Oak View Group Founder & CEO Tim Leiweke today touted features of the Islanders' upcoming UBS Arena at Belmont Park that will maximize revenue, and he predicted the "greatest two-to-three years in the history of the live entertainment industry for sports, music and family shows is going to be '22, '23, right when UBS Arena comes online." During a Dealmakers in Sports panel alongside Islanders co-Owner Jon Ledecky and Sterling Equities Partner Jeff Wilpon, Leiweke said, "We have a trillion dollar industry with sports and music that has been completely sidelined, very similar to what we saw after the Spanish flu, which led to the roaring twenties."
Ledecky echoed this optimism: "This building, if you think about it being built in the middle of a pandemic, being completely privately funded ... represents a beacon of hope and strength for New York in the future." Ledecky also praised New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former Isles owner Charles Wang for their roles in bringing the venue to fruition.
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Leiweke also said having only one team as a tenant "is an advantage," especially since the Islanders are an "emerging team." This opens up more dates for concerts, "because hockey teams or basketball teams, traditionally in a building like this, they sweep their revenue." The venue was designed "from a production standpoint, load-in-load-out standpoint, a lower bowl capacity standpoint, where an artist is going to make more money at the UBS Arena than they can anywhere else in the marketplace. We're going to get more content, we're going to get more activity."
Leiweke, on the uniqueness of the arena: "Other arenas that have been built in New York City had to design themselves, build themselves and operate themselves around railroad tracks and stations. We didn't have any of that. So we have the ability of designing it without being encumbered by anything around us, that was a huge advantage." Wilpon added of the arena's anticipated features, "Hopefully at some point, there will be live betting as well." Proskauer's Joe Leccese moderated the panel.
