Harvey Lister: ‘live events and entertainment are recession proof’

Expressing confidence in the market for live events and entertainment in the post pandemic environment and backing the Federal and Queensland Government’s recently announced funding plans for venues for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics, ASM Global Asia Pacific Chairman and Managing Director, Harvey Lister has expressed confidence in the sector’s prospects.

Speaking to Australasian Leisure Management Publisher Nigel Benton, Lister commended the Queensland and Australian Government’s tenacity in agreeing funding for Brisbane 2023 venues, noting “I need to give Anastasia (Palaszczuk, Queensland Premier) a pat on the back for having hung in there for that period of time in getting the package agreed.

“We are delighted that the Federal Government have come on board with the funding for the Games and we look forward to working with both of them and delivering it.”

Lister is encouraged that the Federal Government will be funding the 17,000-seat arena project while the Queensland Government assumes responsibility for the other major Games venue, the Gabba.

First proposed by ASM Global (as AEG Ogden) in 2016, Lister advised “we hope to be the operator of the arena, notwithstanding any ‘Johnny come lately’ who might jump on board at the last minute and try and steal the project after the many years of investment that we've made working alongside government in improving up project.

Dismissive of “people who haven't now put in an ounce of effort or idea into a project that we've worked through in minute detail to assist government”, Lister is confident that ASM Global will be the operator of Brisbane Live, which he sees as being transformative for the future of live entertainment in the city.

Looking beyond Brisbane, Lister is excited by ASM Global’s projects across Asia and in the Arabian Gulf, noting “we have a number of projects in Asia and up into the Gulf region where we've expanded quite strongly.

“Some of those contracts have been signed but are not yet ready for an announcement while other are in the final stage of documentation.

“It's a very buoyant market and a very strong area for ASM Global as we've been bringing together a future touring circuit for entertainment, indoor sport and family events across Asia - some of that in partnership with AEG.

“We are also working towards a touring circuit for entertainment and indoor sport in the Gulf region.

“Overall we think that those two regions, the Gulf region and the Asian region will work beautifully together with the Australian market where we have so many venues and we think that it is going to provide terrific opportunities for promoters, particularly in the music space, but in family and other events as well to be able to extend the number of dates that they're buying and join the three regions together.”

Lister adds “that's our vision for the future, to provide a more economic opportunity for artists and their management and promoters across the broader region.”

Lister, who has provided comment for a feature in the latest issue of Australasian Leisure Management looking at consumer spending in 2023, is very optimistic about the future, commenting “while there have been suggestion that we might be going into some form of recession in this region of the world, we're actually a bit optimistic that the Australian Government's efforts might save us our economy.

“We've always found that when there are troubled times in the economy and people are doing it tough, they want to reward themselves … so entertainment generally has been recession proof.

“But at the moment we are showing that conventions and exhibitions are proving on the basis of strong forward bookings are that people still want to meet face-to-face, they still need to do business and they need to be on top of what's happening in their industry sectors and so they are still investing time for their senior executives and staff and money in confirming their attendance at conventions.

“We are seeing terrific materialisation at the moment for most events. It's not every single event that we see, but that's the nature of a commercial marketplace.

“But it's very encouraging and our business partners in the USA have reported exactly the same type of optimism there with materialisation of conference attendees and exhibitors at their major trade shows.”

Equally confident about major venues, and particularly the touring product for stadia, Lister explains “coming out of COVID, globally we have a traffic jam of events in stadiums the like of which we've never seen in this industry.

“I think that's particularly positive because it's showing that the ticket purchasers, the punters, do want to go out, that they trust the large venue environments and are treating themselves and having fun.

“And at the same time they're seeing an extraordinary number of acts touring in stadiums, many of which are coming to Australia for the first time.

“Remember, they've all got out of their three year touring cycles, are out of kilter with their recorded product and they need to tour to support that recorded product.

“And all during COVID they were, like many of us in the venue industry, keeping  as many of our staff as possible employed, investing in training and funding, so that they could bounce back.

“Rather like we invested, if you were a band, you've probably been supporting a whole raft of people who work for you - sometimes in recording studios, sometimes the drum technician, sometimes the favourite guy for the mixing desk.

“So a lot of the big acts tried to keep all those people employed. Now they need to go out and make a living and the quickest way to do that has been to go into stadiums or large venues because the arenas are having blockbuster runs as well.

“And some of those acts will stay as stadium acts some and next time around will be back in arenas.”

Images: Harvey Lister (top), the current concept for the Brisbane Live arena (middle) and Ed Sheeran at the ASM Global Asia Pacific-managed Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane last month (below).