Adam Friedman

Adam Friedman was a music fan doing real estate law when he decided to go into the music business, starting with artist representation before transitioning into concert promotion. He saw first-hand how the concert promotion business consolidated into national powers, but he decided to chart a new course - as President of a boutique concert promotion entity based around the brand new Banc of California Stadium, located right next to the Coliseum in downtown L.A. Here, Friedman discusses the evolution of the concert promotion business, why he enjoys his niche in the pecking order - and why radio should be interested.

After Pritzker Law School at Northwestern and a Chicago law practice, what made you move out to LA.?

I was a real estate lawyer at a time when real estate was booming in the country. There were tons of deals and commercial transactions in Chicago. I learned a lot, but at the same time, I had a passion for live music, and would go out and hear a lot of great music at clubs and venues such as the Metro, Union, Neo, the Riviera (with a young Peter Katsis as GM), and the Aragon, and lots of Jam Production shows promoted by Jerry and Arnie. I thought I wanted to be a music lawyer and do record deals, but that side of the business wasn't yet developed in Chicago; the only band that had a label deal was Material Issue, a Jeff Kwatinetz band. And our firm didn't have expertise in the music space. Nonetheless, I started to represent some bands and was fortunate to work as a real estate lawyer on some venue projects such as the sale of Poplar Creek by Nederlander to Sears and the development of the World Amphitheatre in Tinley Park, which is now a Live Nation facility.

So I decided to look westward. I got a gig with MCA Concerts in '92, a subsidiary of UMG. My original intent of going into the concert division of the company was to make my way into the recorded music side of UMG, but I got hooked on the live experience and the business. Using some of my music experience and a lot of my real estate experience, I helped MCA Concerts grow into what at the time was the #1 promoter and venue operator in the industry. We sold six million tickets a year.

That led to a segue from UMG to House Of Blues ... and then Nederlander?

We were the dominant player when MCA Concerts became Universal Concerts in '95 after Edgar Bronfman bought UMG. We had a good run of six to seven years, then the industry started to consolidate. SFX Entertainment started buying up indie promoters around the country, such as Sunshine Promotions ... Ron Delsener's New York business. At the same time, something was happening internally at Universal. Bronfman decided to buy PolyGram, A&M and other companies. He spent so much money on those deals, he started to look for assets to sell to pay for it. Putnam Books was an interesting, noncore business, but it didn't sell for enough to pay for the label transactions. He turned his eye on the concert division, which would fetch a pretty penny. With sales multiples running as high as 14 to 15 times cash flow, he put Universal Concerts on the market. We couldn't believe why he would ever sell off this asset being the biggest music company in the world, but quite frankly, the company needed the cash.

So we were put on the block. SFX was the lead bidder, but there were other companies, such as Aramark, that were interested as well. Out of nowhere, House of Blues Entertainment -- a smaller company with minimal assets but great branding -- came to the table with venture capital money to spend and ultimately outbid SFX by $5 million. We became part of HOB Entertainment and were able to keep our team intact and run the same assets, while SFX continued to roll up and consolidate the promoters and their venues.

The model that SFX Chairman Robert Sillerman (who sold SFX to Clear Channel) operated by was to not only control the channel, but control the content. He believed that if he could control talent, he would not only dominate the live space but also the airwaves, and ultimately dominate the music space, keeping others out. However, it didn't really work. And soon came AEG, which became a very big company. HOB Entertainment became #3, and remained a viable competitor to Live Nation and AEG in local markets, but not on a national promoter level. What really changed at this time was the way talent was being acquired -- the SFX/Clear Channel model of being a national and international tour promoter. Before, everything was agented and sold by market, but all of a sudden national tours were popping up, which made it more challenging for local promoters to compete for talent.

Soon after HOB acquired Universal, the concert company was back on the block since owners weren't getting the return they wanted on a yearly basis, but the sales processes always imploded over valuation - the numbers simply couldn't justify the price being offered. So we were left to run an undercapitalized company, which we grew, in spite of a lack of growth capital, by focusing on operating efficiencies, great venues, strong marketing and promotion, and an awesome brand.

