Oak View Group
Oak View Group is set to take over hospitality at four OCESA venues in Mexico City, it was announced Monday (Sept. 9).
OCESA, one of the leading live entertainment companies in Mexico, said that Oak View Group’s OVG Hospitality has been selected to “redefine the culinary and hospitality experiences” at Estadio GNP Seguros, Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Centro Citibanamex and Palacio de los Deportes.
The partnership will see OVG Hospitality upgrade experiences at concerts, sporting events and business gatherings by introducing premium services, innovative technologies and a broader range of menu options.
“By merging OCESA’s unmatched expertise in hosting world-class events with OVG Hospitality’s leadership in premium hospitality, we are poised to elevate the fan experience across Mexico, starting with these iconic venues,” said Chris Granger, president of OVG Hospitality’s parent company OVG360, in a statement. “This partnership marks a pivotal expansion of Oak View Group’s presence into Latin America, and we’re particularly excited and humbled to partner with OCESA. As hard-working operators ourselves, we appreciate their entrepreneurial spirit, their bold thinking, and their commitment to music fans across the country.”
As the exclusive food and beverage provider, OVG Hospitality will integrate its industry-leading services across OCESA’s various venues, partnering with local, regional and national vendors to craft menu items that reflect Mexico’s rich culinary heritage. Plans include enhancing the premium experience in suites and clubs, introducing new menu selections and market concepts throughout the year, and integrating technology to streamline ordering and payment processes to reduce wait times.
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While the initial roll out will include nly the four Mexico City venues, the partnership is expected to expand to additional venues starting in January. Additionally, OVG Hospitality will help OCESA introduce new premium spaces and corporate hospitality options at select locations.
OCESA is renowned for promoting over 3,000 events annually, drawing nearly six million attendees across Mexico. Its portfolio of venues includes the recently remodeled 65,000-seat Estadio GNP Seguros; the expansive Centro Citibanamex, a convention center with two million square feet of meeting and exhibition space; and a diverse collection of multi-use venues, theaters, arenas, festival grounds and stadiums.
As Canadian Music Week kicks off its 42nd anniversary, the festival and conference is undergoing a big change.
The major music event, which brings artists and industry to Toronto every year for a week of performances and panels, is changing hands. Festival founder and president Neill Dixon announced his retirement today (June 3) at the welcoming address for the CMW conference, with Toronto mayor Olivia Chow in attendance.
The festival has been acquired by Toronto-based Loft Entertainment and American hospitality and sports company Oak View Group, who plan to expand its offerings while maintaining Dixon’s vision.
Recently named one of Billboard Canada’s Power Players, Dixon was on hand at the June 2 inaugural Power Players event, presenting Gary Slaight with the Power Players Impact Award as his final public appearance before announcing retirement.
Under his leadership, CMW has grown into a major hub for industry events, hosting the Live Music Industry Awards, The Indies awards, Jim Beam National Talent Search, Radiodays North America and more.
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“It has been an incredible journey to see Canadian Music Week grow from a small gathering of music lovers to one of the most influential music festivals and conferences in the world,” Dixon says.
Loft Entertainment and Oak View Group (OVG) will keep the event’s headquarters in Toronto, as they look ahead to its future. Loft is a new venture from industry titan Randy Lennox, former Universal Music Canada CEO and Bell Media President, launched in 2023.
The creative services company’s partnership with OVG on the acquisition boosts the latter’s expansion into Canada. OVG already has partnerships with Canadian sports organizations Canada Basketball and Great Canadian Gaming, and is currently leading a major renovation of Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre. (It was also recently entangled in the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust complaint against Live Nation).
With an American partner on board, it seems likely Canadian Music Week will look to grow its international footprint, while remaining a home for Canadian music activity. Details for the 2025 edition, the first under the new ownership, are coming soon.
CMW is on now, until June 8. Find festival and conference programming on the event website.
This article was originally published by Billboard Canada.
British rock band Elbow was never supposed to be the first act to play Co-op Live — the United Kingdom’s newest and biggest entertainment arena. That honor was originally supposed to go another Greater Manchester local, comic Peter Kay, who grew up in the nearby town of Bolton, and was slated to officially open the 23,500-capacity venue in on April 23.
But construction delays led to the cancellation of Kay’s shows and subsequent gigs for The Black Keys, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Keane, Olivia Rodrigo, as well as a five-night run by Take That. After weeks of false starts, executives with building co-owner and developer Oak View Group — partners on the project with City Football Group (the parent company of Manchester City football club) – insist tonight’s (May 14) long-scheduled Elbow show at Co-op Live will go ahead. Across the live business, executives will be keeping a close eye on how events unfold in Manchester, where the much-hyped project is located.
