Club Cues Music in Valencia

Lance Sterling’s mix of music and marketing savvy has created successful nightclubs in Agoura Hills, Pasadena and Los Angeles. But will the formula work in Santa Clarita? The Canyon Santa Clarita has attracted crowds since opening in September. And Sterling, owner of Sterling Venue Ventures in Agoura Hills, sees his latest venture as a hedge against the giant entertainment companies that dominate live music. Since opening, the Valencia venue has quickly become the second-highest grossing location Sterling operates. He also runs the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, his top-grossing venue; the Rose in Pasadena; the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills; and the Libbey Bowl in Ojai. The Santa Clarita venue at 24201 Valencia Blvd. occupies the space of seven former stores at the Westfield Valencia Town Center shopping center. It has 17,000 square feet and can hold up to 1,000 guests and 100 employees. The club only opens on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and sometimes Sundays depending on the musicians’ availability. The former retail locations included a Red Robin, a shoe store, a hairdresser and a frame store. Currently, the club sells tickets for the Spinners, Stone Temple Pilots, Melissa Manchester and Marshall Tucker Band. It also has dates for standup comedians Carrot Top and Andrew Dice Clay. Ticket prices vary from $19.50 to $60, depending on the act. Industry shift The opening of Sterling’s fifth club comes as music becomes more corporate. Large concert operators sometimes have radius clauses in performers’ contracts that prohibit them from playing at independent venues within a certain distance of the corporate-owned locations. Sterling has countered with a strategy of trying to build up enough venues so he can offer musicians a regional circuit. “We are in rotation and that’s why we are building all the new locations,” Sterling said. “The larger companies, the mega companies like AEG and Live Nation Entertainment Inc., would book these bands and then they would put a 60-mile, six-month restriction on whether they can play or not.” Sterling can compete with the big players because he doesn’t target the typical 20-year old demographic. Instead he focuses on the 30- to 50-year old consumer and books vintage acts. For example, Psychedelic Furs, Fifth Dimension and Wilson Phillips are scheduled to perform in the upcoming months. He also showcases a lot of tribute bands. Gail Bower, president of Bower & Co. Consulting LLC in Philadelphia, said there’s no way to directly compete with the large music producers because their talent-buying power is unmatched. “The key to financial success is maximizing a wide range of revenue sources and building a strong community,” Bower said. Sterling’s clubs serve dinner and features a merchandise area near the box office, resulting in two additional revenue streams beyond ticket sales. With the success of his previous music venues, Sterling was an attractive catch for the city of Santa Clarita, which came to him with the new location for his venue. Jason Crawford, Santa Clarita’s economic development manager, told the Business Journal that the city asked residents through a survey what stores or amenities they would like to see. “One of the things that comes up regularly is entertainment and nightlife, so we thought that this would be a great opportunity to bring in something that we thought our residents would love,” Crawford said. The city then contacted Sterling. “The city of Santa Clarita was the one who called me and asked us to come in, because they understood that they want more entertainment,” Sterling said. Since the opening, business has been better then Sterling expected. “We think Santa Clarita is the perfect market,” he said. “Demographic-wise, it’s a community where people actually live and stay.” This new location has changed the Canyon Clubs rotation. “We realized that zones from upscale communities where people live is more important,” Sterling said. Sterling’s strategy of putting his music clubs in shopping centers adapted well to the Santa Clarita market. He acknowledged the difficulty of finding new locations with parking for 500 to 600 vehicles that also has loading docks for equipment and a traffic circulation that can handle hundreds of cars coming or leaving at the same time. “When you are associated with a mall, they have already designed the traffic patterns to be able to handle that,” said Sterling. Career wisdom Sterling previously worked as vice president of operations and development for House of Blues. While there, he saw the folly of opening clubs in distant cities. “I made a mistake because instead of opening five venues in Southern California, I opened in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Orlando and Anaheim, I didn’t see it smart,” he recalled. “I realized that was a mistake.” Learning from his errors, Sterling now focuses on smaller markets where he knows residents need more entertainment. The goal is to bring the entertainment to the customers rather than expecting them to travel to a large, centralized venue. “I stay out of the major markets,” he explained. “Once I designed my company that way, my growth just became organic. I am not even pushing to open more venues.” Sterling also decided to benefit his customers by sticking to a schedule. Venues open at 6 p.m., shows go on at 8, the headliner at 9 and the bands are done by 10:30 p.m. The time table helps customers because they leave satisfied and get home on time. “It was probably the most well-received thing we ever did, because when I would go talk to people they would say they don’t go to concerts anymore because they can’t stand to wait till 11 o’clock when the band was supposed to go on at 9,” he said. For the Santa Clarita market, Sterling developed a family-friendly approach. The club has a marketing program with House of Bounce, an entertainment party store in the Valencia Town Center that offers activities for kids that include trampolines, arts, crafts and painting. Parents have the option to drop off their children to have fun and enjoy the company of other children while their parents enjoy a fun concert. “We would be dumbfounded if we didn’t realize how many people bring their families to concerts – it’s remarkable to me,” he said. Sterling is scouting new locations in Montclair, Santa Ana, Temecula and Escondido.