January 4, 2013
CEO Newsletter
Te3am,
First I want to thank you, our talented team for delivering millions of E3 moments throughout our enterprise in 2012. You are the ones that have carried our Event Hospitality torch safely and brightly through the year!
Taking a look back at 2012 … right out of the gate a vital, albeit painful, lesson was delivered when we lost the Green Bay Packers bid. It certainly was not from lack of effort, but it was from not reading the situation correctly. Honestly we had become a little too overconfident, celebrated a little too long on our tremendous 2011 wins and obsessed on the development of our programs instead of showcasing the merits of our program for our client. The learning is now indelibly “tattooed” on our forehead so we never forget this important lesson.
With that critical lesson aside, we started 2012 BIG with the BCS Game in New Orleans. Our client, the University of Alabama, took the trophy and our team at the Mercedes Benz Superdome won off the field as well serving over 330,000 fans in an 8-day period.
Three of our teams made the NFL playoffs – the New Orleans Saints, Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers. The Saints and Broncos had only one playoff game and revenues were very strong. The 49ers had an impressive run culminating in playing for the Division Championship at home where a new revenue record was set.
The Detroit Auto Show was again a huge success delivering over $2.5 million in catering sales on Press Preview Day and continuing strong through the 9 days of the public show.
February was busy with our first challenging large conference at our newly acquired convention center in New Orleans, the Pro Bowl in Hawaii and Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. The entire Super Bowl week was special with Centerplate providing hospitality services for over 300,000 guests in 10 venues across the city, including the Bud Light Hotel. Record per caps were set at the game as was a new high for hospitality services. Our challenge is to raise the bar even higher this year in New Orleans.
It was a good thing that we had these mega events in the first quarter as they were all needed to make up for the lack of snow that severely impacted our ski business.
In March, we held our “Step Ahead “With or Without Tour” Annual Conference in Vancouver. The event was spectacular. The hospitality was a sight to behold and the content and excitement of our team was evident. Many of our supplier partners wrote notes stating that our conference has become a “must go to event” and is the first one they mark down on the calendar.
Also in March, we met with our Colorado Convention Center clients and launched our support of the Mayor’s Seeds Campaign. “Our Inspired by Centerplate” program will form the cornerstone basis of our future community efforts and our Blue Bear Farm at the convention center opened in July to great fanfare.
Once again Centerplate was in the spotlight with the NCAA Final Four. The 2nd and 3rd round games were played at the KFC Yum! Center followed by the big championship weekend in New Orleans. Once again our teams excelled and overall we produced impressive revenue and bottom line contributions.
New records were set! The New York Auto Show at the Javits Convention Center broke the $1 million retail sales barrier, setting a new North America show record. The Kenny Chesney/Tim McGraw concert at LP Field was the highest single day sales event in the venue’s history with record breaking per caps as well.
The groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new San Francisco 49ers stadium in Santa Clara and we were proud to announce several renewals – NYRA, the Pasadena Convention Center and all of our accounts in Sioux City, Iowa.
With the New Jersey Devils and the Florida Panthers hoping to bring it all home, we had play-off games at both the Prudential Center and the BB&T Center. The Devils made it to the Stanley Cup Finals and the hospitality program we provided for the games was worthy of this global sporting event.
We closed out the first half of the year with Centerplate performance – POSITIVELY STRONG!
July became one of our most successful months in new business development. First, we were awarded the exclusive hospitality rights for the NYC/NJ Formula 1 Grand Prix Race taking place in June 2014. Next, we acquired the Premium catering business to add to our concession services at the University of Florida. That was followed by being awarded the Autry National Center of the American West, a theatre in Los Angeles. We also won our first military account at the Fort Lee Lodge, triumphing over Delaware North who has a greater foothold in the military business. In addition, we renewed our contract at the McAllen Convention Center.
In August we expanded into another channel when Saks selected Centerplate as their exclusive hospitality partner. This was a milestone moment and positions Centerplate for a decade of unprecedented growth.
Sports Authority Field at Mile High hit a new single-event sales record with the Chesney/McGraw concert and FedEx Field followed with a record per caps for the same event.
Tropicana Field was the site of the opening reception of the Republican National Convention by Tampa’s Host Committee and the Florida State Fairgrounds served meals 24 hours a day to members of the police agencies securing the event.
The Centerplate Promise was launched in September in select major sports venues to support the eradication of child homelessness in our country. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake deserves the credit for being the driving force behind this initiative which underscores our commitment to making the communities in which we work and live better.
September also saw Centerplate named as the hospitality partner for the new Nashville Music City Center, the biggest convention center opening slated in 2013. This further solidifies our dominance in the marketplace and recognition of the Centerplate Way as a differentiating factor.
Another series of big events occurred in October with number one being the completion of the recapitalization of the company. Moving forward Centerplate is owned by management in partnership with Olympus Partners. Our destiny is firmly with us.
The San Francisco Giants once again became the World Series Champions for the second time in three years. Another unbelievable playoff and series run and another Centerplate hospitality revenue record was broken. We closed out another terrific year in baseball with per caps and
same venue sales growth in the very high single digits. The Seattle Mariners actually posted a 10% per cap growth despite a 10%+ drop in attendance.
The second annual Journey Home in Baltimore was a spectacular event. Our team knocked it out of the park and it was an honor to once again sponsor this initiative to help eradicate child homelessness. In two years, we have raised close to a million dollars for this worthy cause. Plans are underway for next year’s event. We also began our operations at the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York City. The transition was flawless and our renovations are almost complete.
For the fourth consecutive year our NFL properties continue to post very healthy year over year growth. The San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos top the year over year growth chart posting increases of more than 20%.
November was another successful renewal month with the award of the Dallas Convention Center in a hotly contested bid process with an unanimous vote by the selection committee. We also renewed our 19-year relationship with the Steamship Authority and the Whistler Conference Centre.
In closing, 2012 was a great year. We renewed contracts that generate 99% of our overall enterprise revenue. As we all know, a healthy business is a business that the current clients want to continue to do business with. By this key measure, we are an extremely prosperous business.
Please reflect on these highlights and know that while we attained greatness we must push forward, dig deeper and challenge ourselves and all our partners to Step Beyond and move our Event Hospitality agenda onwards.
I am proud of this team and know we will be even more powerful in 2103. With you, Impossible is Nothing. Let’s get to winning – Think Big and Deliver Bigger!