Billed as a “game-changing” best-in-class new arena facility, Co-op Live has long been positioned as an important international pivot for co-owner Oak View Group, the LA-based arena development company launched by OVG chairman and CEO Tim Leiweke a decade ago. OVG has successfully designed, built and opened more than a dozen successful arenas in the U.S. including Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and UBS Arena in New York and has a full slate of arena development projects in progress in Brazil, Nigeria, Canada and Wales. The firm has also confirmed that it’s in talks to open a new arena in West London.
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Arena construction is challenging under the most ideal conditions, and delays are common, but the arena’s aggressive opening calendar, with more than a dozen concerts planned in its first month, became a liability and source of embarrassment for the company as the delays worsened.
The first signs of problems became apparent at a press launch and invite-only test concert on April 20, headlined by U.K. acts Everything Everything and Rick Astley. OVG’s Leiweke travelled to England to be at the launch, which was attended by Billboard, and told guests of his extreme pride at what OVG and its partners had built in Manchester, which he enthusiastically called “one of the greatest cities on the face of the Earth.”
Foreshadowing some of the issues that were soon to follow, Leiweke urged those present to be patient as his team hosted an audience inside Co-op Live for the first time. “It won’t be perfect,” he said. “Please bear with us as we get through the growing pains and learn tonight how to better operate this building.”
As Leiweke spoke, extensive construction work could be seen and heard taking place in the background. At the time, only the ground floor and sections of the first floor were open to visitors. In those areas, lights, cables and wires could be seen hanging loosely from fittings. Temporary wall and floor coverings were a common sight and only a small number of toilets were accessible. The cold temperature inside the building suggested either its heating system was not working or had not been switched on.
Rendering of the interior of Co-op Live in Manchester, England.
Courtesy of Oak View Group
Hours before doors opened that night, Co-op Live announced it had cancelled thousands of free tickets for the test event, provoking an angry backlash from disappointed fans on social media. Inside the venue, the show went ahead smoothy in front of several thousand people — but it was hardly the grand unveiling OVG were hoping for and was overshadowed by negative headlines.
Less than 48 hours later, Co-op Live began detailing the construction issues delaying the building’s opening, starting with power supply issues that would push back shows for Kay, the comic, and The Black Keys by one week.
That news was followed by the surprise resignation of Co-Op Live building manager Gary Roden, who came under fire from the UK based Music Venue Trust for criticizing a proposal to raise money for venue preservation by adding a surcharge to Co-op Live and other U.K. arena tickets. The next day, the rescheduled opening shows by The Black Keys and Kay were postponed for a second time.
In an interview with the Manchester Evening News, Leiweke said Brexit, Covid and a record amount of rainfall were in part to blame for the delays to the project, while a joint statement from Manchester City Council and the city’s emergency services on April 26 blamed outstanding issues should been fixed in advance of opening including “a fully tested emergency services communication system… some remaining internal security systems, and fire safety measures.”
On May 2, during a soundcheck for A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, a piece of the building’s ventilation system fell from the ceiling, shaking confidence in the building’s readiness. That led to another round of cancellations at Co-op Live, including upcoming shows by Rodrigo, Keane and Take That.
In response, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Take That’s teams jumped into action and moved their concerts (six in total) to Manchester’s rival arena facility, the ASM Global-operated AO Arena, who’s general manager Jen Mitchell relished the opportunity, telling Billboard, “Everyone really pulled everything out of the bag at the last minute. It’s been a lot of late-night calls and problem solving, but in the best possible way.”
Mitchell declines to discuss operations at Co-op Live but says she empathizes with the issues the venue has experienced. “Arenas are big venues and there’s always challenges around those, and opening any space comes with its own [unique] challenges,” she says.
In Roden’s absence, Co-op Live is now managed by Rebecca Kane Burton, the former GM of London’s O2 arena, which is owned and operated by AEG.
Over the past two weeks, contractors have been working overtime to fix outstanding issues to the building and get it ready for tonight, insiders tell Billboard. An inspection by Co-op Live subcontractor, SES, found that the issues with its ventilation system, which led to the pulling of A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie’s May 2 show, was the result of “an isolated manufacturing fault.”
