This transcript has been transcribed by Riverside.fm, no edits (please excuse any errors)

Sean Callanan (00:01.186)

Very happy to welcome David Kells. He's the Chief Venues Officer at the Nashville Predators, Bridgestone Arena and F&M Bank Arena. David, welcome to the podcast.

David Kells (00:12.172)

Thank you for having me, this is a lot of fun.

Sean Callanan (00:14.879)

Appreciate it. Appreciate it. I always start my podcast trying to find how people got their start, how they got what their origin story is in the world of sports business. What about yourself? How did you find your way into the world of sports and entertainment?

David Kells (00:22.571)

Yeah.

David Kells (00:27.5)

So I came to this job from the music and live entertainment side of things In high school trying to figure out what to do with my life,  I love music and one of the only ways I thought of to get into music was through radio So it was in college radio station in Evansville, Indiana And coming back to Nashville every summer our local Radio station WRLT did a free concert series. I was an intern for them and I worked this free concert series

Sean Callanan (00:37.965)

Yeah.

David Kells (00:57.696)

And as the intern, I was a stagehand. I was passing out flyers. , was in the summers in Nashville on a Thursday night. It was free to the public. So that was my first foot in the door of seeing how these things came together. Then throughout my college career, was unintentionally would come back home to Nashville and I would intern for a record label or a radio station or a promotions company during the week. And then I'd work as a stagehand.

Sean Callanan (01:24.941)

Yeah.

David Kells (01:27.072)

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So again, no plan of action, but I was getting a production and logistics background and a marketing and promotions background at the same time, which then has served me throughout my career. Early in my career, I was able to kind of weave back and forth between the two until I got to my job right now, which is overseeing the events at Bridgestone Arena and for the Nashville Predators. And throughout my career, I oversaw the marketing department here and all kinds of things.

Sean Callanan (01:54.232)

So yeah, I like to take a little few steps looking back because I think there are important steps in a career. Like a lot of people go, and now I'm in my current job. But you did mention that you were  in marketing and production. so that production side is that piece that brought you in  learning logistics of bringing in shows, promoting shows and  learning that whole gamut of an event. Because it's not just people show up. There's a whole bunch of work that's done.

David Kells (02:02.156)

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Sean Callanan (02:22.83)

to plan, get the talent, do the marketing. So before you started at Bridgestone, that was some of the stuff that you were doing, both in interning and then actual roles.

David Kells (02:22.878)

yeah.

David Kells (02:33.932)

Correct, so after college, moved back to Nashville, lived with my parents for period of time, but got jobs doing kind of a little bit of everything. Actually, my first job out of college was at Bridgestone Arena. It was Nashville Arena at the time. It was before the hockey team had started. I was the AV tech, so I would set up small PAs and run phone lines for people and that kind of stuff. If we're going step by step, then I went to what was Pace Concerts, became SFX Concerts.

for the local amphitheater. I was in a marketing role there. Did that for a little over a year. We promoted shows throughout the market and we did a festival in town. From then I went to an independent promoter and worked in a club. We had a 1,300 capacity club in town. It was just me and him. So you do everything. You're there for 9 a.m. beer deliveries. You're there 2 a.m. paying the band. We're placing ads with radio and at the time, know, the free weekly paper.

Sean Callanan (03:27.181)

Yeah.

David Kells (03:32.076)

and we're talking to agents and the Sound and Light companies. And also part of that job, we farmed ourselves out to other people to be production people. So we would be stage managers on festivals and corporate events and all that kind of stuff. Did that for, yeah, please.

Sean Callanan (03:47.672)

So, yeah, so you did that and  got a like wide experience of like you said, handing out flyers, the logistics of bringing in a band, , must have a lot of great stories for that time and obviously over your career of bands and those kinds of things. But then your first role at Bridgestone Arena, which it wasn't Bridgestone Arena back then, what was your first role when you came into Bridgestone Arena?

David Kells (04:15.592)

Overnight conversion manager. So you figure any kind of arena like this Hockey games done at 10 10 30 at night a concert is loading in at 6 in the morning We do everything in between and there was a crew of 20 to 25 people who cover the go cover the ice take down the glass Take down the boards retract bleachers build a stage move all the furniture backstage Take out the hockey boxes take out the joke goals

Sean Callanan (04:17.848)

Okay.

