Chicago has plans to build a casino — and according to reporter Chris Jones for the Chicago Tribune, “fevered debate is underway about the most desirable location for the newly authorized Chicago casino.” “But these arguments are absurd,” writes Jones, “the far more important question is what should be inside this still mythical Chicago casino.” The answer? Live entertainment. Jones continues: “Here’s why. Gambling revenues are in decline from the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut … to the Las Vegas …

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Did you even know the web had a most popular color? Well … it’s blue. “Blue is the color of Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Microsoft, whitehouse.gov, WordPress and Pandora … among others,” reports Caitlin Dewey for The Washington Post. Dewey explains how blue became the it color: “Recently, the designer Paul Hebert began tracking the color palettes of the world’s largest websites … On the world’s 10 most popular websites, shades of blue and turquoise outnumber other colors by …

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This past Monday Sesame Street debuted its 45th season. Which is a good example of a show that has maintained a strong gravitational pull. Jim talks about the importance of gravitational pull: ” … pay attention to what does and doesn’t have gravitational pull so that you can develop better instincts on the subject. Why? For your own content, of course. Some of us in live entertainment marketing have input or control of content, and some just have to market …

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For this series, we’ve reached into the vault to share a few pieces that are still relevant today. If you have a moment, read the piece from the Los Angeles Times wherein two local L.A. critics talk about the small theater scene. It’s worth reading for its own merits, and it’s an interesting discussion with a number of really perceptive insights from the two critics, Charles McNulty and Steven Leigh Morris. But one thing Morris said stood out that I …

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This infographic about music sales in 2013 is designed to entertain you, but I think it needs a headline. I’ll give it one now: Recorded Music Sales Shrink Again. Let’s give it a subhed or two: Even Most Popular Albums Sell Relatively Few Copies. Digital Formats No Longer Growing in Sales. Remember this whenever you start feeling a little whine coming on because you’re in the live entertainment business.

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There is no sport that’s fallen as far as fast as horse racing. In 1960, America’s three most popular sports, arguably, were baseball, boxing and horse racing. Baseball is still popular, if not No. 1 anymore; boxing has been eclipsed by MMA and is no longer dining table conversation. But horse racing has dropped out of view altogether. There’s still a tiny bit of hoopla about the Kentucky Derby, but it wouldn’t be hard to miss it completely, even if …

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