About a year before all of House of Blues was sold to Live Nation and at the end of another failed sale process, Nederlander approached me and asked if I was interested in joining them. Nederlander had brand leverage and great assets - chief among them, the Greek Theatre, Santa Barbara Bowl, and the Pantages Theatre. We decided to make the assets profitable by changing our business model. We pivoted from trying to compete against the major corporate promoters to repositioning the company as a boutique and the brand as a leader in a business segment that was clearly becoming more robust - small and mid-sized venues. We were good at creating a niche spot in the marketplace. The small-to-medium-sized venues were profitable assets and we leveraged this experience to secure other similar key assets along the West Coast. It was a tremendous five years that I really enjoyed.

Isn't Banc of California Stadium Entertainment a boutique company as well?

You hit it on the head. I initially came on as a consultant to program the facility. It wasn't fully developed, but when I first walked the premises I thought the same exact thing: this is a boutique venue; an outdoor arena with a stadium element that has a capacity of over 23,000 for concerts. The seating design is very steep so you feel like you're on top of the stage, which gives it a more arena-like feel than bigger sports stadiums. As a consultant, I looked at the possibilities of not only the stadium, but how we could leverage the space around it for use in festivals such as Air & Style and FYF, which had already been held at Expo Park before the new Stadium opened. The idea is to have multiple assets for everything from sports to music and more in an incredible boutique stadium arena. I felt it was a great site so I started to help them develop a business model to yield lots of inventory with high margins. In addition to the concerts and sports, we could rent out all the premium areas to corporate events, brand communication and product launchings, and filming.

This could really play in a city like L.A. Even though the market is already saturated with multiple stadiums and arenas, the venue and the surrounding Exposition Park clearly is something unto itself. It's different than other stadiums and arenas, but it can peacefully coexist with them. Not every artist is right for stadiums or arenas, but they can be right for this venue. There's sufficient inventory to make this really robust in terms of a music concert and sporting facility. This was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come into L.A. with a big $370 million outdoor stadium that's built like an arena, with an ownership that has deep ties to the City and global entertainment. The entire media already put the venue on the map with the immediate success of the Los Angeles Football Club, and now we have hit again with incredible events like Wango Tango, Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, and Epic Games' Fortnite, which was streamed to millions worldwide. At this point in my career, it was really interesting to get in on the ground floor and help grow two brands in LAFC and the Banc of California Stadium with such an incredible foundation to launch from. Taking on a venue like this was just so perfect, I was all in.

Being in downtown L.A. next to the Coliseum at USC, the venue still has to overcome negative perceptions of the neighborhood and the lack of parking. How are you dealing with them?

The museums in Expo Park and the Los Angeles Coliseum have been a gathering place in the heart of the city for generations of Angelenos. The addition of Banc of California Stadium, along with the $300 million Coliseum renovation project and the construction of the $1.2 billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is all part of an exciting new era in the neighborhood's development. We are working closely with elected officials and the surrounding community to grow and expand together to make the area a true destination.

With respect to parking, there's no question that every important entertainment and sports venue in L.A. struggles with parking. It's a hard nut to crack. Beyond the 5,000 parking spaces around the venues here, we now have incredible public transportation. The Stadium is also conveniently located near several public transportation routes, including two Metro light rail stations, just a short walk away from the Stadium, and bus lines. We also have a partnership with Lyft, who has dedicated spots around the facility in the parking lot. The ride services are all being improved.

We're also holding events earlier in the day. Fan fests and recently, Wango Tango, started at 1p. We spread out same-day events to ease traffic coming in and out. We can and are making the experience better than it used to be.

L.A. is an ultra-competitive market for live event venues, what with the Forum, Staples Center, Rose Bowl, The Coliseum, two major league ballparks, the soon-to-open Rams and Chargers Stadium, the Stub Hub center for pro soccer's LA Galaxy and the Honda Center. With all those venues open for touring talent, more often than not, does the highest offer still win?