Sources tell Billboard that all premium member spaces for which tickets have been sold are up and running, including the venue’s deluxe spaces, Ciroc Lounge and AMP Club. As compensation for recent disruptions, ticket holders for all postponed shows would be offered a free drink and food item of their choice when visiting the arena, Co-op Live said.
“I think the lesson to be learned in all of this, is never over promise and under deliver because it will catch you out,” says Mark Borkowski, founder of London-based communications agency Borkowski and an expert in crisis and reputation management.
“The magnifying glass is now on them but if they can get it right, and they have got to get it right, then all of this will be forgotten.” says Borkowski.
He cites the troubled birth of London’s Millennium Dome, which was subsequently redeveloped as The O2 arena, as an example of high-profile building projects that experience major teething problems before eventually turning it around.
“No project of this scale runs to plan,” adds Borkowski. “The negative headlines that surrounded the Millennium Dome totally dwarfed what’s going on in Manchester, but now [The O2] is held up as one of the best in the world. Co-op Live can use that as exemplar of what they need to do.”
GOAL — a sustainability program developed by founding members Oak View Group, State Farm Arena and its NBA sports tenant the Atlanta Hawks, Fenway Sports Group and green building expert Jason F. McLennan — has released a report outlining the impact of its first year of work.
The group’s 2024 Impact Report reflects data from 40 U.S., Canada and U.K. venues, including large-scale facilities that regularly host music programming like Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, Southern California’s Acrisure Arena and Austin’s Moody Center. GOAL (which stands for Green Operations & Advanced Leadership) sets out to collect data and build a roadmap for a more sustainable live event and venue industry. The report laid out current member performance and identified what future benchmarks could mean for the environment.
The report states that member venues diverted 32% of waste through reusing, composting and recycling over the last year. If that diversion rate reached 90% for all GOAL members, they could avoid emissions “equal to driving to the moon and back 75 times in a standard gas-powered car,” according to the report.
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The average member venue used 14.48 million gallons of water over the year. If each member reduced their water usage by 5%, it would be enough water for every citizen in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. to have one glass of water.
“The sports and entertainment industry has historically prioritized marketing over positive environmental impact, with venues making declarative statements about sustainability without necessarily following up with concerted action,” said McLennan in the report. “As we move forward, venues must hold themselves and each other accountable, and a consistent rubric for evaluation is essential to build confidence and drive continuous improvement.”
The report also outlines individual efforts at various member venues, with Tampa’s Amalie Arena installing an on-site central energy plant in 2022 to generate electric energy on site, a project that brought the arena’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions (direct greenhouse emissions that occur from sources controlled or owned by an organization and indirect greenhouse emissions associated with the purchase of electricity, steam, heat or cooling down, respectively) to 51% less than the average NHL arena. New Jersey’s Prudential Center purchased two electric Zambonis, while Atlanta’s State Farm Arena is in the process of quantifying all of its natural gas emissions so they can be offset. The average NBA Arena currently produces 1,611 metric tons of Scope 1 carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, three GOAL Members — State Farm Arena, Climate Pledge Arena and UBS Arena in New York — have achieved the U.S. Green Building Council’s TRUE Zero Waste Certification, which means they send at least 90% of their total waste to recycling, compost, donation or for reuse.
“I love GOAL. It’s the most important thing we’ve done toward sustainability,” OVG chairman/CEO Tim Leiweke told Billboard in March. “It’s hugely important that we get other people in the industry committed to GOAL. That’s one of [OVG’s] highest priorities.”
Find the complete report here.
LONDON — From New Order to The Smiths, Oasis to The 1975, Buzzcocks to Take That, the list of famous music acts that have come out of Manchester, England, is long and illustrious. This month, another significant chapter in the northern U.K. city’s celebrated music scene begins with the opening of the 23,500-capacity Co-op Live — the United Kingdom’s biggest and most sustainable entertainment arena.
“We want this venue to be recognized as the next generation in arena facilities that sets the benchmark moving forward. The noise about this building, once it has opened, I think will reverberate a long way,” says GM Gary Roden as he sits in a temporary temporary office trailer next to the venue, shortly after taking Billboard on a behind-the-scenes tour.
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Due to open its doors April 23 with the first of two consecutive shows by British comedian Peter Kay, Co-op Live is the first major project outside the United States from Oak View Group (OVG), the Denver-headquartered global management and development giant co-founded in 2015 by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff, which operates more than 400 buildings globally.