David Kells (04:44.982)

penalty boxes and then concert starts loading in at six in the morning. They do sound check at two o'clock. Doors open at six o'clock. Show starts at seven. Show's done at 11. This crew then comes back in. As the concert's tearing everything down, we're working alongside of them to flip the building. Zamboni comes out at six in the morning to resurface the ice. So we have then uncovered the ice, put the glass back in, put the boxes back in and then on and on. Because I tell people…

Sean Callanan (04:57.666)

Yeah.

Sean Callanan (05:13.016)

So that initial role was very much logistics, moving things, like I said, even the way you're describing it now, and it's like, it's coming back to you all these years later of here's all the steps we had to do.

David Kells (05:23.116)

and that's why concerts have to run. mean, it has to be in this 10 minute period, you're doing these four things. In the next 20 minute period, you're doing these four things or the process breaks down and you don't get to be as busy as you need.

Sean Callanan (05:38.38)

And so then your role at Bridgestone, , did change, , you were in that logistics and setup and conversion to moving into marketing and then, , booking. Was that just something that you were naturally wanting to do because you'd had the promoted background and you'd  done these wide roles and you wanted to learn more or was it just something that evolved?

David Kells (05:59.05)

It's all I've. Yeah I just take the opportunities there in front of me. I've never been one of those people with a five year plan or my gosh if my career doesn't happen in this certain way I don't know how I'm going to function. Very much work hard show up and take the opportunities when they're given to you. So yeah from that I moved to another logistics role in the arena and then when the marketing role became open I raised my hand.

Hey, I haven't been a primary marketing contact for a couple of years because I've been here, but I did it at the amphitheater. I did it for a major concert promoter in the country. And so you just kind of, , pick up that file folder in your brain and start using that again. And you did that for, I don't know, three or four years. was, well, first I was primary marketing for just the arena events. Then I oversaw the team that did marketing for the whole hockey season and the arena events. And then when the booking role became open,

Sean Henry, who's our CEO, came to me said, hey, I think you'd be great at this. I told him the last show I booked was at the Exit Inn, which is a 500 capacity room, and it was a cover band. He goes, you got this. And we all worked together and figured it out, and have a great time.

Sean Callanan (07:09.762)

mean, as a marketer myself, I know how hard it is to sell tickets, put the cheeks and the seats, that piece. Was that a real important part of understanding, have a better understanding of a venue, have a real understanding of what the fans want? And was, I guess, gave you that well-rounded view of both the venue, but also the fan.

David Kells (07:30.176)

Yeah, absolutely. Because I'm a fan myself. My wife and I went to three concerts last week. , we buy the tickets and come in the front door and buy the cheeseburgers. So you get the experience of how people are doing stuff. But yeah, think having a wide perspective really suits the role right now because it is a wide role. It's overseeing people who do a lot of great things and giving them the support and guidance that they need. , the way marketing is now compared to what I was doing was I was buying column inches and

All of that stuff, no idea how folks do it today. But I understand the trials and tribulations. I understand the pressure that promoters and other people's expectations. And I can talk through methods and practices, even though I may not know the nuts and bolts like I used to.

Sean Callanan (08:14.828)

You did bring one of my questions, I had a question to say, was there a grand plan to be on the venue side? You've already  mentioned that it's been an opportunity and you're just a person that puts a hand up. But what pulled you back to the venue side in the the current role you have now as Chief Venues Officer?

David Kells (08:31.852)

Again, it was the opportunity that came as our organization evolved. We were very much at a period of time, we were in arena operation and we were a hockey team. As we came together, different opportunities arose and then adding F Bank Arena in Clarksville two years ago now. Just yet, our organization has evolved. I've been here as part of it. I think part of something I bring to the role is having grown up in Nashville. There's an institutional knowledge. I know a lot of people because I've been here forever.

