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Oak View Group reveals arena list

Deals in place with 22 venues

Oak View Group, the new venture Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff formed to boost event and sponsorship revenue for sports facilities — and whose business model has drawn both praise and skepticism in the industry — has deals in place with 22 arenas.

Nine months after the launch, the majority of arenas forming an alliance with Oak View have signed contracts, Leiweke said. Others, such as Air Canada Centre in Toronto, are waiting until legal counsel approves those agreements.

Oak View Group’s arena alliance

AT&T Center — San Antonio
Air Canada Centre — Toronto
Amalie Arena Tampa
BB&T Center — Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Bankers Life Fieldhouse — Indianapolis
Chase Center** — San Francisco
Consol Energy Center — Pittsburgh
First Niagara Center — Buffalo
The Forum — Los Angeles
Golden 1 Center* — Sacramento
Little Caesars Arena** — Detroit
Proposed arena** — Las Vegas
Madison Square Garden — New York
Pepsi Center — Denver
Philips Arena — Atlanta
Prudential Center — Newark, N.J.
Quicken Loans Arena — Cleveland
Rogers Arena — Vancouver  
Scottrade Center — St. Louis
United Center — Chicago
Wells Fargo Center — Philadelphia
Xcel Energy Center — St. Paul, Minn.

* Opening later this year
** Opening after this year
Source: Oak View Group

The list includes Golden 1 Center and Little Caesars Arena, which will become the newest NBA and NHL arenas, respectively, over the next 12 months. It extends to Chase Center, the Golden State Warriors’ new arena project in San Francisco, and an arena MSG proposes to build in Las Vegas.

A separate stadium alliance group has one announced member, Dodger Stadium.

Oak View Group is also taking on additional investors. Peter Luukko, executive chairman of the Florida Panthers, has officially joined as an equity partner.

“Tim Leiweke is a visionary, as we all know, and Azoff is a legend,” said President and Chief Operating Officer Michael Reinsdorf of the Chicago Bulls, whose United Center is part of the alliance. “Luukko is as straight a shooter as I know with an impeccable track record. We’re excited to be able to work with this dream team.”

Separately, Reinsdorf said he is in discussions to become an investor in Oak View Group, but as of last week no deal was signed.

Under Oak View’s business model, the arenas in the alliance have all signed two-year deals. They each pay $250,000 annually with the intent to bring more events and sponsorships to their buildings, and the deals include options that could extend those agreements up to five years, sources said.

Notably, those fees have come down significantly since Oak View Group’s original proposal of three-year deals with annual fees of $400,000, sources said.

In return, Oak View Group works closely with the alliance to develop exclusive tour packages and a national sponsorship platform for those arenas. The terms do not include guarantees for specific numbers of shows, arena sources said.

One arena source said Oak View Group is required to deliver $250,000 in new and incremental revenue above what the arena typically does in a given year. In another market, a source said the arena pays the entire fee regardless of how much new business Oak View Group brings to the facility.

Oak View Group would not comment on fees but did say that its agreement is the same from market to market.

Among the venues that are part of the arena group, either with signed contracts or awaiting approval (from top to bottom): Wells Fargo Center, the planned Chase Center and Air Canada Centre.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
Oak View Group officials held a summit in June in Los Angeles to discuss the venture in greater detail. The discussions covered which sponsorship categories made the most sense to pursue among the group as a whole, said Dan Griffis, among Oak View’s principal owners in charge of Narrative, the name of the division developing that end of the business. Griffis said he has had initial talks with 18 potential national sponsors covering technology, beauty and fashion, pets, retail and wellness. No deals have been signed.

Rendering: CHASE
After the summit, Oak View Group formed an eight-person committee representing the alliance to speak with promoters, agents and artist managers about booking more shows at the member arenas. A similar committee is in the works for sponsorships, Griffis said.

The events committee is made up of John Page and Michael

Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
Sulkes (Wells Fargo Center), Marty Bechtold (Bankers Life Fieldhouse), Trey Feazell (Philips Arena) and Kevin Grove (BB&T Center), plus Oak View executives Luukko, Ned Collett and Eric Gardner.

“We’re not doing this for them, we’re doing this with them,” Leiweke said. “That’s a big difference. [The arenas] take an active part.”

Oak View Group, through Azoff’s guidance, is already routing tours among the alliance although Leiweke would not provide details on those events.

He did mention Dodger Stadium, a stadium alliance member, as one example of how the new venture has brought new events to its partners. The ballpark had two Guns N’ Roses shows in August and a Beyoncé concert last week, which drew a sellout crowd of more than 45,000. The shows were booked by Oak View Group in tandem with Live Nation and the Dodgers.

“I think it was a vindication that this concept does work,” Leiweke said. “It’s a very good indication of where this is headed and how strong our partnership is with Live Nation. We’ll promote shows with anyone, but they delivered in an unprecedented way.”

On the arena side, some buildings that stay busy on their own question whether Oak View Group will move the needle in event-related revenue.

Air Canada Centre, for example, books an average of 55 concerts a year. It leads the NHL in sponsorship revenue and is in the top five in the NBA in that category, said Bob Hunter, chief project development officer for the arena and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. MLSE is Leiweke’s former employer.

“All the key categories in team sponsorship have long been gone and for any deal they would bring us, we would have to make sure it works in Canada,” Hunter said. “We have a great relationship with Live Nation already. Can Irving bring us three to four more shows? We’ll see.”

Other alliance members remain bullish on Oak View Group’s strategy, which they point to as being led by some of the most powerful and dynamic brokers in sports and entertainment.

“Knowing Tim’s influence and Irving’s influence, and the relationships they have with acts and Live Nation, I’m confident more content will come our way,” said Scott O’Neil, CEO of Prudential Center and the New Jersey Devils. “Luukko has real building expertise. It’s a strong leadership group.”

As an equity partner, Luukko maintains his role with the Panthers. The team’s building, BB&T Center in suburban Fort Lauderdale, is a member of the alliance.

Luukko cut his teeth as a building manager and has booked Azoff’s shows at his venues dating to the 1980s. The timing was right to invest in Oak View Group, Luukko said, considering where both he and Leiweke stand late in their careers.

“Peter and I have been friends forever, competed for too long, and now we’re on the same side, building the same dream,” Leiweke said. “I think part of what has helped here is the respect that Peter has in the industry. I think it’s a real strength for the alliance.”

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