RFRSH Entertainment explain their reasons for the sudden BLAST venue change

BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles had it's venue changed from the University of Southern California’s Galen Center to the HD Buttercup building, a much smaller location. Unikrn recently had an interview with Nicolas Estrup, BLAST Pro Series Director of Product and Experience, where he explains the reasoning behind the decision

According to Estrup, the decision to change venue came from the desire to provide an inclusive, immersive and intimate experience for fans. BLAST Pro Series São Paulo revealed tickets sold to be primarily the more expensive BLAST Zone tickets, so this new venue caters more to that ticket group. 

“The way we look at it is that we’ve taken a stadium concert and made it into a more intimate concert but the artist is the same. We think that most people would prefer seeing their favorite artist in as intimate a setting as possible,” said Estrup.

The event will feature an outdoor area with food and drink provided by Food Truck Village, while indoors will be a 360° experience watching the teams compete. He explains that more details regarding all this cryptic information will be revealed in due time, via renders, drawings and videos. 

The event’s ticket price has nearly doubled at $99 per day, while the 6,000-7,000 capacity has dropped down to 1,000-1,500. All this coupled with the abrupt manner in which this change was made resulted in BLAST offering refunds to all fans and priority sales for those interested in repurchasing tickets. The venue's wooden ceiling will also prevent BLAST from adding any elaborate pyrotechnics like they're used to, “But we are looking at ways to create the same feeling/sensation for the audience as our normal visual effects bring,” he said. 

Estrup doesn't go into details, but he assures Unikrn that fans will come to find the change in venue to be an upgrade, providing much closer access to the players, talent and production. From a consumer’s perspective, a larger ticket price with a smaller venue would need to blow past experiences out of the water, otherwise BLAST will be left with highly disappointed fans. 

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