Needle, Meet Haystack

I live in the 5th largest city in the country.  Okay, maybe sixth.  But whenever I’m travelling or vacationing and tell people where I’m from, I get the inevitable looks of confusion and comments about being a cowboy, living in the desert, being across the street from the Grand Canyon, or being friends with Squanto.  And that seems kinda silly.

After all, Phoenix has more people than Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., Miami, and pretty much all but four (or five) other cities in the United States.  And unlike the cities on the east coast (or even in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, to some degree), the city has plenty of room to expand.  Not just out, but up.

But here’s my main problem with all of this: event promoters, marketers, and even some members of the media don’t recognize Phoenix as a major market.

And lemme tell ya, if it’s the fifth – (or sixth-) largest city in the country, you can bet your sweet bippy that there’s stuff going on, and people interested in find out more about it.

I’m not sure if it has something to do with the city’s relative “newness” to the Union, its specific location or what.  But if I have to read about one more movie being put in limited release in @#*!ing Milwaukee that isn’t in Phoenix, I might cry.  Ditto for concerts.

Hell, we only got a reel of The Best Movie Of All Time in for a week, and it showed in one theater in Tempe!  One week in Tempe!  That’s it!

We’re interested in doing stuff.  And with so many people in the state, you know that there’s gotta be at least a few that want to get involved with these “major market limited release” things.