Other Arts, Entertainment and Recreation Businesses Industry Terminology

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)

US civil rights law requiring accessible facilities, services, programming, and communications for people with disabilities. In this industry it covers seating, restrooms, routes, service counters, websites, captioning/ASL, companion seating, and policies for service animals.

Is our queue configuration ADA-compliant for wheelchair users; We must hold companion seats adjacent to every ADA location; Add open captions to comply with ADA and state law.

Advance (Show Advance)

The pre-event coordination process between promoter/producer and venue to confirm all operational, technical, hospitality, and financial details (riders, schedules, loading, staffing, security, settlement).

Have we advanced power requirements with the tour; The production advance notes a 7 a.m. dock time; Update the advance with final comp and hold releases.

Back-of-House (BOH)

Non-public operational areas of a venue or attraction such as loading docks, kitchens, control rooms, dressing rooms, storage, staff corridors, and offices.

Keep BOH corridors clear for egress; BOH radios are on Channel 3; Talent arrival routes must stay strictly BOH.

Blackout Dates

Dates a venue or attraction cannot be booked or activated due to rights restrictions, seasonal closures, exclusivity, holidays, maintenance, or sponsor conflicts.

The arena has team blackouts on all home game days; The museum’s gala creates a blackout weekend; Sponsor exclusivity blacked out competitive brands for the festival.

Box Office Settlement

Post-event financial reconciliation of ticket sales, fees, taxes, discounts, comps, promoter expenses, house nut, splits, and artist/talent payouts.

The settlement will happen one hour after doors; Bring backup of taxes and facility fee in the settlement packet; The artist’s overage was calculated at settlement.

CAPEX and OPEX (Capital vs Operating Expenditures)

CAPEX are long-term investments in assets (e.g., staging, projection, rides, fit-outs). OPEX are day-to-day operating costs (e.g., labor, utilities, marketing, consumables).

The VR attraction requires CAPEX we’ll depreciate over five years; Our OPEX spikes in peak season due to temp labor; Sponsor funding offset initial CAPEX for the new signage.

Capacity (Venue Capacity)

The maximum number of patrons allowed by fire code and operational constraints; includes seated, GA, room, ride, and timed-entry capacities.

Timed ticketing flattens peak-hour capacity; We can add 150 standing GA to increase capacity; Egress studies limit bowl capacity to 12,500.

Concessions

Food, beverage, and impulse retail sold on-site, often via a percentage deal or per-head benchmarks; key drivers include menu, speed of service, and payment tech.

F&B concessions hit a $9.40 per cap; We renegotiated the merch concessions split to 75/25; Mobile order pickup reduced concessions lines.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

Systems and processes to manage patron data, segmentation, offers, service interactions, and loyalty. Integrates with ticketing and marketing automation.

Build a lapsed-member segment in the CRM; Sync ticket scans back to the CRM for RFM scoring; Trigger a post-visit NPS survey via the CRM.

Crowd Management

The planning and real-time control of patron flow and behavior using staffing, barriers, signage, communications, and monitoring to ensure safe operations.

Deploy stewards for crowd management at the main gate; Stanchions reoriented to prevent cross-traffic; The crowd plan details ingress, egress, and hold areas.

Dark Day

A day with no public performances or operations, used for maintenance, resets, rehearsals, or rest.

The theater is dark on Mondays; We scheduled deep cleaning on dark days; The cast has a dark day between city pairs.

Dynamic Pricing

Real-time or rule-based ticket price changes based on demand, inventory, time to event, segmentation, or competitor signals.

Raise front orchestra $10 after 80% sold; Dynamic rules drop weekday slots by 15%; Secondary market signals inform dynamic pricing bands.

Egress

The safe, code-compliant movement of patrons out of a venue or zone after an event or ride cycle; includes exit paths, signage, lighting, and timing.

Egress time to clear the bowl is 12 minutes; Keep exit stairs unobstructed for egress; Announce staggered egress by section.

Experiential Marketing

Brand-led, immersive engagements designed to create memorable interactions (pop-ups, on-site activations, interactive installations) often tied to content and social.

The sponsor’s experiential footprint features a photo op; We integrated an AR game into the experiential zone; Measure experiential KPIs beyond impressions.

F&B Per Cap (Food & Beverage Per Capita)

Average food and beverage spend per attendee; calculated as F&B net sales divided by attendance. Used for forecasting staffing and menu mix.

Concert per cap was $11.20; Weather depressed per caps at the outdoor festival; Upsells increased per caps in VIP.

