This week's column: Book 'em, Matt
Eyes dancing, hair slicked to the rear, not quite Pat Riley-style, Matt Brown is a study in perpetual motion. Even when sitting (theoretically) still, he'll lean back, thrust forward and punctuate his words with hands and fingers.
From Springsteen to Southern Baptists, ACC basketball to tractor pulls, Brown's mission as managing director of the Greensboro Coliseum is to keep the big barn humming with events and concession sales.
Book 'em, Matt.
It's not easy. He's had to tangle with one rival after another: the Dean Dome, the RBC Center, outdoor concert "sheds" in Charlotte and Raleigh, and even his own City Council.
In 2000, Brown — the highest-paid city employee at $174,766 — apologized to the council for calling it "shortsighted." Brown had taken the council to task for vetoing his idea to sell naming rights to War Memorial Auditorium.
Brown's boss at the time, former City Manager Ed Kitchen, was not amused. "I did call him on that," Kitchen said last week. "That's just not something that city staff should do."
But Kitchen never regretted hiring Brown, a decision he helped make in 1994.
"Matt was very aggressive," said Kitchen, who was deputy city manager in '94. "He knew the ins and outs of the business. He had a vision about the building and where its uniqueness could take it."
The results have been impressive, especially recently: long-term deals with the ACC men's and women's basketball tournaments, an ambitious bid for the 2013 NCAA Women's Final Four, plus impassioned pushes to renovate War Memorial Auditorium, build a swim center and create an ACC Hall of Champions, an idea Brown originated.
Kitchen says you need someone tough in Brown's job — that the arena management business is no place for the meek. But Brown's brusque, in-your-face style hasn't worn well on many.
In 1996, Brown proposed privatizing the coliseum under a management company that he would have run, with the City Council opposing his plan 5-4.
In August of 1999, Brown rankled some council members by discussing plans for coliseum expansion without consulting them first.
Also in August 1999, Brown angered veterans with his idea to sell naming rights to War Memorial Auditorium, the same issue about which he apologized to the council.
Brown has had other, less bureaucratic disagreements. In June 2000, Brown was stabbed in the arm with a pocketknife by a High Point man in the Four Seasons Town Centre parking lot. The two had exchanged heated words.
In 2003, the coliseum assumed management of the city's struggling hockey team, the Greensboro Generals. Some praised his desire to preserve an important revenue stream. Others, including this newspaper, saw the arrangement as risky and inappropriate.
He has been known to scream at reporters, including editorial page editors. But not lately. In recent years, Brown has shaved his trademark mustache and (slightly) softened his sharp edges.
Even Brown concedes he may have mellowed. "Vitamins help," he joked two weeks ago. "And I guess, age and time and fitting in."
Mayor Keith Holliday said Brown better understands the constraints of operating a public building. Holliday also said Brown better understands Greensboro. "Matt has really grown into this job," the mayor said.
But I am what I am, Brown warns. "I've always been able to speak my piece and say what I believe in. Hopefully people will see the benefit to that."
So Brown's still got his swagger. And he still operates at only one speed: overdrive. Get with it, or get out of the way.
"He hasn't reduced the flame that's burning in him to compete," Kitchen said. "That's the last thing you want to happen. You don't pull the reins too tight on a racehorse like that. You let him run."
Is Brown a cutthroat in a cutthroat business? Better believe it. But he's our cutthroat.
Comments (6)
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Brown will always draw mixed reviews because some will focus on substance, some on his style. He is so rough, though, that I have to believe his style has negatively impacted his performance in some instances.
Posted on June 18, 2006 5:55 AM
Having spent time in both the artistic and business sides of the music business, I long ago concluded that this notion that you need a cutthroat style is garbage. What you need is a clear knowledge of your limits (or those of the people whom you represent) and firm resolve not to cross those limits. If you have that, you can be saccharine-sweet or not and the outcome will still be pretty much the same. I think some people affect the cutthroat style because they don't know any other way of doing things, some just because it's fun and some because they're compensating for something.
Posted on June 18, 2006 9:10 AM
When will Greensboro recognize the fact that Matt Brown is an asset to the community. Events, prestige, reputation, tax revenues don't happen because we have a facility. They happen because we have a committed LEADER in charge of the facility.
Matt Brown's committment to upgrade the facility and constantly bring top notch entertainment to our relatively small market propels us ahead of most other markets of our size. His past experience with an aquatics facility would add yet another gem to our fair city.
Too many people who don't know him view his impatience with the staus quo as arrogance or as a Yankee personality trait they don't admire. I, for one, am grateful that we have a public servant actually earning his paycheck!!!!
Thanks Matt for saving me gas money. I don't have to travel to Charlotte or Raleigh to get superior entertainment..... you bring it home for all to enjoy!!!!!
Posted on June 19, 2006 10:04 AM
Lex, I attempted to take some artistic license with the term "cutthroat."
Does it mean you need to be a tyrant who terrorizes employees and ignores his bosses (and the taxpayers)?
No.
Does it mean you need to aggressive and driven and creative and willing to mix it up in the shark pool of promoters?
Absolutely.
Posted on June 19, 2006 10:48 AM
When you look at PolStar's list of upcoming concerts in Greensboro you see the Dixie Chicks in October, Etta James, American Idol Live, and the Nashville Star tour.
Who we aren't going to see is Dave Mathews, John Fogerty, the Buzzcocks, Trey Anastacio, Def Leppard, the Drive by Truckers, Black Crowes, Lynard Skynard, Delbert McClinton, Kenny Chesney, the Allman Brothers, Gin Blossoms, Goo Goo Dolls, Counting Crows, Doc Watson, or Eric Clapton. All of them will be in Raleigh this year.
In Charlotte, in addition to some duplication with Raleigh, you get Mary J.Blige, Duncan Sheik, Kelly Clarkson, Fiona Apple, Joan Jett, Michael McDonald, Steely Dan, Bruce Hornsby, Katty Mattea, Poison, Robert Cray, B.J. Thomas, and America. Al Green will be in Winston-Salem.
I understand the economic realities that put tours in Charlotte and Raleigh, but look at the list. Sure, we can't compete for every tour that comes to the Carolinas but don't you think we can do better than this? The Dixie Chicks are here because basically they aren't drawing on the road anymore and of the other three shows the only one I'd go see is Etta James. Heck, I'd be a happy camper if we just got some of the bottom 10 off Charlotte and Raleigh's list. Maybe somebody ought to be asking why a facility like the Greensboro Colesium can't at least compete for the second and third tier acts that are going elsewhere in the state.
I don't care about Brown's personality. Show me the bookings. That's all you need to know.
Posted on June 19, 2006 7:36 PM
Fair enough, Dudley. But I'll give Matt the benefit of the doubt on some of those. Concert bookings can be cyclical and new arenas tend to have a novelty appeal, I'm told.
On balance, however, Matt has done a pretty good job over the years with lots of big names, including Prince, Springsteen and Tina Turner.
Posted on June 19, 2006 8:53 PM