SUGAR LAND, TEXAS – Legendary Smiths frontman, Morrissey, performed for more than 3,000 fans at Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land on Friday, April 14 after confirming and announcing the venue change two days prior. After a series of thunderstorms saturated their outdoor concert lawn, White Oak Music Hall approached Smart Financial Centre to host Morrissey’s Houston performance, which already had two previous cancellations. Despite a 5,000-seat Easter service scheduled for Sunday, the venue mobilized its staff to reconfigure the auditorium to accommodate the performance in a short timeframe.
More details from Smart Financial Centre (www.smartfinancialcentre.net):
In addition to the tight deadline, Smart Financial Centre was challenged with hosting a general admission show with existing tickets from the White Oak venue which were on a completely different ticketing platform. To date, Smart Financial Centre had only hosted reserved seat events. The Ticket Office integrated the existing tickets into the venue scanner system and built the show within the Ticketmaster system in order to sell additional tickets to the event.
Utilizing its moveable walls technology, the operations staff reconfigured the auditorium to create a more intimate setting and worked in tandem with security and usher staff company CSC to develop a crowd management strategy to reseat White Oak Music Hall premium seating areas and the general admission ticket holders
As the operations staff prepared the auditorium, Smart Financial Centre’s marketing staff quickly alerted current ticket holders and fans of the venue change, engaging local radio stations, its email database and growing social media channels. As a result, the venue garnered the attention of Houston’s leading entertainment writers at the Houston Chronicle, Houston Press, and PaperCity Magazine.
On the night of the performance, Smart Financial Centre welcomed approximately 3,500 guests for the Morrissey show.
Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land is a state-of-the-art, indoor performance venue that is strategically-located 22 miles from downtown Houston off of Highway 59 and University Boulevard. Since opening in January 2017, Smart Financial Centre has set a new standard for live performance venues and is equipped to host a wide array of programming including national music and comedy artists, family shows, theatrically- staged Broadway productions and cultural and performing arts attractions. Designed for flexibility, the 200,000-square-foot venue incorporates innovative moveable walls that can expand and contract to create four different seating capacities that range from an intimate setting of 3,000 seats to a maximum of 6,400. It also features 2,500 guest parking spaces, 14 luxury suites, corporate hospitality areas, and the latest sound, light and video technology. Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land is managed by ACE SL, LLC in partnership with the City of Sugar Land
