Sports & entertainment venue operations
We placed the head PM for an NBA arena renovation. We can staff your venue too.
Recruiting firm for arenas, stadiums, and live-entertainment venues. Project Manager and VP-level operations placements across capital projects, gameday operations, premium hospitality, and event execution. A small, specialized network — yours when you need it.
Trusted by operations leaders across verticals
Venue operations isn't hospitality recruiting.
An arena operates on gameday and event cycles, not daily occupancy. Premium hospitality (suites, club levels) lives next to crowd management, league requirements, and partner brand standards. Capital-renovation projects layer architecture, construction, ownership, and league sign-off into a single stakeholder environment.
The leaders who operate that environment are a specialized network — not generalist hotel operators, not pure construction PMs. We know who built the operations team at a new MLS facility, which capital-renovation lead just wrapped a major project and is open to the next, and who knows how to run a venue without a league or tenant burning your relationship up the chain.
Roles we routinely fill
If your job title sounds like one of these — or one we haven't listed but you'd be hiring at the same level — we've done it before.
Where we have deep network
Capital renovations
Head PMs · Senior PMs · Owner's reps for arena and stadium renovation programs
Gameday operations
Directors of Event Ops · VP of Venue Operations · GMs for pro and college venues
Premium hospitality
Directors of Suite Operations · Premium Sales leaders · Guest Experience for live events
Concessions + F&B
Director of Concessions · VP F&B · Operators across in-house and partner-managed F&B
Case study
Head Project Manager — NBA arena renovation
When an NBA franchise needed to staff the head Project Manager for a major arena renovation, we delivered a candidate with direct capital-project leadership experience in pro venue construction. Stakeholder environment: ownership, league, architect, GC, operating partners. Placed and on-the-ground before competing searches had a first slate out.
Common questions
What types of sports and entertainment organizations does Platt Partners recruit for?
Professional sports franchises (NBA, NFL, MLB, MLS, NHL), college athletics with major venue operations, large-event entertainment venues, arena management companies, and capital-renovation projects for sporting and live-event venues. We focus on Director through VP-level operations and capital leadership.
How does Platt Partners recruit Project Managers for arena renovations?
We placed the Head Project Manager for an NBA arena renovation — so we know what the seat requires: capital-project leadership across architecture, construction, ownership, and league requirements. We screen on actual capital responsibility, not just construction credentials, because venue-renovation PMs operate inside a unique stakeholder environment.
How long does a typical sports and entertainment search take?
For roles we have placed before, the first candidate slate lands in under 5 business days. For specialized capital-project or venue-operations roles, expect 30 to 45 days to first qualified slate — the network is smaller and more specialized than general hospitality or restaurants.
What engagement models do you offer for venue clients?
Three models. Executive search at a flat 20% fee for senior venue + capital roles — the level where back-channel referencing and specialized network access decide the outcome. RaaS (Recruiting as a Service) on a monthly retainer when you have ongoing hiring across the operations org but no full-time TA lead. Consulting by the hour for comp benchmarking, JD calibration, or ATS + interview-loop audits. We pick the right fit on the first call based on the seat and your hiring plan.
What makes a great venue operations leader different from a generalist hospitality leader?
Venue operations is event-driven, not stay-driven. The cadence is gameday, concert, or tournament — not 24/7 occupancy. Great venue leaders own crowd management, premium-hospitality experience, partner and tenant relationships (teams, leagues, promoters), and capital-project oversight. We screen specifically for event-driven operations experience, not generic hospitality.
Where is Platt Partners based, and does it place nationally?
Platt Partners is based in Tennessee and places executives nationally across sports and entertainment markets. Capital project work in particular is geographically distributed, so we routinely staff roles in markets from the Southeast to the West Coast.
Do you offer RaaS (embedded recruiting) for ongoing hiring needs?
Yes. RaaS (Recruiting as a Service — same model as "fractional recruiting" under an industry-standard name) is one of three engagement models. When you have consistent hiring cadence but no full-time TA headcount, Peter runs the recruiting function on a monthly retainer — weekly submissions, ATS optimization, executive reporting, no per-placement invoices. See /fractional-recruiting for details.
Venue operators
Tell us what you're trying to fill
We'll come back with a candidate slate inside 5 business days — usually faster for roles we've placed before.
Prefer phone? (949) 235-0139