In the last 16 months, OVG has built and opened seven new arenas, including the Climate Change Arena in Seattle, UBS Arena in New York and Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif. Arenas are also under development in Brazil, Nigeria, Canada and Wales. OVG COO Francesca Bodie (who is Leiweke’s daughter) says that starting the company’s international expansion in the United Kingdom was a “natural and deliberate step” to take due to the country’s status as “one of the greatest cultural destinations in the world.”
Bodie tells Billboard that Manchester was picked because of its “phenomenal musical heritage and community,” as well as OVG finding the “perfect” location to build a new facility in the city’s Eastlands district, next to Etihad Stadium — the 53,400-capacity home ground of Premier League and UEFA Champions League holder Manchester City football club. “We have built a great foundation in the U.S. and are now focused on projects further afield where we can deliver state-of-the-art venues in places that are in desperate need of something new,” she says.
Manchester City’s parent company, the City Football Group (which is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), is an equal joint-venture partner and investor with OVG in Co-op Live, which cost £365 million ($462 million) to build and was designed by Populous, the global design firm behind the Madison Square Garden-owned Las Vegas’ Sphere. Construction was handled by local firm BAM Construction, while the naming rights were awarded to Manchester-based Co-op Group in a 15-year sponsorship deal reported to be worth just under £100 million ($127 million).
Also listed among Co-op Live’s investors is multi-Grammy-winning pop star Harry Styles, who grew up in the small Cheshire village of Holmes Chapel, around 30 miles outside of Manchester, and advised on aspects of the venue’s design.
“To have an artist of that scale investing in our building and be advising us along the way is a very fortunate position to be in,” says Roden. “Tim Leiweke and his team spoke to him at the start of the process about what does an artist need from a building. ‘What matters to you?’ And quite rightly, what artists care about most is their fans and the fan experience.”
Rendering of your view if you have tickets behind stage left.
Courtesy of Oak View Group
To that end, every aspect of Co-op Live has been designed with the audience and performer in mind, says OVG. That means a complete advertising blackout inside its “immersive bowl” interior during shows, comfortable tiered seating that OVG says brings fans 23 meters (75 feet) closer to the stage than arenas of a similar size (complete with beverage holders on every seat), first-class acoustic and audio-visual technology and the largest floor space of any U.K. indoor venue (30,677 square feet in standard-end stage mode and 35,520 square feet when center stage is in the round), capable of holding up to 9,200 people.
The venue also boasts 32 bars and restaurants, including multiple luxury VIP lounges and premium dining options, as well as its own private nightclub. The first thing that general admission ticket holders will see upon entering Co-op Live is “The Street” — a huge indoor food and drinks market with a bar that is 22 meters long (72 feet) that has been designed as the “heartbeat” of the building.
“Everything has been built around this idea of: ‘How do we give the fan the best experience they’ve ever had coming to an indoor arena?’ ” says Roden. He confidently states that the legacy issues for many music fans visiting arena-size venues “where you find your seat, have a terrible warm beer, eat a burger that tastes like cardboard and queue for 30 minutes for the toilet” won’t apply at Co-op Live.
Sustainability is another key consideration in the building’s design, with Co-op Live set to be the United Kingdom’s first and only 100% electric arena, powered by a combination of renewably sourced electricity and a football pitch-size field of on-site solar panels. Meanwhile, the venue’s rectangular flat roof will harvest Manchester’s famous abundance of rainfall, which will then be used to water its plants and flush its toilets.
Air-source heat pumps, reuseable cups, food sourced from nearby vendors and a pledge of zero waste to landfill are among the other environmental initiatives OVG hopes will make Co-op Live the most sustainable arena in Europe. That commitment extends beyond the building’s walls with a neighboring mile-long pedestrian path upgraded with lighting installations and busking spots for musicians to encourage local visitors to walk to the venue rather than drive. Surrounding Co-op Live, a “biodiversity ring” of lush greenery has been planted to provide a natural habitat for wildlife and attract bees.
“The Street” — an indoor food and drink market with a long (72 feet) bar.
Courtesy of Oak View Group
OVG says Co-op Live will bring in between 750,000 and 1 million new ticket sales each year, creating more than 1,000 jobs and contributing £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) to the local economy over the next 20 years. But not everyone is happy about its arrival.
During the planning process, ASM Global, owners of Manchester’s existing AO Arena — a busy venue located in the heart of the city, which opened in 1995 and regularly features in Billboard‘s year-end Top 10 Venues list, grossing $76.1 million in 2023 from 102 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore — strongly opposed OVG’s plans to build the rival facility. It argued that Greater Manchester, which has a 2.8 million population across the city and its surrounding towns and boroughs, is not big enough to support two separate 20,000-plus-size arenas.
