SMBA Students Tour Coachella Valley Sports Properties
SMBA '22 at PGA West
By Jim Wilkie and Lilly Markusch (SMBA '22)
“Let’s go to Coachella,” we said.
And with that, it didn’t take more prodding to get one-fourth of the SDSU SMBA Class of 2022 to take a 130-mile road trip northeast to the Coachella Valley.
Only, for us aspiring sports business professionals, the destination wasn’t a spring music festival. Our objective was to learn as much as possible from an informational and fact-finding visit to two notable sports sites in the Palm Springs area.
Back on April 8th, 10 members of the SMBA cohort toured the site of the new Acrisure Arena and PGA West resort and private club complex to get a deeper understanding of the two businesses.
Our first stop was PGA West, a massive sports property with nine championship golf courses, five clubhouses and two private clubs in La Quinta.
We were greeted with a tour of the entire property by executive director Ben Dobbs. He first took the group through the private members only course, where we toured the entire clubhouse, golf courses, as well as the many amenities offered to the roughly 1,500 members of the club.
Ben Dobbs, Executive Director of PGA West and The Citrus Club
Dobbs explained how PGA West’s members usually skew to an older demographic. So to keep retention rates high, the club provides many amenities that can be enjoyed by not only the members, but also grandchildren and families.
We then drove over to the other side of the property where we toured the renowned resort courses that serve as the sites of the annual American Express Open, a historic event formerly known as the Bob Hope Desert Classic. We learned about the history of the two courses for the tournament, the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course and the host course, Pete Dye Stadium.
Additionally, we learned about the PGA West’s relations in hosting the American Express Open and Dobbs’ direct responsibilities in executing the event. Throughout the morning, Dobbs introduced us to many other members of his team and were able to hear about the different roles and responsibilities across all department levels. Overall, the group had an extremely detailed and informative visit with Dobbs at the PGA West.
Next up in the afternoon, we drove across the valley to the Thousand Palms where Acrisure Arena is being built. The 11,500-seat arena will be home to the American Hockey League expansion Coachella Valley Firebirds, who will be the top minor-league affiliate of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken.
Coachella Valley Firebirds and Acrisure Arena president Steve Fraser and CAA ICON’s Melissa Acham-Wallace, who serves as the owner’s representative on site for the Oak View Group during the arena development, gave us the hard-hat tour of the facility.
SMBA '22 at the hard-hat tour of Acrisure Arena
After seeing the incredible job OVG did to build Climate Pledge Arena underneath a historically protected roof in Seattle, our SMBA students were fortunate to see OVG’s bold ambition in progress on a slightly smaller scale.
Acham-Wallace and Fraser said Acrisure Arena is designed to be environmentally sustainable, similar to Climate Pledge Arena, which is home to the Kraken. While Climate Pledge boasts about becoming the first net-zero carbon arena in the world, Acrisure Arena has a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2025 with net-zero waste.
Leading up to that date, solar panels are expected to generate enough electricity to power the facility on non-event days, Acham-Wallace said. Also capitalizing on the abundant sun in the desert valley will be solar canopies that also provide shade in the parking lot.
OVG develops these and many other arena projects around the world with a bold, strategic vision of adding vital sports and entertainment centers to communities. But Fraser called it a collective of work between a number of well-known companies that have made an impact on sports business. In addition to CAA ICON’s project management, global sports architectural firm Populous handled the design and AECOM Hunt has been constructing the arena.
Construction on the 300,000 square foot venue and adjacent practice rink, which will be used by the Firebirds and community hockey and skating programs, started in June 2021 and is expected to finish by the end of this year. That late opening will mean an extended road trip for the start of the Firebirds’ 2022-23 season, and possibly some “home” games in neutral locations such as Seattle, Fraser said.
Thank you to Ben Dobbs, Steve Fraser, and Melissa Acham-Wallace for bringing SMBA ‘22 to Coachella this year and making this insightful excursion possible!