Yesterday we were doing a site tour of a stadium and I saw a guy there that I'd been working with since I was 25 years old. And it's just fun knowing people that long. It's funny you blink and all of a sudden you've got a career and a group of friends that you like working with. One of the terms I don't like is networking. Networking sounds transactional. It sounds like you're being nice to somebody because they'll get or give you something. I really think over time you collect your team or

you find who you work well with and who you can be productive with. And it's just fun hanging out with those folks. And then you do good business.

Sean Callanan (09:35.918)

Yeah, you find your tribe, so to speak, more than anything else. Yeah. I mean, you speak about Nashville is like enough to be there for seat. It is an amazing sports and entertainment town. And so obviously your hometown, how is that? I mean, as much as stadium and technology has evolved over the last 20 years, how has Nashville grown up and evolved as a city?

David Kells (09:38.337)

Yeah.

David Kells (09:57.886)

It's night and day. We, growing up here, we drove to Atlanta and Birmingham to see concerts because the major tours weren't coming to us. Now, everything comes to Nashville. Coldplay played Nissan Stadium last night. We've got Ghost here on Saturday. We've got shows that are doing doubles in arenas and people are looking at doing a week residency here in the future. And it's a lot of people who have done the right things at the right time.

The city has invested, know, building Bridgestone Arena. They could have built a box in the suburbs with parking around it and made it just off the interstate. But no, they said, hey, Nashville is more vital and vibrant when you have something in its downtown core. So that was a decision that was made in the early 90s. Building the football stadium in the late 90s was another investment. Building the convention center behind us here, all these big infrastructure pieces that a city can do.

that other people then get to take advantage of and drive quality of life, drive business, drive tax revenue, drive tourism, all of that kind of stuff. But at its core, Nashville always had music as its brand. The Grand Ole Opry is 100 years old now. And they've been broadcasting to the world what Nashville is and creating that. So…

when things get to come together, it was an easy thing to create. was an easy thing to sell to conventions and such.

Sean Callanan (11:28.27)

I mean, it's amazing. did, , I did know coming from Melbourne, which is a really sport and entertainment venue focused town. Like it is the placement of the venues to the proximity of the city. The fact that you can walk the different different paths. Like you said, Bridgestone Arena is right there on Broadway. If you walk down the whole end of Broadway, you'll end up at a you'll end up at a Titans game. And like having all of that close, like where is other stadiums are building and then building precincts around it. You had the precinct. It was just a matter of getting the venues in the right spot.

David Kells (11:58.08)

That's exactly what I tell people is we had an entertainment district. It just needed something to refresh it. It needed something to help drive bodies, , four or five, six nights a week. And we've seen the results.

Sean Callanan (12:12.598)

And so, know, Nashville is known as the music city. And obviously you come from a music background and now you've got a venue right next to an entertainment precinct. How much do you try to make sure that Bridgestone Arena is very much part of the city and their entertainment both starts probably somewhere in Broadway, then they come into your venue and then potentially it extends in Broadway. How do you try to make that fan journey, I guess, seamless?

David Kells (12:37.598)

It's again, Nashville is a very, very cooperative community. So we all work together, us and the CVB and the downtown partnership and the mayor's office and police and Metro Public Works. Everybody works together to make sure that big events are even bigger because they're supporting each other. It's just kind of natural. It's not something that's forced. Again, having grown up here, I know some of the honky tonk owners because I knew them when I was 20 years old.

And knowing people so long and you just shoot somebody text or you give them a call and say hey We've got this going on or that going on to help support everybody

Sean Callanan (13:14.964)

Bridgestone Arena continues to earn nominations and wins in award categories. What are some of the key things for you to make sure you keep that bar that's set very high, know, stay that high year on year?

David Kells (13:31.712)

Well, I guess it comes from two kinds of things. Events want to go where they can be successful. And there's two ways of success. There's selling tickets, and there's having an easy day on the production side. Katie Evans, who leads our event services team, and Lonnie Wilkerson in the box office do amazing jobs working with the events to make them go on sale and happen. then when the trucks back up, everybody has a smile on their face, and they know us because they've been here repeatedly. And so I say that we're a yes building.

