RIDGEDALE, MO (CelebrityAccess) — After more than a decade of planning, development, and construction, Missouri’s newest concert venue, the Thunder Ridge Nature Arena, officially opened its doors in May with a performance from country music icon Morgan Wallen.
Located in Ridgedale, Missouri just a few miles from Missouri’s live entertainment capital of Branson, Thunder Ridge Nature Arena is a fully state-of-the-art concert venue that is fully integrated into the scenic environment around it.
Conceived by the noted conservationist and Bass Pro Shops Founder Johnny Morris in partnership with ASM Global, the arena features a capacity of 18,000 fans, with every seat in the house providing a view of 1,200 acres of Table Rock Lake against the backdrop of scenic Boston Mountain. The arena also includes a unique luxury box feature called “The Nature Tower” which rises 12 stories, with each of the first four floors containing fully realized VIP suites that include bedrooms, along with unobstructed views of the performing stage and panoramic nature sightlines.
Additionally, all of the property’s land and all buildings and infrastructure have been donated and permanently set aside as part of a not-for-profit foundation committed to the cause of conservation.
“We all love our beautiful Ozarks and feel deeply proud to be able to share the beauty of the place we are blessed to call home with others around the globe for generations to come,” said Johnny Morris, who called the new arena “A gift to the people and heritage of the Ozarks.”
Industry giant ASM Global has been tapped to manage and operate the facility and the Thunder Ridge team has partnered with Live Nation to produce musical events at the arena.
Upcoming shows for Thunder Ridge reveal that the arena is already punching above its weight class with headliners such as The Rolling Stones, Chris Stapleton, Luke Bryan, Imagine Dragons, and Pitbull, scheduled to perform at the arena during its inaugural season.
ASM Global’s President & CEO, Ron Bension, spoke with CelebrityAccess about the new arena.
How did the partnership between ASM Global and Mr. Morris come about?
The relationship started four years or so ago when Johnny Morris wanted to build a new state-of-the-art amphitheater and was looking for a partner to help with the planning, design, and operations of the venue. We worked with the bass pro team on the opening of a temporary amphitheater last summer that hosted several professional bull-riding events and a few mega concerts with Garth Brooks. Since that time, we have been working nonstop on this incredible permanent facility. ASM Global has been happy to help Johnny’s vision come alive in what surely will be one of the most, if not the most, beautiful venues in the country.
How involved was ASM Global in the preliminary design and the construction of the venue, and what were some of the key considerations that informed the design?
ASM has been involved from the beginning in all the planning and design. Make no mistake about it, though, this is Johnny Morris’ vision coming to fruition here. We worked with Johnny on integrating his ideas with the planning and functional operational necessities of the venue, parking, and overall infrastructure. It’s been an incredible ride, and we are so proud and excited about the outcome.
What are some of the key customer-facing hospitality features at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena? Is ASM Global’s SAVOR going to be a partner at the amphitheater as well?
Thunder Ridge Nature Arena is an extraordinary experience that begins the moment guests leave their cars and have the option of being whisked away by a tram ride to the arena entrance, home to the Thunder Ridge Fan Zone — an elevated, interactive guest experience immersing fans in a pre-show extravaganza of food trucks, live music DJs, outdoor family games, and outdoor vehicle and tracker boat displays.
For those guests wanting the ultimate experience, there is a new 120-foot-tall “Veterans Tower” named in honor of Johnny Morris’ dad, John A. Morris who fought in World War II at the Battle of the Bulge. This four-story tower has three suites, each featuring two floors with private bars, outside decks, fireplaces, sleeping accommodations for 10 guests, and stunning panoramic sights.
This was truly an exciting opportunity for our food division, Savor. A menu of local-inspired favorites has been custom curated, with such dishes as bison bratwurst and burgers, BBQ beef brisket sandwiches, specially created Uncle Buck’s bourbon-flavored BBQ peanuts, and hand-crafted caramel cheddar popcorn. Premium food selections will include burgundy-braised beef short ribs; bacon-crusted pork tenderloin; and Johnny Morris’ cold sausage platter featuring elk, wild boar, and venison summer sausage.
How about artist hospitality? What makes Thunder Ridge Nature Arena a destination for touring artists?
Performers enjoy first-in-class amenities in the artist compound. Award-winning chefs create culinary delights ranging from down-home comfort food to five-star dining experiences that the performers desire before they go on stage. After sound-check, entertainers are free to jump off the stage and onto a tracker boat for fishing on Table Rock Lake or be on one of five world-class big cedar golf courses within minutes.
