2026 Status & Path Forward
Bridgestone Arena, Nashville • May 28–30, 2026 • 115 Days Out
What is earned media?
Coverage and exposure we received without paying for it -because the artists and the story were compelling enough that media covered it on their own. Billboard and Rolling Stone wrote features. Entertainment Tonight ran a national segment. 1,480+ radio stations promoted the event through Cumulus, Audacy, and iHeart partnerships. The Ford Bronco giveaway went viral. None of this was paid advertising -it was the value of having the right artists, the right story, and the right launch.
Same venue. Same city. Same market. The difference is how and when we launched -and what tools the marketing team was given to work with.
The funnel is healthy -people who find us are buying tickets at a 2.68% conversion rate. The primary gap is traffic volume. Pricing pressure in this economic climate is real, but the data shows buyers are converting when they see us. The bigger issue is that not enough people are seeing us.
Industry optimal is 56–84 days. 2025 launched March 5 (86 days). Holiday wallets are empty, news cycles bury announcements, nobody plans May events in December.
Decisions on budget and execution consolidated in a way that slowed the marketing engine. $100K spent on NFR activation before tickets were on sale. Digital budget of $90K (proven 12x ROAS) represents only 19% of total spend.
Lesser-draw artists with no coordinated push and no ownership stake -a fundamentally different situation than last year. 2025 founding members had equity, recorded launch videos, did satellite radio tours, and generated $897K in earned media. 2026 artists have zero promotional time invested.
| Event | Date | Capacity | Threat Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morgan Wallen | Apr 18–19 | 60,000+ | HIGH |
| Bruno Mars | May 6–7 | 50,000+ | HIGH |
| Chris Stapleton | May 23 | 50,000+ | CRITICAL - 5 days before MCR |
| Music City Rodeo | May 28–30 | 36,300 | - |
| CMA Fest | Jun 5–8 | 80,000+ | HIGH - same demo |
| Alan Jackson - FINAL SHOW | Jun 27 | 50,000+ SOLD OUT | HIGH - Once-in-a-lifetime farewell, massive country audience overlap, $550+ resale |
A Nashville family spending $800–$1,500 on Wallen + Stapleton + CMA + Jackson’s farewell has exhausted their live-event budget before MCR crosses their mind.
2026 equivalent to date: ~$10,000 earned media. Zero video liners. Zero radio activated. Zero artist social posts.
Every time an artist posted about MCR during the 2025 campaign, it dwarfed anything our brand account has ever done. These are real posts, real numbers.
MCR brand: 13K followers. 2025 artists combined: 20.8M (1,600x our reach). 2026 artists: 6.5M (500x). A single artist post about MCR reaches more people than every brand post we have ever made combined.
Give the team authority and budget to run the proven playbook. Channels are delivering 12–13x ROAS right now.
Miranda, Jon, and Charley record short “get your tickets” clips. This format returned 21.8x in 2025.
Local Nashville radio plus national chains (Audacy, Cumulus, iHeart) -1,480+ stations activated in 2025. Zero in 2026. Deploy the $90K radio budget now. Also protects grant eligibility.
Kill $5,178 in zero-return campaigns. Pour into Google Search (12.44x) and Meta FB Driveable (13.26x).
Each $1 in proven channels returns $8–$13. This is not spending -it is capital preservation.
At 70 tickets/day velocity and $123 ATP, each week of status quo costs ~378 tickets ($46,494). The math is simple:
| Scenario | Tickets | Capacity | Est. P&L |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do Nothing | ~10,966 | 30% | -$3.1M to -$3.5M |
| Moderate Push (+$150K) | ~16,000 | 44% | -$2.5M to -$3.0M |
| Aggressive Push (+$245K) | ~21,066 | 58% | -$2.0M to -$2.5M |
| Best Case (Viral Moment) | ~26,000 | 72% | -$1.3M to -$1.8M |
The investment: $150K–$245K additional marketing
The return: $600K–$1.24M in preserved revenue
The alternative: Absorb the full $3.1M–$3.5M loss
The channels work. The strategy exists. The partnerships are in place. We proved it all in Year 1.
What we need now is the budget and the room to execute.
This is not about blame. It is about the data, what it is telling us, and course-correcting together before the window closes.
Music City Rodeo 2026 • Board Presentation • February 2, 2026 • CONFIDENTIAL