Sheena Way got her start in the entertainment industry at the age of 15 when she was hired at a record store in her native Vancouver.
“I really liked all the new music coming in,” she remembers. “Back then, there were record labels that ran the business. They would bring us to concerts all the time and I was like, ‘That works for me!’ I loved concerts.”
She’d quickly go from just attending shows to working them, moving into artist management and then concert promotion.
Way eventually got into the venue side of the equation, handling live music events and other entertainment for the Vancouver Canucks and then later with the rival Edmonton Oilers.
Now, she’s crossed over from the hockey world to the NBA and is part of the Golden State Warriors’ executive team.
She was hired on last fall as the vice president of content and programming at Chase Center in San Francisco.
We recently had the chance to chat with Way about her career as well as what it’s been like working during the pandemic.
Q: Tell me about the two departments you manage at Chase Center?
A: One of them is content programming. So that is bringing Chase Center to life — concerts, political events, anything that is non-Warriors. The other one is the special events team. That’s outside, mainly in Thrive City (the area around Chase Center) — bringing Thrive City to life.
Q: What’s the coolest thing about your job?
A: The opportunity. We have really wonderful leadership that pushes us to create and dream — and then figure out how to facilitate that. You’re not put into a box, where you have to figure out what you can do in this box. It’s like, take the lid off and what can you do? What do the people want? And how do you bring it to them? How do you put Chase Center and Thrive City on the map in really engaging, exciting ways?
Q: What’s the hardest part of your job?
A: I have to do a lot of listening and learning what the city wants and how to work within guidelines from everybody from the city — the government side of it, I mean. Listening to them and then interpreting that into creative programming. Just being a really good silent listener and then figuring out what exactly that means.
Q: Was there something from your upbringing that helped prepare you for the job you do now?
A: I had a very strong influence from my parents. My dad ran a large company, so he was very business minded. My mom was a model and an artist.
I guess that gave me the creativity for working in live music with the business savvy of getting the right deal for each show — making it make sense; giving a win-win between the ticket buyer, the promoter, the artist and the building. You really have to come together on all of those. You can’t overcharge your fans, but you have to make enough money to pay the bills.
Q: How did you go from working at a record store to taking the next step in your career?
A: I started to meet a lot of the Vancouver industry. I started, on the side, managing a few artists. And one of them got a little radio hit and that opened me to the world of radio. And they started to tour, so it opened me to the agent side of the business. And I really liked that. I liked how they cut deals. I liked how they thought about the artist. It was like a really strong bond — almost like a marriage. It wasn’t about booking the next three shows that make X amount of money. It was about, “What are we going to do in 1 to 3 to 5 years in your career?”
Q: You’d eventually end up working at Vancouver Canucks’ GM Place arena. But then you left and took a job with the Edmonton Oilers. Why did you make that move?
A: I wanted to open a building and I thought, “We’ll see when that happens.” Edmonton came along. My husband was in the same business. He used to work for the (Seattle) Seahawks for their stadium. When we got married, he came to Canada and operated for BC Place, which is across the street from GM Place. So, (Edmonton) offered both of us a deal to come in and open this new arena together. It was like this husband-wife combo deal, which the media there loved that. They thought that was the coolest thing.
Q: What brought you to Chase Center?
A: It was time to open another venue. It was time to move markets. I said I wanted to be (in Edmonton) for 3-5 years and I was there almost four years. I wanted a big market.
I got a call from a headhunter about this job. I thought, “Great. It’s all the challenges. It’s a brand new venue. It’s a very successful team — which is the same as the Oilers. The Oilers have won five Stanley Cups. The Warriors have won six championships.”
It’s a privately owned team that used to rent a venue that has now built their own venue. So, they are going to bring a bunch of staff who have only been in a rental venue, so they have had nothing to do with the music side of things.
I went through that learning curve before and we came out of it really well. So, I’m like, “I think I know how to communicate this. I think I know how to share a lot of these strategies.” I have a lot of key learnings and takeaways from my last job. But now we are in a way bigger market, but it’s a market not unlike where I’m from — Vancouver.
Q: When did you first realize that COVID-19 was going to have such a huge impact on the live entertainment business?
A: I think out of the gate. I think we all knew — March 2020 — that until there was a (vaccine) that we were going to have a problem getting people, side by each, in a venue.
Q: How did you stay encouraged in your job during all the time the building was closed to the public?
A: It would all come back online. I just didn’t know when. So, I was like, “OK, what do we do in the meantime?” I talked to every promoter and every promoter had a few issues. Some had a laundry list and some had a couple of things. I listened to every promoter and wrote everything down.
It was a bit of investment. We spent money on a venue that had only been open — what? — five months. But we had the time to do this.
Q: What were some of the steps taken to make people feel safe about returning to the venue?
A: We knew that cleaning had to be top of the list. So, our corporate sponsorship team signed a deal with Clorox. And that was great, because they do a 360 cleaning on every seat and like every single space.
Lucky enough, because we are brand new, we have a HVAC system that completely dumps the air with fresh air four times an hour — and back of house, six times an hour. So, all the air gone and (replaced by) new air. That’s a big deal.
Sheena Way 5 Things:
She finds motivation in Bruce Springsteen. “The guy can just give his all. He makes you want to work harder than you have ever worked before. It’s so inspirational.”
Her first concert? “It was Iron Maiden and Twisted Sister at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. (Laughs) Twenty-foot Eddie!”
She loves jazz. “I could listen to jazz morning, noon and night.”
Having worked for hockey teams for years, she has been able to successfully transfer her sports allegiance over to the NBA. “I’m very excited about basketball.”
On weekends, when she’s not working a concert or other event, Way can likely be found going for a bike ride with her husband in some scenic spot like Napa, Pacifica or Marin.
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