In the past year, AO Arena has undergone a major £50 million ($63 million) upgrade, increasing its overall capacity from 21,000 to 23,000, expanding its standing floor space by 100% and opening new VIP bars and restaurants, ahead of Co-op Live’s opening. (The United Kingdom’s leading venue is London’s 20,000-capacity The O2, which took in $219.5 million last year, making it the world’s second-highest-grossing arena behind Madison Square Garden, according to Billboard Boxscore figures).
“We wouldn’t have put a spade in the ground if we didn’t believe the Manchester market could take two arenas,” says Roden. “The goal is not for us to bring in the same number of shows that were already coming to Manchester. Our goal is to bring in more shows to the city and have international artists stay here longer.”
Bookings indicate the strategy is working with multiple show residencies at Co-op Live scheduled for the Eagles (five nights), Take That (seven nights), Liam Gallagher (four nights), Olivia Rodrigo (two nights) and Nicki Minaj (two nights) in 2024. Other upcoming shows include Kid Cudi, Slipknot, The Black Keys, Eric Clapton, Pet Shop Boys, Jonas Brothers, Pearl Jam, Justin Timberlake, Noah Kahan and Megan Thee Stallion. In November, MTV’s Europe Music Awards (EMAs) will be held at the venue, marking the first time the event has been held in Manchester.
“The moment when we hear that first chord come out from an amp and we hear the fans reacting to that is going to be something to behold and I can’t wait for people to experience it,” says Roden, looking ahead to opening week. “We feel we’ve created a world class facility that showcases Manchester not only to the U.K. and European market but globally as well.”
“In many ways, Co-op Live embodies what OVG is all about,” adds Bodie. “Creating venues that set new industry standards and develop amazing experiences for fans and artists alike.”
The Oak View Group (OVG) will soon enter a key phase of its long-planned pivot to international markets with the opening of Coop Live in Manchester, United Kingdom, next month.
After its record post-pandemic run — which included opening seven arenas in 16 months, including Climate Change Arena in Seattle, UBS Arena in New York and Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif. — the Tim Lewieke-led management and development company will transition from U.K. venue developer to U.K. venue operator in one of Europe’s largest concert and live entertainment economies.
First Manchester, then the world, says Francesca Leiweke-Bodie, OVG’s COO (and Leiweke’s daughter). She explains the United Kingdom will be the launch point for expanding the company’s private-public partnership model, which looks to government groups to aid in land acquisition in exchange for fully private financing and development work. Leiweke-Bodie says the model is key to driving expansion opportunities into Africa, Asia and the Middle East, where huge gaps in the world’s touring infrastructure prevent popular arena and stadium tours from accessing hundreds of millions of fans.
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Billboard recently caught up with Leiweke-Bodie to discuss the opening of Coop Live and detail OVG’s near-term expansion plans around the globe.
Why did OVG decide to begin their international expansion efforts with the Manchester project?
London and the U.K. have always been a frontrunner for where we as a company want to plant a flag and show the other countries and municipalities that we’re speaking to about public-private partnerships and prove what is possible when the private sector can step in and invest. That doesn’t happen as much overseas, where the market is really heavily driven by municipal financing. Having this project in the U.K., a $375 million privately funded arena with huge community support and more than $1 million going back to the local business — when other potential partners come to Manchester and see what we are doing, there is no doubt that we’re the real deal and will deliver on our promises.
What’s the biggest challenge OVG faces in its efforts to expand internationally?
I think the hardest thing to come by, whether it’s domestically or internationally, is land. We want to build in the urban core. We want to be where the fans want to be — in the city centers. We can do everything else. We’ll build it. We’ll finance it. We’ll book it. We’ll take the risk. But the partnership that we’re always looking for is the land opportunity. Most of these cities are much older than the United States with dense urban cores that we can’t even fathom. To find four or five acres available to build these types of projects with access to public transit is the crux of what we’re trying to create with these city partnerships. There’s also inbound opportunities from local owners and developers that see an opportunity to take land that they might have identified for retail and say, “Let’s rethink this.”
Once the Manchester facility opened, what’s next for OVG?