Force Majeure

Contract clause excusing performance due to events beyond control (e.g., severe weather, government orders). Often covers cancellation, postponement, and refunds.

Invoke force majeure for the hurricane; Our rider defines force majeure narrowly; The force majeure clause triggers rescheduling, not refunds.

Front-of-House (FOH)

Public-facing areas and teams (ushers, box office, guest services, concourses). In live sound, FOH also refers to the front mix position/engineer.

FOH needs two extra ushers for ADA seating; FOH audio check is at 4 p.m.; FOH reported a queue backlog at Gate B.

GA (General Admission)

Non-reserved access where patrons choose their spots on a first-come basis; capacity-driven and often standing room.

GA floor caps at 2,000; Convert balcony from reserved to GA to speed sales; GA wristbands are color-coded by day.

Get-in/Load-in

The scheduled arrival and setup of equipment, scenery, exhibits, or attractions into the venue, coordinated across docks, labor, and safety.

The load-in requires two 53' trailers; Confirm dock height in the advance; Add riggers to support load-in.

Gross Potential (GP)

The maximum possible gross ticket revenue at full sell-through at set price scales (usually before taxes/fees), used to evaluate offers and risk.

At current scaling, GP is $425,000; Raising the top price increases GP by 8%; The guarantee is 85% of GP.

Hold Map

Seating manifest indicating locations held for artists, sponsors, ADA, production kills, and internal allocations, with release rules by date.

Release H3 holds at T-7 days; Update the hold map after riser kills; Sponsor holds include 20 premium seats.

Hospitality Rider

Artist requirements for catering, dressing rooms, towels, beverages, and back-of-house amenities; part of the contract.

The hospitality rider specifies vegan options; Confirm fridge space per the rider; Add a greenroom refresh to meet rider standards.

House Nut

The venue/promoter’s agreed fixed expenses (house costs) to be recouped before any profit split with the artist.

We hit the nut at 65% sold; Settlement will be after house nut; Reduce the nut by trimming overtime security.

Ingress

The safe, efficient flow of patrons into a venue or zone; covers screening, ticket scanning, queue design, and early-entry programs.

Staggered ingress by section reduces crush; Add magnetometers to improve ingress; VIP ingress uses Gate 1.

Insurance Certificate (COI)

Proof of insurance coverage listing required limits, dates, and additional insureds; often mandated in rental agreements and permits.

Provide a COI naming the venue as additional insured; The COI must include workers’ comp; No load-in without a valid COI.

Intellectual Property (IP) Licensing

Legal rights to use copyrighted or trademarked content (characters, logos, music, artwork) for attractions, merchandise, or promotions.

We licensed IP for the themed escape room; Royalty is 12% of net sales under the IP license; Clear image rights for the projection show.

KPI (Key Performance Indicator)

A quantifiable metric tied to objectives (e.g., conversion rate, attendance, per caps, NPS, yield, occupancy, sponsor ROI).

Our KPI for presale is a 5% conversion; Sponsor KPIs include qualified leads; Queue time is a core ops KPI.

LBE (Location-Based Entertainment)

Attraction formats that require in-person attendance (VR/AR arenas, immersive art, escape rooms, arcades), monetized via tickets, memberships, or F&B.

The LBE pilot targets 30-minute dwell time; We’re adding an LBE VR bay to the lobby; LBE ops need high throughput per square foot.

Load-out (Strike)

Removal of equipment and sets after the event; includes breakdown, packing, and dock scheduling, often under tight curfews.

Load-out starts at 10:30 p.m.; Plan extra stagehands for strike; Fines apply if we miss the load-out window.

LTV (Customer Lifetime Value)

Projected net profit from a customer across their relationship, factoring repeat visits, upgrades, memberships, and referrals.

Members show higher LTV than single-ticket buyers; Bundle upsells increase LTV; Use LTV to set CAC thresholds.

NPS (Net Promoter Score)

Customer loyalty metric based on the question, How likely are you to recommend us to a friend (0–10). Used to track experience quality and predict word-of-mouth.

Our NPS rose after adding mobile order pickup; Segment NPS by show and seat zone; Close the loop with detractors within 48 hours.

OSHA Compliance

Adherence to occupational safety regulations for staff and contractors (PPE, rigging, electrical, ladders, lockout/tagout, incident logs).

All lift operators need OSHA certification; The rigging plan requires OSHA tie-offs; Document near-misses for OSHA audits.