We want to make things accommodating. We want to make things easy for people. It's easier to say yes and figure stuff out versus fight and grind and be territorial about stuff that doesn't really matter. know, a tour has to be very regimented. Like I said, they have to unload a truck at this time and this many cases need to load out. And then they need to pack it all back in and drive 200 miles down the road. But just saying yes. And then on the other side, selling those tickets.

When I said earlier, we used to be an arena operation and a sports team operation with the National Predators. Now we're one. So our sales force are selling hockey tickets and they're selling Disney on ice tickets and Harlem Globetrotters and Sabrina Carpenter tickets and all that Keith Urban and all the other big things that we have coming our way. So that's one thing that really kind of helped move the needle forward. Us as an arena is, hey, we used to be the arena that would sell 10,000 tickets to a concert.

Well, when you have the marketing team shouting from the rooftops about everything and the sales team, , working the databases and phone lines, well, maybe you sell 11,000 tickets and then maybe you're thought of differently. So you get on that first leg of the tour. The first legs of the tour tend to sell a little bit better than the second leg of the tour. So all of a sudden, now you're a sellout and then people are looking to play doubles. So it's that those two pieces coming together, the event operations and logistics teams doing a great job and then our sales and marketing teams.

doing a great job to make sure we're selling across everything that we own.

Sean Callanan (15:30.936)

So before that we used similar to other venues that were, we're a venue. You want to have a space? Here's our space. You can book it for this time. Here's our number. Come in and promote it. And because you didn't have that sales, it was  left to the promoter or the artist or whoever was coming in to do the lift.

David Kells (15:45.344)

We had some assets, but not the same. It's not the same volume. We are able to do promotions in every game, if it makes sense. We were able to leverage the Predator's broadcasts to highlight a show or an artist. When our national TV schedule comes out, we reach out to the entertainment community and say, hey, do you have something going on? Think of us as part of your campaign, that if you're launching an album or a tour or something,

you can use the Nashville Predators game to hit everybody in seats and everybody at the broadcast, home and away. So all of those kind of assets are there because like I said, everybody in this town is very collaborative. We want to help everybody. if you keep using Keith Urban as an example, because he has an upcoming show, he launched an album with us and it was a nationally broadcast game. So he was on NBC and all of those kinds of.

Sean Callanan (16:43.982)

Always love the shout outs to Aussie artists like Keith Urban, but I think he's probably more Nashville artists these days, he's still Australian. One of the big discussion points at Seat and shout out to Charles Curran, who did a great job chatting with you on the main stage was the growing requirement both from a utility and a fan experience point of view of technology. Is that something that, there's always people in venues that are

David Kells (16:51.052)

It's It's true.

Sean Callanan (17:12.706)

overly geeky or other people looking at it a function, where do you see technology in the stadium sphere?

David Kells (17:18.816)

I guess where I sit in my desk, I think of the fan fun. What can we do for the fans? But then again, we also need the operational logistics stuff because of the more broadcasts are bigger and everything's just more. But first thing, we always look to, I kind of say we're like an amusement park where every season you need something fun, something new that's fan facing. And sometimes that can be tech, sometimes that's physical in the building.

We're always looking for new ways to engage the fans in game. I people want real time stats because there's online gambling throughout the game. It's not just, hey, I bet before the game happens and the final score goes off, there's stuff for every period. And so people need that connectivity to participate in it. We have Bet MGM as a sports betting partner. We want to promote activity with them. There's all the steps.

Sean Callanan (18:15.18)

And is there a case of like keeping an eye on what other venues are doing, know, what's happening down the road with the Titans building a new stadium and go, what are the little things that I can add? What's the tiny little roller coaster that I can add for the fans that works for my venue?

David Kells (18:28.515)

yeah, I'll do it.

David Kells (18:32.651)

Yeah, and another thing with this industry I've found is people are pretty open book about what they're doing. If I'm doing something cool, I can tell somebody in Atlanta, because I'm not in competition for ticket sales with Atlanta. If you're going to Atlanta Hawks game, you're going to Atlanta Hawks game, chances are you're not driving to Nashville for 41 games. So if they're doing something cool, we talk. There's a group of other arena operators that we talk once a month about what's going on, what's fun.

