SVG Sit-Down: Southpaw's Matt Ritter on Acquisition of Panasonic Live Events Group, Goals in Sports-Venue Industry LED integrator looks to expand into entertainment space By Karen Hogan Ketchum, Director of Production Thursday, February 21, 2019 - 10:02 am
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In December, Southpaw Sports & Entertainment closed the deal to acquire the Live Events group of Panasonic Sports and Entertainment Business Unit, a division of Panasonic Systems Solutions Co. of North America. The group, which had been formed when Panasonic acquired TS Sports in 2015, specializes in LED videoboard systems for sports venues like LAFC's new home, Banc of California Stadium. SVG sat down with Southpaw Sports & Entertainment EVP, Sales & Marketing, Matt Ritter to learn about the company's roots in Panasonic and TS Sports and how it plans to continue its predecessors' commitment to the sports-venue space.
Southpaw's Matt Ritter: The name Southpaw came about because we want to be a little unorthodox.
This acquisition came as a bit of a surprise to the industry, especially considering that Southpaw Sports & Entertainment is a new name in sports venues. How did this deal come about?
I was part of my family's business called TS Sports, and we were LED integrators; we sold LED boards and scoreboards to sports stadiums all over the country. Along the way, we started partnering with Panasonic because of the expertise that we had at TS: we did all the engineering, design work, and fabrication, and Panasonic at the time would sell the products but would sub out all those services. So, over time, we developed a relationship with Panasonic, doing some of that stuff for them, and we got really close to them. In February 2015, Panasonic acquired our business, which was based in Dallas, and the Live Events group of Panasonic Sports and Entertainment Business Unit moved their headquarters from Newark to Dallas.
Fast forward through four years: we built great projects, had great momentum, and a few months ago - maybe middle of 2018 - Panasonic made some changes in their business structure and was heading in a different direction. They called our family and asked if we had any interest in acquiring the business back. Obviously, we were very excited to hear that. We had a great run with Panasonic for four years - met a lot of great people, opened up a lot of different markets from where we were at TS Sports - and we acquired the business back. Dec. 1, 2018, was the actual close date. We were TS Sports, then Panasonic acquired us and moved everything to Dallas, and now we - the same group that was TS Sports - acquired that business from Panasonic. Now we're rebranded Southpaw.
Why did you decide to rebrand as Southpaw, rather than return to the TS Sports brand?
At TS Sports, our primary focus was sports, and so 90% of our business was in the sports market. Over the time we were with Panasonic, it allowed us to build a lot of relationships in other markets that were not sports, like the entertainment market - the Las Vegas casino and gaming market, the Times Square digital out-of-home market, the live districts that you're seeing going up around different stadiums around the country - and so, this time around, we didn't want to limit ourselves to just doing sports projects. Southpaw Sports & Entertainment came about because we want to be more diversified; we're going after a lot of different sports-and-entertainment projects, not just sports.
The name Southpaw came about because we want to be a little unorthodox. Our big thing is, we want to be different. Fighters that are left-handed or quarterbacks that are left-handed are just a little different from the norm because there are so many more right-handed people than there are left-handed people. We were trying to think of something that matched our personalities, that's a little unorthodox, a little bit different from the crowd. Given that value proposition, if you go with Southpaw, we're going to do things a little bit different but benefit you in the end.
In terms of staffing, is Southpaw entirely people who had been with TS Sports, or did you add new people during your time with Panasonic?
It was a blend of TS people that we had when we were TS Sports and new Panasonic personnel that we met along the way. It's a mixture of the team that we felt were the best at each of their respective divisions or responsibilities; we meshed that group and brought them over [to Southpaw]. So it's a combination of the two.
Obviously, as we're growing and looking to add more talent, we want to make sure that we have the right people. For our business, we know that people make the difference. There are going to be different challenges and different circumstances throughout every project, and it's the people that make the difference. It's the people that go the extra mile, ask the right questions, and do what it takes to get the job done. We wanted to make sure that we got the right people in the business and started off in the right way.
Have there been any challenges in terms of communicating the transition to clients that worked with Panasonic, or are you finding that it has been pretty seamless?
That's always a question when you have a major transition like this: how are customers going to take this, and how do they feel? We're very blessed. We have very good customers - they were actually excited about the transition - and I think it helped that the same faces they've been dealing with for the last 10 years are still the same people, just with a different logo. That made the transition seamless because we had such great customers and good relationships over a 15-year period. Although it's a new name, it's not a new company: the same people that installed the videob