Hamilton, Ontario is next. It’s an existing 18,000-seat arena we’ve already started work on, taking the building down to its studs and [which] will reopen in late April. It’s the first project in Toronto that was a public-private partnership and ultimately became a renovation project, but it’s effectively a new arena. In North America, there’s only a few strategic markets left where one could make a really big difference with another arena. But overseas, we have a tremendous amount of opportunity because of the growth internationally of global music, from American country music to Latin.
What other metropolitan characteristics appeal to OVG?
Countries or cities that not only attract from surrounding countries but serve as the point of destination for a much broader area. One example is Sao Paulo in Brazil. From a financial perspective, Sao Paulo is an incredible point of destination for not only Brazil, but for Latin America. That’s why we want to plant our flag there because it doesn’t have an arena. Vienna, Austria is the same thing. You know, it is central to continental Europe. You can get to it from six different countries via car. We have about two dozen cities like that we’ve identified.
How does programming and booking drive the OVG strategy?
That’s such a key element. The first domino that we were really thinking about and analyzing from a construction and design perspective is making sure that the building is both turnkey and equipped with all acoustic treatments and back-of-house amenities to accommodate major tours. We talk to local promoters, and figure out what is coming in the rider and work with our partners at the building to alleviate costs. Arenas have to compete with the stadium shows and we have to make the economics work so we’re really looking at the take-home revenue for an artist to make sure that their touring costs are competitive and can exceed the expectations of fans and market partners.
As alcohol consumption declines among young adults and awareness about the mental health benefits of sobriety grows, nonalcoholic cocktails could prove key to finding new food and beverage revenue for the concert business.
In 2023, CMA Fest, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Danny Wimmer Presents’ Louder Than Life and Bourbon & Beyond were among a dozen festivals to include mocktails and sober spaces at their events; Live Nation introduced the “no-jito” to its venue menus; and Oak View Group launched an elevated nonalcoholic beverage program at its Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif. And while conventional wisdom held that nonalcoholic drinks beyond soda and water would diminish alcohol sales, venues are finding that’s not the case.
“Since launching the mocktail program, our alcohol sales have remained steady, and overall beverage sales have increased by a margin that we are very pleased with,” says Daniel Griffis, president of global partnerships at Oak View Group. It has gone so well that OVG plans to start rolling out the program at other venues.
After launching in October in the premium level and expanding to the entire arena in January, Acrisure has sold more than 2,000 mocktails at $14 each — including the Blackberry Smash and the Firebirds Spritz, which use Lyre’s nonalcoholic spirits — says John Page, senior vp of Acrisure Arena, AHL team Coachella Valley Firebirds and OVG360 Facilities. “There have been a lot of positive comments that we are recognizing people that want to really experience the live event and have something different in terms of the beverage space, not soda or water,” he says. “This is one way that we can continue to show that we are aware and we have something for everyone in the venue.”
These activations were all launched in partnership with the nonprofit Stand Together and its 1 Million Strong initiative founded with sober community The Phoenix. They follow an open letter published in Billboard in January 2023 that featured 50 music industry leaders pledging support to 1 Million Strong.
“What I am excited to see, a year after, are those people actually doing it,” says Colette Weintraub, head of Stand Together Music, Sports & Entertainment.
At Live Nation, the initiative has brought a new corporate focus as well. Last May, the concert giant launched its Sober Nation program focused on fostering sober-inclusivity and destigmatizing addiction at their venues and offices. On Jan. 30 the company will host a Grammy-week brunch with 1 Million Strong and DMC of Run-DMC to raise awareness among staff and connect employees to available recovery and mental health resources.
On Jan. 30 the company will host a Grammy-week brunch with 1 Million Strong and DMC to raise awareness among staff and connect employees to available recovery and mental health resources.
For an industry that places a lot of emphasis on alcohol — from beverage sales to alcohol sponsors — Weintraub says the initiative has received a warm welcome so far. “We’re not saying ‘sober music industry,’ ” she says. “We’re saying this is an opportunity to expand and open the doors to more people and let more people participate in what’s important in life and supporting more people in achieving their full potential.”
Executive promotions are inevitably announced with press releases. Francesca Bodie‘s elevation to the newly created position of COO for the venue development, management and investment company Oak View Group (OVG), also comes with the announcement of two significant deals she led for the company founded by her father, OVG CEO Tim Leiweke and music’s multisector entrepreneur Irving Azoff.
Bodie, who served as OVG’s president of business development prior to her promotion, engineered the company’s strategic investment in Family Entertainment Holdings, the company behind the popular live franchises, Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live, which is tied to the classic toy brand, and Magic of Lights, an all-ages holiday light show. OVG also unveiled activations with premium wine and spirits brand, Christian Navarro — including The NINETEEN 62 Club, a luxe lounge at Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena and premium concession kiosks at four OVG facilities — the first offshoots of a venture with Navarro that Bodie also spearheaded.
