The hospitality and entertainment company is among the 3,000 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S.
Colorado Springs-based hospitality and entertainment company VENU is joining the Russell 3000 Index as part of the 2026 semiannual reconstitution.
Made final after the U.S. market close on Friday, with index changes reflected from the market open on Monday, the move is one company leaders and industry analysts say will offer VENU, and the city, more visibility among institutional investors to support their growth.
“When you join an index like this, it’s sort of an exclamation point behind you,” said JW Roth, VENU’s founder, chair and chief executive officer. “… It’s an honor to be recognized this way.”
The Russell 3000 Index stock market index provides a comprehensive gauge of U.S. equity markets. It tracks the performance of the 3,000 largest publicly traded companies in the United States, covering roughly 98% of the nation’s investable equity market, according to digital finance media site Investopedia.
It returned to a semiannual reconstitution this year; the first reconstitution occurs in June, and the second in December, to reflect market changes.
“It’s saying, ‘Hey, this is a vetted company and it meets these certain criteria; it’s real and it’s formidable.’ It demonstrates that VENU has grown its market capitalization, and it’s going to bring more awareness to the company,” said Paul Yankey, the lead for marketing, strategy, international business and sports management at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. He also serves as an assistant teaching professor of marketing at the university.
“I’d call it more of a milestone, not the destination,” Yankey added. “It says you’ve reached a meaningful level of size, liquidity and investability. … Passive money, index funds, things of that nature, they’re always looking for and needing a place to go. This now puts (VENU) into the eligibility category for these things.”
VENU expects to be included in the small-cap Russell 2000 Index, along with relevant growth and/or value indexes, it said in a company news release early this month.
The Russell 2000 Index assesses the performance of the 2,000 smaller companies within the broader Russell 3000 Index; the Russell 1000 Index tracks its 1,000 largest companies.
Yankey noted VENU’s speedy growth since its founding as Notes Live in 2017. The company changed its name in 2024.
“If a company reaches the Russell 3000 Index within 10 years, that is generally considered a relatively fast trajectory. Most startups never become public, and of those that do go public, many don’t become large enough to join the Russell,” he said on Thursday. “(VENU) has grown from a startup to a public company with a $179 million market cap, and they did it pretty quickly. That is unique and unusual.”
Yankey noted that VENU joining the index will likely increase its stock volume, but not necessarily its stock price.
Roth expects the recalibration will allow him to reduce the amount of capital raised through the company’s common stock.
Since late 2024, when VENU went public on the New York Stock Exchange, he’s used this strategy to help fund expansion of VENU’s business operations and services, and a portion of development and land costs for other entertainment venues he’s building in Centennial as well as Texas and Oklahoma.
“While (joining the Russell 3000 Index) brings a lot of visibility to our common stock, it’s one thing I’m working diligently not to use,” Roth said.
VENU’s stocks plummeted by about 40% in late January, in the aftermath of its announcement that it proposed offering $75 million of shares of its common stock. Stocks fell from $8.59 a share at the New York Stock Exchange’s closing on Jan. 27 to $5.14 a share at market’s close on Jan. 28. At the time, East Coast-based market analyst Rick Munarriz attributed the decrease to share dilution.
Stock prices have not recovered in the months since, sitting at $2.90 a share at market’s close on Friday.
Roth has also used a combination of sale-leasebacks, public-private partnerships and fractional ownership, in the form of signature Luxe FireSuites within VENU-owned amphitheaters such as its debut Ford Amphitheater in Colorado Springs, to fund his projects.
Municipalities across the country have contributed about 40% of the final value of VENU’s projects through public-private partnerships, Roth said. Fractional ownership makes up another 40% of the company’s capital and pays for about 60% of construction costs.
Roth still needs to raise “a couple hundred million” dollars to complete his first set of venues. As well as the Ford Amphitheater, VENU is building multiseason luxury amphitheaters in Broken Arrow, Okla.; in McKinney, El Paso and Houston, Texas; and in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The company is constructing an indoor music hall in Centennial and studying the potential development of a $350 million-plus entertainment destination in Northern Colorado.
A majority of investors in the Russell 3000 Index buy common stock and do other types of structured financing, such as debt, preferred shares and sale-leaseback opportunities, Roth said. Moving forward, he hopes to primarily use sale-leasebacks and debt capital to fund the remainder of construction on his venues.
The Russell 3000 Index “plays a huge role in that,” he said. VENU’s shares are down about 71%, from $10.12 a share when the market closed on Nov. 27, 2024, the day VENU went public.
“I’d say the majority of that reduction in our share price is that investors, namely retail investors, are concerned I’m not going to get financed,” Roth said. “But 35% of the buying every day is by large institutions, who are looking at (VENU) and going, ‘You know what? They’re going to get financed.’ They’re buying because they see the opportunity.”
Yankey said the company’s inclusion in the Russell 3000 Index is a win for VENU as well as Colorado Springs.
“We don’t have a whole lot of public companies who are headquartered here. This is a testament to Colorado Springs, having a company go public and now they’re part of the Russell 3000. It starts to bring more interest and attention, and from that standpoint it’s valuable, because capital tends to follow credibility,” he said.
