INDUSTRY INSIGHT
The Business of
SPORTS By Jason Siegel
City Venues Find Business Opportunities Despite Pandemic
JASON SIEGEL is president and CEO of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission. Longtime Orlando sportswriter George Diaz contributed to this article.
T
he business model for running Orlando’s venues underwent a seismic shift on March 11, 2020.
Allen Johnson, the chief venues officer for the City of Orlando, had just driven to St. Augustine to watch The Players Championship golf event at TPC Sawgrass. While having dinner with three friends, Johnson received a text saying a National Basketball Association game had been canceled. “Uh-oh, that’s not good,” he told his friends. Johnson watched the first round of the golf tournament the next day and then came home to a new world order taking shape. The COVID-19 pandemic was encroaching on everyone’s lives, and it was particularly challenging for someone whose job entails staging events and putting people in seats, usually thousands at a time. “Nobody knew exactly how long it was going to be,” Johnson said. “I remember them saying, ‘Three months, right?’ Shows what we were dealing with. What we were supposed to have that weekend, we just said, ‘We’ll move it three months down the road.’ So we started doing all that. We call it ‘moving the workload.’ And we just kept moving the workload.” The workload has kept moving and shifting for more than a year now, but Johnson is as busy as ever. Most of the traditional events Johnson stages at the Amway Center, Camping World Stadium, Tinker Field, Harry P. Leu Gardens and the Mennello Museum of American Art have been redesigned to meet COVID-19 mandates: Social distancing. Reduced attendance. Plenty of hand sanitizer stations. Of course, there have been cancellations for safety and logistical reasons. But challenges have also brought new opportunities:
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Allen Johnson and Mayor Buddy Dyer in the south end zone stands during 2014 renovations at Camping World Stadium