I understand that the stage at Thunder Ridge was made from repurposed wood from a famous concert venue in California. Can you provide some insight into how that came about and what the process of repurposing the stage was like?
Artists will love playing the historic Iron Horse stage. Designed by industry leader Brown United, the stage was used by Garth Brooks in a special preview during Thunder Ridge’s construction. In its original incarnation at Five Points Irvine Amphitheater in Irvine, California, acts like Cold Play, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, Jimmy Buffet, Prince, Kid Rock, Tim McGraw, and many more a-list acts graced its stage. Meticulously transported cross-country, it now anchors Thunder Ridge Nature Arena. A state-of-the-art sound and light system was developed to exact standards by some of the music industry leaders in audio-video technology.
Branson is an idiosyncratic but competitive music market. What do you think will set Thunder Ridge Nature Arena apart from other similar-sized venues in the market, such as Ozarks Amphitheater and Great Southern Bank Arena?
Thunder Ridge Nature Arena has two major features that significantly differentiate it from not only other venues in its immediate market but from most other venues in the world: the venue’s remarkable setting and matching fan/artist experiences, which are not like anything else on earth. the venue/artist and fan experience. As witnessed by such performers already as Chris Stapleton, the Rolling Stones, Morgan Wallen, and others — national touring artists are already turning this into a must-play venue.
The project’s commitment to conservation seems to make it an outlier in the world of modern concert venues. How did that impact the design and development of Thunder Ridge Nature Arena, and how does that relate to ASM Global’s sustainability commitments?
Described by its creator and visionary, noted conservationist and bass pro shops founder johnny morris as a “gift of the ozarks to the world,” it is the only venue on earth completely dedicated to conservation. all profits go to the conservancy and the Johnny Morris Foundation. Johnny’s passion and commitment to preserving this beautiful slice of the Ozarks is woven into the fabric of every detail. as I’ve mentioned, the venue itself is fused with the environment it resides in. streams, dramatic sunsets, forested mountains and the sounds of nature abound and intersect with the music of some of the greatest musical performers in the world. Johnny’s commitment synched perfectly with ASM’s commitment to the environment throughout its worldwide portfolio, to the music and the communities we work and live in.
With the launch of major new projects like this, how does ASM Global avoid missteps and technical issues such as those that marred the debut of Manchester’s Co-Op Live Arena in May?
First, as owners of our own venues, and the most experienced operator of many of the most iconic venues in the world, ASM has never missed an opening curtain. we are very good at what we do. I am really not sure what happened at co-op live; the story keeps changing. last I heard it was because of Brexit and Covid. ASM has been intimately involved in all aspects of over $18 billion of new and renovation related projects over the last five or six years. as owners and the most experienced operators in the world, we know what it takes to get these projects off the ground and successfully opened. it is not easy. These are very complex projects; but we have highly experienced, incredible people working for us who have done dozens of large-scale openings without a hitch.
Any other projects on the horizon for ASM Global that you’d like to highlight?
We’re about to begin a complete renovation of Arizona’s Desert Diamond Arena in collaboration with our longtime partner, the City of Glendale and we’ve just unveiled an amazing $100 million expansion and remodel of AO Arena in Manchester, England.
We’re prepping for a late-fall testing period for Kai Tak Sports Park, marking the culmination of a near decade-long record $4 billion project, creating the premiere sports, recreation, entertainment complex on earth. ASM Global has been on the ground in Hong Kong working for over five years supporting the design, programming and construction of Kai Tak Sports Park, featuring many of the world’s most advanced state-of-the-art venues that we’re prepping for pre-opening activities in advance of 2025’s formal unveiling. Those venues include a main stadium with a fixed seating capacity of 50,000; an indoor sports center with a seating capacity of 10,000 with 80 percent of the seats retractable or removable that caters to different events and is designed to meet the standard of major international events; and a public sports ground with a seating capacity of 5,000.
In Florida our $1.3 billion Broward County expansion project is underway, with the first phase complete that doubled the size of the venue and eventually will provide nearly one million sq. feet of exhibition space. The second phase, now under way, will add an outdoor amphitheater, a new waterfront plaza, a new five-star hotel connected to the convention center (800 rooms) and the largest ballroom in Central Florida with a capacity of 7,000 and led certified.
Also exciting is our work in Indiana on the Fishers Event Center, a 7,500-seat entertainment and sporting event venue that we have been building from the ground up and is opening in December 2024. It will be home to professional hockey’s Indy Fire, professional volleyball’s Indy Ignite and the Fishers Freight Indoor Football Team. We are really excited about the incredible, cutting-edge amenities included in the new venue. The facility will anchor the $550 million retail and entertainment expansion of Fishers District—The Crossing.