Bodie’s new role will increase from capital development, mergers, and acquisitions to a focus on new revenue streams including overseeing all day-to-day operations for OVG globally, as well as leading OVG’s executive committee of highly diverse and accomplished executives into this next stage of growth.
According to the company, Bodie, a graduate of Stanford University who has worked in the facilities business since high school “when I helped load-in the Ringling Brothers Circus at STAPLES Center,” has raised more than $12-billion of invested capital for seven venues that OVG built and opened in the last 18 months, including the $1-billion-plus makeover for the redevelopment of Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, New York’s $1.5 billion UBS Arena, the $375 million Moody Center in Austin, Texas; the $300 million Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif.; and the $200 million CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore.
In an exclusive interview with Billboard, Bodie says that after OVG’s year-and-a-half growth surge, her father — who she refers to as “Tim” — identified a need for processes and communication. So, this position is about building depth and organizational structure, and to put processes in place for [OVG360 CEO] Chris Granger to grow his company.
Bodie, who is the mother of two sons, 8 and 4, says her new role “will also allow me to strengthen our international platform, which is going to be a huge focus for us these next few years.”
In an interview with Billboard earlier this year, Tim also said that international was a big part of OVG’s future.
I am very excited about it. The seeds that we planted even during COVID are just now showing fruition and growth. April 19 is the big opening for Coop Arena [in Manchester, England], which is the first facility we are opening internationally. It’s the largest arena in the United Kingdom, with the largest private investment in any facility in the U.K. It is going to change touring in Western Europe. That’s going to be the start of our domino effect. Our strategy has always been that we have to be in the most influential capital markets in the world. São Paulo, Brazil is under construction; Madrid is in our pipeline as is Vienna, after we won the bid against pretty tough competition. Once we make that private investment — and we have strong local partners in each of those markets — we’re going to expand our service business in coordination. Taylor Swift’s tour has shown that fans are traveling internationally, but the overseas markets don’t have the facilities that we have here. Acts are still playing in buildings that were built many decades ago. So, for us there’s a huge opportunity for the private sector to come in and create what the fans expect — which is acoustically perfect sound, huge amenities, a huge focus on premium hospitality, and then giving the artist a platform to play in an optimal environment, including taking care of them from a safety perspective as well as a sustainability perspective.
Coop City is the first carbon neutral arena in the United Kingdom?
The first ever in Europe. In my new role, I’m going to be a huge advocate and partner of Chris in our GOAL [Green Operations and Advanced Leadership] initiative as well as our sustainable design. LEED certification is really just about how you design the building. Where we as an industry make the most impact on facilities is operations. Not every facility is going to be able to get to carbon neutrality, but everyone can move the needle in a better way. We track water, waste and energy usage, among other metrics, and if we can improve those markers every year, that is a good thing for our environment. Now, every building that we have [owned-and-operated facilities as well as venues OVG manages or where it handles food-and-beverage service] will be on the GOAL platform, which is in partnership with AWS (Amazon Web Services). Any facility with a mass gathering can join GOAL. We come in and measure every usage group that a facility has: water, air quality. sanitization around COVID, food waste, and obviously, carbon and energy is a huge portion of it. We take into account a facility’s age and determine what should be expected of the venue. Then we give them tools that identify areas that, operationally, they can drive better usage the next year.
In that same Billboard interview, Tim said that one day you are going to step into the CEO role. Your promotion to COO seems like the first step in a succession plan. Is there a timetable?
I can’t make that assumption. I will say this. Tim has never been more passionate about the industry or in better shape. I have worked with him officially since 2008, unofficially since 2004, and this is the most energetic and enthused he has ever been in his professional career. OVG hasn’t even hit the halfway mark. We’re going to double in value here in the next three to five years.
So, he hasn’t discussed this with you?
If that’s his plan he hasn’t shared it with me. He always says, “Earn your keep,” so he’s instilled a work ethic in me that I’m very grateful for, but our story is about depth right now. We made two critical hires with Chris Granger joining us — his vision around data and team-building is spectacular for that growth — and Ade Patton, a Fortune 500 CFO.
Can you put a number on the plan to double OVG’s value?
Tim’s goal is a $10 billion company and I’ll leave it at that.
