How corporate hospitality has become a major part of the sports business
When I started TSE Sports & Entertainment as an event hospitality business back in 1997, entertaining a client consisted of a ticket and parking pass to a baseball game and hot dogs and beers at the stadium.
Things have changed a lot in the past 18 years and even more so in the past five since I formed Goviva. The marketplace demand for hospitality services is greater than ever and companies are starting to take note.
Last week, leading entertainment and sports agency, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) announced that it had formed CAA Premium Experience, a best-in-class, full-service hospitality, event management, and marketing division. CAA Premium Experience combines the expertise, resources, and relationships of industry-leading hospitality firms Inside Sports & Entertainment Group, Beyond Sports & Entertainment, and my very own Goviva, all three recent CAA acquisitions.
This acquisition further demonstrates that the market for access to sports and entertainment hospitality is more valuable than anybody could have dreamed just two decades ago.
The business of hospitality is booming. When I was getting started, I aimed to become the guy people would go to for access to the big game, or secure a luxury suite experience at an event, all in the name of meeting clients face-to-face in a truly hospitable environment.
That small group of people were among the first to understand the importance of this, and, frankly, we were ahead of the curve. As the years went on, hospitality became a major component of sponsorship deals and the business of sports. Today, it is paramount in all business dealings.
When we launched Goviva, after TSE was purchased by private equity firm Pfingsten Partners, we saw an opportunity to amplify the business of entertaining clients through the worlds of fashion, arts, and culinary experiences. The success we have seen in just four short years proves that entertainment hospitality is a rapidly expanding business, providing corporations an opportunity to grow through engagement events.
Today, hospitality is more important than ever. In today’s uber-connected world of smartphones and social media, salespeople and executives are in need of actual face time with their clients and an exciting experience at a sporting event or concert, or a dinner cooked by a celebrity chef is an ideal way to make that happen.
Within the past year, we have hosted a private Katy Perry concert; created an exclusive culinary event, catered by world-renowned chef Chris Santos who is the owner of The Stanton Social and Beauty & Essex in NYC and star of the Food Network’s Chopped; and a Fantasy Baseball Camp hosted by former MLB catcher Iván “Pudge” Rodríguez, at Global Life Park, home of the Texas Rangers, all for global technology companies.
In being acquired by CAA, we see the growth of hospitality throughout the world and into so many segments of business and industries from music to film, and, of course, sports. I feel like a grandfather in the young corporate hospitality industry, but am so happy to see how relevant this part of this business has become.
I am confident our efforts will prove that this burgeoning industry can continue to grow. I would bet my career that it will.
Robert Tuchman is an executive at CAA Premium Experience part of Creative Artists Agency. Previously he founded Goviva which was acquired by CAA. Prior to Goviva he started TSE Sports & Entertainment which was acquired by Pfingsten Partners. He is the author of Young Guns: The Fearless Entrepreneur. Follow him @roberttuchman
Article from;
https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberttuchman/2015/06/10/how-corporate-hospitality-has-become-a-major-part-of-the-sports-business/#56766b3e2567