What are you hearing? So we can all share. And you also want to brag. We've all got great people that work with us who are doing amazing things. You want to say how awesome they are. You want to say what new thing they put in, what new bell and whistle that they've been spending a lot of time in, and how it pays off for the fans.

Sean Callanan (19:19.938)

Absolutely. Everyone's got that nut to crack and you're like when you do crack it and you go, we figured it out. You want to tell someone and you should and I was talking to another guest, , tell everyone on LinkedIn. This was a success I had because there will be someone that's got that same problem, , and that's why, , when you can get to talk to your tribe, like you  before, you've already solved that. we we've got something like that. We can tweak it. It's always it's always good. One of the other points I wanted to dive in on from your conversation with C was about talking about keeping venues alive.

David Kells (19:25.813)

Okay.

Sean Callanan (19:49.068)

with continue reinvestment rather than demolish them, which is very much a story for Bridgestone Arena. What's the, I guess, what's the philosophy behind that to, , around your innovation decisions for Bridgestone?

David Kells (19:59.99)

Well, mean, everything budgets are always going up. You always need to drive revenue and a way to drive revenue is by investing in the building and being good citizens and stewards of the building. So when people sell us all the time, we're we'll be 30 years old in a couple of years here. People say, my gosh, it doesn't feel like a 30 year old building. Well, because we paint and keep it clean and all those basic things. But also from time to time, you have to reinvest in these things. Some of it's big stuff. , every

eight years or so you're getting a new scoreboard because that technology has changed so drastically. And people are expecting better quality and clarity and all that stuff. And there's big stuff like seats. Seats only last so long and up and down and up and down. So those kind of physical things that you need to invest in. But also it can be small. We put in I call it a jersey roller coaster. It's really like a laundromat kind of track.

with people's jerseys on it. So you can see, I ordered my jersey. Then you see it going by and you can come pick it up. That's just something fun. Like I said, the amusement park part of it, making sure you're investing in new technology getting into the building. , we used in 1996 when the building opened, there were tearing tickets and there were turnstiles. , that's what we had. Now we have, , evolve walkthroughs because safety expectations are different. But also people don't want to divest their bag of everything. So.

These machines allow you to walk through with your pockets full and they'll detect if there's anything of substance or a question. So making that frictionless entry for fans. But yeah, just continuing investing because venues are really just a place where we all come together to have a great time seeing something, whether it's Paul McCartney or a playoff over time winning goal by Roman Josi. And when you tear down the building, those kind of memories go away. Yes, I…

I saw the game, but I'm not in that space. One of the things that's awesome about the Ryman Auditorium across the street is it's over 100 years old. Johnny Cash played that stage. That's why other performers like playing that stage. And now that we have 30 years of history to us, you can see what it means to performers to say, oh my gosh, my name is at the top of the ticket for something at Bridgestone Arena, where I was the person in the 300 level.

Sean Callanan (21:55.736)

Yeah.

David Kells (22:20.8)

buy on a ticket at one point. So it's good to see that. We're also the place where people come with their families to see things. So if you came as a kid to Disney on Ice and then you take your kids to Disney on Ice, there's something there because it's the same physical building. So that's something we don't want to lose.

Sean Callanan (22:33.262)

Yeah.

Sean Callanan (22:39.752)

And from a like reinvestment renovation, you talked about being a yes arena. Is there a case of sometimes you've said yes, and there's a bit of make it work, but you're like, we're gonna put an asterisk against that one, that's one that's going to come up in our, what are we going to improve? What does need working? What was a little kink in the arena, but we need to smooth that out? Is that  work where you go, we've got so many venues or so many artists asking for this, we want this in their dressing room or the fan.

David Kells (23:01.172)

Sean Callanan (23:09.024)

experience at the shop is this, we want to roll that out.

