Arena District Dogfight

While never dormant, the personal and professional conflicts between downtown nightlife executives and employees have recently intensified, an industry source told Gossip CBUS. Contributing reasons include familiarity, the utilization of technology, and the uncertain economy.

“You know what kind of crowd you’re getting downtown, so everyone is fighting over the same customers,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “What doesn’t help is that it’s a strange world. A lot of them worked for each other or under each other. A lot of them really, truthfully, don’t like each other and since the nature of the business lends itself to drama, its highly combustible.”

Our source cited technology as the area’s biggest aggravating factor. “Take your site [Gossip CBUS] for instance,” the source said. “You have a post and there are comments bashing that bar or praising this bar under it. You see that with Underground and several other places to. These guys don’t want anyone to get an inch and as a result, they have someone checking the internet the next day, making sure anything is rebutted.”

While some means, such as message boards or twitter may be original, plagiarism, rumors, and whisper campaigns remain time-honored tactics. Our source expects these older tactics will continue heating up, as the economy struggles.

“If someone at one end of the District thinks someone else at the other end did better then them, they will do everything they can to make sure they win the next night,” our source said. “It’s a dog eat dog climate and nevermore so than now. The longer term survivors are the ones who get creative, not only with their tactics, but with their people as well.”