena floor. Quite a change from the inch of ice that was there for the past two months! The Northeast Mississippi Championship Rodeo rides into town Friday and Saturday with shows at 7:30 both nights. Hope to see you there.

Our operations crew has quite a challenge in front of them for the next two weeks. We have 48 hours to remove the dirt, clean, and set up for the CDF Business Expo, which will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday. We follow that with the Silver Ring Thing event on Thursday, Rickey Smiley on Friday, and a cheerleading meet on Saturday. Thankfully we have four days between the cheerleaders and Brad Paisley, but then there’s an overnight changeover to prepare for the Mississippi Episcopal Conference. It’s a lot of work crammed into a small window, but we’re glad to be busy!

October 9

Just another day in paradise here in the arena this week. We’re selling tickets for TNA Wrestling, Disney on Ice: Finding Nemo, the CMT Tour, our inaugural Broadway series, and Daughtry. Last week we hosted a regional gymnastics meet and next week we have the Mississippi Gold Wing Riders association rolling in. We’re very thankful to be busy!

In case you missed it, several sources are saying that Brad Paisley will be here next February. Due to various factors I can neither confirm nor deny these reports. All I can tell you is to wait for an official announcement from us via our website, email blast (not a member? Sign up here), and press releases to local media outlets. Sorry I can't say more!

Also be on the lookout for announcements on this year’s public skating schedule (various dates from November 21 through January 10) and the return of MSU ice hockey. Details for both of these activities should be finalized soon. Call me biased, but the MSU hockey jerseys looked pretty cool. This year we’ll get to see what the Ole Miss jerseys look like as well. Will USM be next?!?

Until next time,

Todd

8/14 Blog

It’s the back to school blog! It’s easy to say who is the most excited about school starting back in my house (hint: it’s not the kids!). I’m not looking forward to the early morning carpool routine again but it’s a small price to pay. I’m more of a morning person than I used to be, but it’s still my least favorite part of the day.

Some of you may have noticed the story in this week’s Daily Journal about us giving back $30,000 to the city. What that boils down to is that in addition to having a solid year financially, we have been able to find some “one-time” money that really pushed us over the top. Most years that money would have been deposited into our rainy day fund to help us out in less successful times. Given the state of the economy, we felt that it would be in everyone’s best interest if we gave some back to the city for use in this year’s general fund. It’s certainly an unusual position to be in but these are unusual times.

As for activity here in the arena, we’re hosting the second Weston Reed Cardiovascular Conference this weekend. Later this month both the United Way and the Boys and Girls Clubs will be hosting meetings here. And the Tupelo Fair will make its’ return Friday, August 28 through Monday, September 7. Events currently on sale include Playhouse Disney Live (two shows on September 26) and Disney on Ice: Finding Nemo (November 12-15).

Since school is starting again, this week’s song in “Back in the Saddle” by Aerosmith. With that we’ll send a “get well soon” out to Steven Tyler as he recovers from what must have been a nasty spill off the stage in South Dakota last week.

Hope everyone has a great week. Don’t forget the free show next Thursday, August 17, at Fairpark featuring Blue Mountain. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Until next time,

Todd

June 2009

Well, what I thought would be a slow month has become quite busy. You’ve heard the line about how a duck looks graceful on the surface of the water while he’s paddling like mad below the surface? That’s a pretty good analogy for what’s going on in the building right now. We don’t have a lot of concert or conference traffic this month but our preparations for fall/winter/spring are full speed ahead.

Our operations crews continue to put new paint on the walls, replace aging ceiling tiles, and are even finishing out some unused space for use by our performers backstage. The box office personnel are working on renewals of our Save Your Seat patrons while selling tickets for Hank Williams Jr./Dierks Bentley and Playhouse Disney Live. And in the front office we continue to negotiate with agents and promoters for additional events. We’re actually handling requests from events for dates in 2011 this week!

All this activity should make for an attractive slate of events in the coming months in a facility that is in great shape to be sixteen years old. I can’t wait to see how all of these plans unfold over the next year. If everything works out we should have another fantastic year. Thanks for your support!

Todd

Winter Jam style event

Winter Jam 2009 is now in our rearview mirror. Once again we had to turn away several hundred fans due to a lack of space. I was impressed by the die hard fans who were actually at the venue at 8:30AM Sunday morning when I came into work. I hope that they were able to find seats close to the stage! I was also glad that the weather was pleasant, allowing many fans the chance to enjoy themselves as they waited for the doors to open. Hope to see all of you again next year.

The success of Winter Jam leads me to ask the question: could a similar show work in the rock or country realm? What if three or four rock or country acts performed for a $10 ticket? Would you guys support something like that? From a venue standpoint we would love to see more shows where we have the enviable problem of having to turn people away due to a lack of seats. Maybe we can put a show like that together for the summertime to test the theory.

Casting Crowns/Carrie Underwood

Two completely different shows in two days. That's a rarity for us but both shows went off without a hitch. We would like to apologize for the rain during last night's Carrie show, but we can't control everything!

We'd like to hear your thoughts on the shows. Did you attend either (or both)? What was the highlight (or highlights)? What could we improve?

Thanks for your input.