Michael Barber brings over 30 years Director’s level experience responsible for the successful performance of large Sports, Entertainment & Convention Venues across the nation. Following 16 years serving the City of St. Petersburg, Florida, most recently as Director of Sports & Entertainment Venues, he retired to his consulting company, Venue Management Solutions LLC. During his tenure with the City he was responsible for final design, construction coordination, FF&E, staffing, policy development, Grand Opening Celebration, and related start-up activities associated with the ongoing management & marketing of the Thunderdome (first home of NHL Tampa Bay Lightning & Tampa Bay Storm Arena Football franchises…all-time attendance records set for both professional sports leagues still stand today). Stadium was re-named Tropicana Field with the arrival of MLB Tampa Bay  Rays Baseball franchise. Also responsible for the Bayfront Center Arena (concerts, Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disney on Ice, Sesame Street, hockey, boxing/wrestling, consumer shows, conventions), Mahaffey Theater for the Performing Arts (Broadway, The Florida Orchestra, & performing artist series), Historic Coliseum (conferences, banquets, concerts, consumer shows, wedding receptions), Progress Energy Park (outdoor spring baseball training, concerts, festivals), The Pier (extending into the Bay this 5 story complex features a variety of retail shops, fine waterfront restaurants, beach style outdoor nightclub on the top deck, University of South Florida’s saltwater aquarium, fishing, bicycle touring, dinner cruises, The Bounty pirate ship in season, and a multitude of major waterfront events, including annual power boat races, 4th of July Fireworks, biker rally, concerts and themed activities). One of the Bay areas largest tourist attractions, over 2 million visit annually, including international traffic. The  Streets around the Venues also serve as the waterfront track for the annual Grand Prix Races in Downtown St. Petersburg.

 

Designed/implemented a unique ‘arena’ design concept for the original ThunderDome to accommodate arena configuration attractions within the stadium bowl. Aggressively marketed & booked over 40 major concerts in the first 5 years ( eg. Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, Garth Brooks,  Janet Jackson, Guns & Roses, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart & similar artists), Chicago Bulls & other NBA Exhibitions, NHL Exhibition with Kings’ Gretzky v. Penquins’ Lemeiux (38,000 sellout resulted in award of NHL Lightning franchise), MotorCross, Monster Trucks and related non-traditional baseball stadium events generated $25 million gross sales from 1.2 million attendance annually. This success helped to attract/host the prestigious World Group Finals of Davis Cup Tennis and NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four Tournament & MLB World Series.

Active member of the International Association of Venue Managers (IAAM) since 1976. Past member of Stadium Managers Association (SMA), American Society of Association Managers (ASAE), Professional Convention Managers Association (PCMA),  Int’l Society of Performing Arts (ISPA), Int’l Enterainment Buyers Assoc (IEBA), Country Music Assoc (CMA).