David Kells (23:13.098)

yeah, one of the things that's obviously changing is there's more. use the Coldplay concert as an example that the environmental footprint is something that everybody considers, but also some tours are demanding. So how do we keep ahead of that? Well, we do a good job right now, but how do we be better? So we work with other sports venues in town. We work with other people on tours to say, what do you see and what are you doing? Did this building do something awesome that we could replicate? We're about to go undergo a major renovation.

in the next four years. So this building will look almost brand new. But while we're doing that, we still have to operate and have concerts and hockey games and all that kind of stuff. So we've talked to our peers who've undergone renovations of what did you do while things were maybe not as pretty as you want them to be because folks are swinging hammers to get you to a new place.

Sean Callanan (24:01.186)

Yeah.

Sean Callanan (24:06.35)

So you manage multiple venues. What keeps you up at night? What's the thing that stresses you about running venues?

David Kells (24:13.898)

not a terribly stressful person, but I guess the things I pay attention to, Clarksville is brand new, or not new, it's two years old, but it's a brand new market for tours. I tell people there wasn't a 500 capacity club, there wasn't a 1300 capacity theater. We are the ones putting the flag in the sand saying, hey, Clarksville can support its own entertainment. We have to prove that. We have to prove just like we did at Bridgestone Arena. Like I said, this market was not an A market years ago.

but we did the small things, the marketing, the sales, the hospitality side for the tours. To make things better and progress, that's what we're working on right now. It's not easy, but it's fun. It's fun building something. It's fun taking entertainment to people who did not have it before, that all of a sudden their kids get to see something awesome when Austin Peay plays a basketball game there, or they get to see a concert that wasn't coming into their community. So there's lots of fun with that.

tyle=”font-weight: 400;”>Sean Callanan (25:10.028)</span>

And is there a little bit of, you're  running the same playbook that you might've run 15 years ago at Bridgestone, but you're like, I will run the same playbook, but actually there's, , I'm not buying column inches. We're using different channels to market it and those kinds of things. So it's a little bit of updating that playbook and say, we did do this. So what's the 2025 version of that promotion, that logistics nightmare?

David Kells (25:21.804)

Right, yes.</span>

David Kells (25:32.896)

Yeah, and that's one thing we say here all the time is, hey, we used to do something great. Why did that fall off the plate? And we're like, yeah, we forgot that we were doing that. So how do we refresh everybody? But it's still bringing new ideas.

Sean Callanan (25:47.778)

And so how do you do that? , as a lady, you've got a lot of different people across a lot of different roles under under your role as chief venues officer. How do you encourage those on your ideas? And I guess your leadership philosophy to make a smooth running facility.

David Kells (26:03.66)

I guess it's sharing and listening. I try not to talk too much to let people have a voice and say what needs to be said and let their ideas echo in the room and other people feed in. But also knowing when there's a time to say, hey, let's not go down that route. Let's stay here for now. We can look at yours for Tuesday or three weeks from now. So that's always a balance. For the most part, I think of myself as, hey, we know you're a great person. Let me know what support you need.

Let me know what information you need. If I'm not providing that, then that's on me. That's not on you.

Sean Callanan (26:38.946)

Yeah. And then I think the other thing, and I've been wondering if it is because you've got so many different events, know, multiple hockey games and different concerts. Are you able to run little small experiments of testing different things without that, without that big role, without that big role to see if certain ideas might work.

David Kells (26:57.984)

Yeah, we tell people, all of our existing partners, Ticketmaster being one of the largest technical partners, but our broadcast partners, anybody, if you're trying something new, let us know. We will be your guinea pig. We will be your beta. And if it's awesome, we'll help you roll it out to the nation. If it didn't work, hey my gosh, we tried something cool. We got some fan feedback. That's another thing we ask all the time. We want our fans to give us feedback. We want people to make this place better for them.

Season ticket holders are here a lot. There's 41 home games plus playoffs in preseason. This is your house as much as it is where I come to work. How do we make it better for you? And they may travel and see different things. So we ask for that fan feedback too.

Sean Callanan (27:42.542)

I do want to ask that, especially, , lots of venues that have, , the regular tenant like the Preds and, , 41 games and then a concert that's, , or Disney on Ice. And so you'll have different customers coming in, , the Preds fan that knows where they're going, go to the same seat, they say to the same, hello to the same concession vendor and those kinds of things to whereas, , the family that comes in for Disney on Ice for one time a year, how do you try to make sure that that by fan experience is amazing for them, but , they don't get lost.

they have the right experience, how do you  balance that for the for the different products you've got in the market in the building, I should say.

