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Have a venue in planning or development? Let's talk about how we can help.
About VenueLine
Built for opening day — and every day after
VenueLine is a consulting practice that aligns venue design, operations and financial performance. We work with developers, operators and municipalities to plan entertainment venues that work in the real world — where crowd flow, staffing, capital and revenue come together as one system.
Founder
Doug Herrmann
Doug has spent more than 25 years in senior leadership roles in live entertainment and venue operations — launching indoor/outdoor concert venues, overseeing multi-venue operations in several markets and advising on new venue developments. He served on the design teams for Stage AE in Pittsburgh, KEMBA Live! in Columbus and MegaCorp Pavilion in Newport, Kentucky, and has played a direct role in the planning, design integration and first-season operations of major live entertainment venues.
- Operational design for new builds
- Pro formas for capital planning
- Multi-million-dollar operating budgets
- Large cross-functional venue teams
- Vendor negotiations and F&B integration
- Safety and security planning
- Event playbooks and staffing models
- Based in Sewickley, Pennsylvania
Philosophy
Every square foot has a purpose.
Every staffing line has a financial impact.
Every design choice shapes the guest experience.
The best venues are designed from the operator's perspective. We join project teams early — while design decisions, staffing assumptions and financial models can still change — and translate operating reality into design logic.
DESIGN → STAFFING
We show what each design decision costs to staff, before it is built.
STAFFING → FINANCE
Staffing models feed the pro forma directly, so labor cost is never a plug number.
FINANCE → DESIGN
The projections go back to the design table, so the building is sized for the business it can support.