Overage (Box Office Overage)

Revenue above a threshold (e.g., after recouping house nut and guarantee) that is shared per the deal terms.

Artist receives 85% of overage; We hit overage at 75% sold; Sponsor bonus triggers at overage.

P&L (Profit and Loss Statement)

Financial statement summarizing revenue, cost of goods sold, operating expenses, and profit over a period or event.

Build a show-level P&L; Concessions COGS improved the P&L; Compare P&L vs budget at settlement.

Patron Journey

The end-to-end sequence of touchpoints a guest experiences (discover, book, arrive, enjoy, share), used to identify friction and design improvements.

Map the patron journey to reduce queue anxiety; Add pre-arrival SMS in the journey; Post-visit emails close the journey loop.

Production Rider

Technical requirements for staging, audio, lighting, power, rigging, backline, crew, and schedules; contractually binding when accepted.

The rider calls for 200A three-phase; Provide four IATSE hands per the rider; Update the light plot to match the rider.

Public Performance License

License to perform or play music publicly in a venue from performing rights organizations (e.g., ASCAP, BMI, SESAC), often via blanket agreements.

Our blanket license covers lobby music; Clear public performance rights for the film screening; Report setlists per the license.

Queue Management

Design and operations of lines to minimize wait and improve fairness and safety (virtual queues, time slots, single serpentine, signage).

Switch to a single-line serpentine; Offer timed-entry to spread demand; Use live wait time boards for queue management.

Recoupable Advance

Upfront funds (from promoter, sponsor, or licensor) that are recovered from event revenues or royalties before profit sharing.

The sponsor’s fee is recoupable against on-site sales; The label advance recoups from merch; Mark the advance as recoupable in the deal memo.

Settlement Sheet

The detailed worksheet summarizing all revenues, taxes, fees, comps, expenses, house nut, splits, and payments used in the event settlement.

Attach invoices to the settlement sheet; Double-check the facility fee on the sheet; The artist requested a pre-settlement review.

Split Point

The revenue level at which the deal shifts from recoupment to sharing profits (or changes the split percentage).

Our split point is after house nut; Raise prices to reach split sooner; The contract moves to 90/10 at split point.

Sponsorship Inventory

Catalog of assets available to partners (naming rights, signage, media, content, sampling, VIP, digital, on-site activations) with rate card and metrics.

We added LED ribbon time to inventory; Package a meet-and-greet into Gold inventory; Track impressions and leads for each asset.

Talent Guarantee

The minimum fee paid to an artist or act regardless of sales, often combined with a split after expenses.

The offer is a $50k guarantee plus 85% after expenses; A higher guarantee will require dynamic pricing; The guarantee is secured by deposit.

Throughput

Rate at which guests are processed or served (per minute or per hour) for rides, exhibits, concessions, or scanning; drives capacity and wait times.

Improve throughput by opening two more scanners; Ride throughput targets 1,200 pph; Menu simplification boosted concessions throughput.

Ticketing Platform

Software and services for selling, distributing, and scanning tickets; handles seat maps, pricing, holds, fees, payment, and reporting.

Enable timed entry in the ticketing platform; Sync scans to CRM via API; Configure price tiers and holds in the platform.

Upsell/Cross-sell

Techniques to increase basket size by offering upgrades (upsell) or complementary items (cross-sell) during purchase or on-site.

Offer VIP early entry as an upsell; Cross-sell parking and locker rentals; Add a meet-and-greet upsell at checkout.

Venue Rental Agreement

Contract defining rent, dates, access, services, union rules, insurance, indemnification, force majeure, and settlement terms for using a venue.

The rental agreement requires a COI; Overtime rates are specified in the agreement; The agreement includes exclusive catering.

VIP Package

Premium bundle with perks such as preferred seating, lounge access, dedicated ingress, merch, parking, or meet-and-greet, priced above standard admission.

VIP sold out before GA; Add early entry to enhance the VIP package; Track VIP NPS separately.

Waiver and Release

Legal document in which participants acknowledge risks and release the operator from certain liabilities, common in recreation and interactive attractions.

Digital waivers cut check-in time; Minors need a parent/guardian waiver; Keep waivers on file for three years.

Zoning and Permitting

Local approvals governing land use, occupancy, signage, noise, temporary structures, and special events; often dictates capacity and operating hours.

Apply for a special event permit for the street festival; Noise ordinance limits amplified sound after 10 p.m.; Temporary structure requires a fire marshal sign-off.