David Kells (28:16.332)

Can I pause for real sec? Thank you.

David Kells (28:31.724)

Sorry, that was a little fire drill there. But yeah, but all I have to that question. We communicate to the fans, know, there's a million channels to do that these days. We send a direct no before you go for, and it's all segmented too. So a season ticket holder is not getting the same information as a single ticket buyer. Somebody who has a premium ticket package for a concert is not getting the same pack.

Sean Callanan (28:35.843)

That's alright.

David Kells (28:59.818)

Same information as somebody who bought a general ticket. So segmented communication, so we sent out a know before you go email several weeks in advance to let them people know it's a marketing tool. Hey, here are the other shows that we have. Here are maybe some upgrades or other things you can purchase. And then a couple days before the show letting people know, hey, this bridge is gonna be closed or door times have changed or maybe there's a different bag policy or security policy.

So those kind of got a granular things. And then on social, how do we make things funny and engaging yet informational? You want people to come because of the funny videos and Nash is our mascot and doing something cool, but you also need to hit them with, like I said, this bridge is closed for the next three weeks. Please make sure you give yourself a little extra time coming down.

Sean Callanan (29:45.25)

Yeah.

And that again, is that part of having, , sales and comms connected to the stadium, ,  closing that loop. So you don't have that, , that, that disconnect is really, really important. So,

David Kells (29:55.648)

Yes. Yeah, absolutely.

Our marketing team is right outside my door and it's everybody. It's social, it's web, it's people who are focused on arena, it's people who are focused on media buying, it's people who are focused on the National Predator season, it's folks who are focused on email database management, it's all of that. But they're all together so they can hear and talk and make somebody's project a little bit better because they can contribute.

Sean Callanan (30:26.542)

So you said that the venue is approaching 30 years. What excites you about Bridgestone Arena in the future?

David Kells (30:32.768)

I really think that big renovation that we talked about, it's gonna be, what we tell people is, when we opened in December of 1996, downtown Nashville was not what it is today. It was not necessarily nice. There were adult bookstores. You talk to the older Honky Tonk owners and they talk about sweeping up needles every morning. So it wasn't a place to bring family. So we were built like a concrete bunker. If you look outside of us, it's a lot of concrete. It's a lot of, get into Bridgestone Arena, have a great time.

But let's not reflect on what's outside of these four walls. Downtown Nashville has changed. There's an energy that we want to be a part of. There's an energy that we want to feed more into. And that's really kind of the core of our renovation. It's how do we meet what Nashville is today versus what it was 30 years ago?

Sean Callanan (31:17.411)

Yeah.

Well, that's terrific. I look forward to coming back to Nashville to check it out because yeah, it was an amazing experience at seat and be able to at least see Bridgestone Arena at least in some of the facilities and stuff at the the welcome reception was great. I'll have to put it down to come to a come back for it for a game. David, I want to. Well, yeah, don't start talking to me about Qantas. I was meant to go Melbourne, Dallas direct and I thought that was fine and it got cancelled.

David Kells (31:39.158)

We've got to work on Qantas to get it direct.

Sean Callanan (31:49.474)

So I to do three flight, I had to do Melbourne to Sydney, Sydney to LA, LA to Dallas, Dallas to Nashville. But I never complained about the flight because I had an amazing time when I got there. So, and it's part of the, it's the tax of living in this part of the world. So I'm okay with that. I want to get to the sports gig closing five, David, do you remember the first sports event you ever attended?

David Kells (31:49.789)

David Kells (31:55.358)

Ooh, that's rough, but.

David Kells (32:03.724)

Yes.

David Kells (32:11.062)

So I was born in northern New York, Massena, New York. And I remember the first event I went to was a Montreal Expos game. And I asked my dad why we were so close to the roof.

Sean Callanan (32:22.574)

That's fine, but good memory nonetheless. You would have been to a lot of sports events in your time, a lot of concerts. Do you have a favorite food or a go-to food when you're at a sports event?

David Kells (32:27.284)

Yes.

