Civic Center GM ready to tackle challenge

ALBANY — For Josh Small, the recently-hired general manager of the Albany Civic Center, one of his first priorities is education.

“We have to educate the people of this region not to think, ‘I’m driving to Atlanta this weekend’ or ‘I’m driving to Tallahassee,” said Small, an employee of Spectra by Comcast Spectacor, the Philadelphia-based venue giant that is managing the city-owned Civic Center. “The way you educate people not to think that way is by bringing events here.”

After three years of back-and-forth, the city of Albany finally pulled the trigger on privatizing management of the civic center earlier this year. As Albany city commissioners noted during discussion of Spectra’s proposal, the company has made its mark in the region by working similar management deals with venues in Macon, Augusta, Savannah and Tallahassee, Fla.

Now Small is the man everyone is eyeing as he works to reverse the fortunes of a 35-year-old venue whose early days saw it become the third-most-attended venue in the state but, because of changes in the entertainment business and management issues, eventually earned a reputation as something of a “white elephant” in the community.

“Sure, I’ve heard what people have said, but that’s not to say we can’t change that way of thinking,” Small, who is in the process of moving to Albany with his family — wife Emily, son Dominic, 3, and daughter Lillie, 1 — said. “There used to be that way of thinking that ‘if you build it they will come,’ but that’s not today’s reality.

“Today, in order to have a successful venue, you’ve got to bring events that people want to see. That’s where we can educate our region, to have them first checking to see what we have going on. Of course, that’s another key part of the equation. The people here have to support what we’re doing, too.”

Small grew up in Hendersonville, N.C., earning a degree at North Carolina State University. One of his friends introduced him to Monte Jones Jr., who helped him land a first job as events manager at Old Dominion University’s on-campus arena. That facility was managed by Spectra predecessor Global Spectrum.

After three years at ODU, Small was promoted to facilities director at Augusta’s James Brown Arena, a venue that Small said is similar to the Albany arena. After five years of managing the front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house duties at the Augusta venue, Small was named general manager of a nearby Spectra-managed facility at the University of South Carolina-Aiken.

While serving as GM in Aiken, Small continued to manage facilities at the James Brown Arena.

“Without a doubt, that was a blessing for me as my career advanced,” he said. “It’s like I tell everyone, if you’re looking to be a GM, you can’t specialize. In the end, you have to manage every aspect: sales, marketing, promotions … everything.

“I’m by no means an expert in those areas, but I’ve learned about them and I know what’s going on at least in general.”

After hearing of the Albany deal, Small put his name in the hat and applied for the position.

“It seemed like a good next step for me, and after doing a little research I jumped on it,” he said. “Before I accepted the job, though, I came here. I wanted to do some research, learn as much as I could. I was very impressed with the openness, the friendliness, the enthusiasm of the city officials and the people of the community I met and talked with.

“It’s like I’m telling the people we interview as we complete our staff. Before any decision is made, I want you to come here, to get to know the community. Then, if you decide this is somewhere you want to be, then we’ll talk about the positions.”

Small said Spectra’s agreement with the city of Albany is similar to other deals the company has with venues it manages across the country.

“The city owns the facilities; we manage them,” he said. “We operate the venues (the Veterans Park Amphitheatre and Albany Municipal Auditorium are part of the package, too) on behalf of the city, so we look at it as a partnership. For instance, we use as many city services as possible to save taxpayers money.”

And while a Spectra-conducted audit shows needs in the city-owned facilities, the venue manager’s contract also calls for the company to make some $250,000 in capital investment.

“This is not a complete overhaul project here,” Small said. “We’re working on our audit, and we’ve already identified things that will need immediate attention. We offered positions (with Spectra) to all employees who were here before we took over management, and most of them wanted to remain city of Albany employees. We understand that.

“We’re interviewing people to fill the positions available. I expect we’ll have 10-12 full-time employees to start with and some part-time help as well. It could grow, according to demand.”

That demand is the crux of the community’s issue with the Civic Center. Not enough shows is a common complaint.

“I can’t commit to a number at this time because I’m still doing research,” Small said. “But I have kind of made a public commitment to at least one large-scale event per quarter. I can promise that we’re going to talk with everybody. That’s one of the pluses of being associated with Spectra: That name carries clout and there is a lot of expertise in the company. We can bounce ideas back and forth and share contacts.

“We’re going to go after country, Christian, R&B, family, gospel and even hip-hop shows if it makes sense to do so. One of the mistakes people make, I think, is they look at our demographics and say hip-hop should do well here. But when you bring in an act that has a $70 ticket, you can’t sell that show to a college-age audience. We have to look at shows with tickets around $20.”

Demographics, and the arena’s history, will become tools for Small as he settles into his new job. He’s already booked a WWE Wrestling event and a “Paw Patrol” family event based on the kids’ TV show. And while he’s still feeling his way around, Small said he’s always looking for other entertainment possibilities.

“Can I promise we’re going to bring Luke Bryan here?” he asked. “I’d love that, but what most people don’t understand is that you don’t just call Luke up and say, ‘Hey, come back home and play a show.’ There’s a lot more to it than that.

“But I’ve been encouraged by the initial responses I’ve gotten from promoters and managers that I’ve talked to. There are a lot of folks who are very receptive to bringing shows here. But the bottom line is, it doesn’t matter how good Spectra’s reputation is or how many promoters we’re able to talk to. We still have to sell tickets. Bottom line: If the promoters don’t make money on their shows, they’re not coming back.”

Herald File Photo