That's a really good question. Objectively, without content there is no show. Good talent deserves to be compensated what they're worth in the open market. It would be naive and unrealistic for anyone to believe they can get top talent for less; however, that's just the beginning. While money is the key essential, it also comes down to what attributes you can offer that others can't. Some of my friends in town run the other venues you mentioned, and we all want to peacefully coexist, and have a share of the pie. We also know there are differences in our venues and what we can offer. If it's in mid-February, many acts might prefer to not perform outdoors; they'd rather have a roof over their head. But they would think just the opposite in the spring through fall. Besides that, our pitch point is a unique arena-like stadium that's different in it's an intimate setting for 23,000+, and there's nothing like it in L.A. Being outdoors is a differentiator against indoor venues, and offering arena-like intimacy is a differentiator against the big outdoor bowls.

We also need to be aggressive in respect to talent by operating an open venue to all promoters. We're agnostic. We're also open to everyone and their preferred ticketing company. Ticketing can be such a high-margin revenue center for promoters and whoever they use, so we'll figure it out to make it work for the client. That's a big advantage compared to a facility that's tied to a single ticketing company.

The other thing we have going for us is we have a state-of-the-art facility that is entirely fiber-driven with incredible technology for better fan and artist experience. There are also unique premium spaces throughout the facility -- club spaces and VIP areas -- that can be utilized in unique ways for corporate and premium clientele/patrons.

We have a very unique position in offering the best urban festival grounds in the city - not only the facility itself, but the space around it. We also have a full complement of assets that are selling points, but are those enough to move us away from a solely money issue? We believe we can offer a facility and opportunities that can generate more money for content producers. Still, at the end of the day, you've got to pay the going rate.

And by doing that, does it automatically force you to raise already-high ticket prices?

Good question, but the bottom line is as much as ticket prices are set through a collaboration of artists, agents, managers, promoters and venue, when push comes to shove, the talent sets the ticket prices. No one ever increases the ticket price without artist approval. As the venue, we can go back and say, "This is what we think you could command," and we can have a reasonable dialogue. But make no mistake about it -- ticket prices are not set without being approved by the artists. Artists also are generally very price-sensitive and try to come to rates that fit different budgets so that all of their fans can attend the show.

You christened the place, at least musically, by holding Wango Tango. Would it be fair to say that you're offering this venue to all radio stations in town?

Certainly, we're very interested in them. And radio stations are interested in us. We've had several radio networks and broadcasters come in to look at the venue, and they're very intrigued when a section of our seating is removed and the stage platform is revealed, and we can build out a turntable stage to rotate artists with a lot less production time while still selling 23,000+ seats, as well as offer spaces for VIPs and sponsors.

Are you interested or scared off by the prospect of having EDM fests?

We're interested in talking to everyone, including the people you mentioned. I don't want to get into how EDM is linked to a dangerous element; we can debate that all day, but if we have adequate security, we're confident EDM events can happen here. To be sure, nothing is more important than the safety of our patrons; we're not booking events just to generate revenue.

By the way, many EDM shows have been produced without any problems, but those do not get publicized. The bigger issue is that the definition of EDM is becoming very blurry. The biggest EDM artists are now celebrated all over the music industry. Be it Calvin Harris or Tiësto, all of these guys are getting their music on the radio by collaborating with major pop and urban singers. The trend is not having separate segments of music; the more robust and successful festivals are those that blend multiple genres together.

We have a similar problem with rock shows. We may have no sound curfew, but we have to be sensitive to the community. If we go super-late, we'll let folks know that is the plan and operate to mitigate potential issues, but we try to keep them within the normal time of concerts - 11p to midnight, when there are no restrictions other than being a good neighbor and being appreciated by the surrounding community. There is history here in Expo Park, with all the concerts that have been held at the Sports Arena and L.A. Coliseum, and we believe it's all manageable, especially compared to other facilities in town where we really had to wrestle with these issues, like at the Hollywood Bowl and the Greek Theatre, which was something else with their location in the Hollywood hills.

Besides soccer, what other sports would you be interested in. For instance, Vince McMahon is looking to start another professional football league...

There's no question we're interested in that, as well as going beyond field sports. It's the perfect location for stuff like boxing and MMA. We just held a private event, a promotional competition between celebrity gamers on Epic Games' Fortnite. We're using our assets for everything from extreme sports to mixing sport and music events. We don't feel constrained in any way; we're completely open to everything and we're already talking to some promoters.