David Kells (32:37.248)

Because I work here, hot dogs are just easy. They're classics. You can walk with them. , don't need a fork. I have learned to don't put mustard on if you're wearing a suit. That's my one takeaway because it feels like half the time you're end up something on you that's bright yellow.

Sean Callanan (32:44.835)

Yep.

Sean Callanan (32:54.742)

Yeah, exactly. What's the first app you open in the morning?

David Kells (32:59.532)

New York Times puzzles. Gotta get the wordle in, gotta get the.

Sean Callanan (33:03.17)

Just get the word and get the what's the streak at? What's the number of the streak?

David Kells (33:07.583)

I don't even know. I don't even get it every day, but I get it most.

Sean Callanan (33:13.07)

Is there someone that you follow? might be someone you follow online, an author or a colleague that you see is doing amazing things that the podcast listeners should give a follow and why?

David Kells (33:24.428)

Deanna Winter in the office has a great podcast. It's called Women Blazers. She focuses on women in sports and entertainment. So give that one a listen. She's awesome.

Sean Callanan (33:34.094)

Absolutely, absolutely. And lastly, I always ask this from a personal point of view, and then you can potentially put your venue hat on. What social media platform is your MVP?

David Kells (33:46.848)

I don't do much social, man. I was on it for a period of time, and I realized, I'm just staring at my phone. And there's human beings around that I can talk to. So I deleted a bunch of apps. I'll check stuff for work. But yeah, I try not to do much.

Sean Callanan (33:53.976)

Okay.

Sean Callanan (34:02.734)

that's completely fine and it's a valid choice. there a platform that is the one that is the driver for venues and for engagement for the venue?

David Kells (34:12.28)

It goes back to that segmentation. You really didn't know what audience you're talking to and what voice you're using. So our team does different things for different people. know, X is ubiquitous and all over the place, but sometimes Facebook makes sense to post things and Instagram you're doing different things. So as a venue or a sports team, you can't have one lane. You kind of have to be a little bit for everything for everybody. And that's why everybody's teams have grown.

mean, think of all the content creators that we have. We have a whole video department, graphics department, and part of that graphics department is motion graphics for either in game or on social. It's an army of people who are doing this because there's so many ways that we want to engage our fans and our fans want to be part of the fun. Like I said, whether it's coming for Ghost this weekend or coming for Forest Frank a couple months ago or the next National Predators game. They want to come here and they want to have fun. They want to feel part of it.

Sean Callanan (35:07.648)

And part of your role as a venue is to say yes to the fans so they can actually share that they're there, that they're at a Keith Urban concert. Like, you you would have gone through all those trials and tribulations of making sure people could connect with their phones and they can connect with Wi-Fi and get that data out. We've seen that that output go grow year on year.

David Kells (35:15.146)

Yeah.

David Kells (35:28.768)

Yeah, I remember this was early 2000s. I was working a festival in New Orleans and we were working and we couldn't get cell service because there were so many fans using cell first service. This is before we were trying to watch, , the whole Godfather series on our phones, , so it's that was then that was the first moment I was like, my gosh, we don't have signal because there's such intensity and then they started bringing cell towers to festivals. All those kind of things. Yeah, there's just more broadband and more need for everybody.

Sean Callanan (35:39.169)

Yep.

Sean Callanan (35:58.164)

Well, thank you very much, David. I really want to say thank you. First of all, one hosting us in Nashville was terrific to be in your hometown for for seat but also coming back coming on the podcast. really appreciate it.

David Kells (36:09.035)

Thank you for having me. Thanks for letting me chit chat. Thanks for letting me talk. Everybody here is at Bridgestone Arena.

Sean Callanan (36:15.534)

And the last thing I do is I always ask guests, sorry, ask listeners to say thank you. And if they want to reach out, please say thank you. What is the best way for people to reach out and say hello to you potentially if they're managing a venue and or going through innovations, they've got a question.

David Kells (36:31.564)

I guess email, LISTEN TO PODCAST to get email

Sean Callanan (36:39.534)

Thank you very much, David. I really do appreciate it.

David Kells (36:42.006)

Thank you.