What’s your perspective on the dearth of women in music industry C-suites?
I feel fortunate because there’s no gray area for Tim on this, and it’s not because he has a daughter. It’s just how he is. We have 50-50 representation on our executive committee. There are two women and four men on our board, and we all have equal votes. It’s very important to Tim to get voices and opinions from diverse backgrounds. I don’t want to dirt anyone, but I don’t see that call to action at Legends and ASM Global – and I worked at AEG and MLSE [Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment] —that enables the upward trajectory we have here. I’m also fortunate because [Azoff Company co-presidents] Beth Collins who’s been a great friend of mine and is also fellow board member, and Susan Genco, as well as the folks at Azoff have been incredible. Irving is a cofounder [of OVG] and I’ve known him since I was in seventh grade. It’s a shared culture system between Tim and Irving where they have strong women around them and they empower them in a way that is unique in the business.
How does your management style differ from the CEO?
Tim is a visionary. His thing is, Why not? Why can’t we do this? We are entrepreneurs. He also says, “We are not afraid.” We don’t make fear-based decisions. We stay focused. This promotion is an opportunity for me is to keep us focused as we expand. We have a tremendous appetite for additional M&A. That’s one of the reasons why we are very bullish on Family Entertainment Holdings. You are going to see our company triple down on content and make sure that our facilities have the best opportunities to diversify content. If existing facilities or new markets make sense and hit our return threshold, we are in that game of growth. And Chris Granger would echo me on the 360 side. They won 30 out of 33 bids last year, and they are on a rocket ship to diversification.
How does AEG’s sale of ASM Global to Legends affect your business?
We always anticipated there would be two [players in the facilities sector]. It doesn’t change where we’re investing capital or what our mission statement is. We have more entrepreneurial spirit when it comes to looking at partnerships and alignment. As for Legends, anybody who has dealt with the Feds recently knows that they will have to go through an approval process, just as we did with Spectra [the venue management and hospitality provider that OVG Facilities merged with in 2021 to create OVG360.]. I think they have their work cut out for them on the NFL side. That said, I have a tremendous amount of respect for that team. Shervin. [Mirhashemi, the CEO of Legends] was at my wedding and so was [AEG president/CEO] Dan Beckerman. I wish them the best, but I don’t think about them very much to be honest with you. None of us do.
Can you elaborate on the challenge Legends faces regarding the NFL?
If you look at Legends’ role in the last bit of NFL stadiums that have come up for service bids, project management or premium or sponsorship, they have the lion’s share of them, which would seem to put customers at a disadvantage when one company will have that much market share of NFL stadiums for F&B, premium/sponsorship sales and operations.”
Have you done any new deals in the last six months that you can talk about?
We’ve done a few that will be announced in the new year that will expand our portfolio in a meaningful way in London. We are very focused on growth there. We have relationships and deals from the arena perspective both in Cardiff, in partnership with Live Nation, and in Bristol which is a great sister market to Coop. You’re going to see us continue to be very aggressive in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the surrounding regions because there isn’t a tremendous amount of density there. From a service add perspective, we’re going to be aggressively growing our executive team and actively bidding on food and beverage and facility management.
You are spearheading OVG’s Las Vegas development. There are so many venues there. How are you going to make this one different?
Vegas is this anomaly where there’s never a glass ceiling to what it can be. Look at the Wynn. It’s the most profitable hotel on the strip and it has been for decades. And every time someone tries to match it, the Wynn raises the bar a notch. T-Mobile Arena was the last facility Tim built before he left [as president/CEO of AEG]. That building is 10 years old, and, no disrespect, it’s great for [Las Vegas’ NHL hockey team] the Golden Knights. But what we see is the need to set a new bar on touring, and that venue needs to speak to what is best in class today.
The Oak View Group is working with Hamilton Urban Precinct Entertainment Group and officials of the city of Hamilton, Ontario on a plan to begin renovations on the 18,500-capacity FirstOntario Centre, a reimagined arena that will be the centerpiece in revitalizing the city as a music, sports and entertainment destination, 45 miles southwest of Toronto.
The $280 million renovation is spearheaded by Oak View Group who will transform the facility into an 18,000-seat capacity venue with a reimagined facade, premium seating, enhanced acoustics, improved sightlines, upgraded concourses, optimized clubs and suites and artist lounges. The newly modernized venue will accommodate shows unable to land an available date at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Scotiabank Arena is owned my Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, where Tim Leiweke, OVG Chairman & CEO, served as chief executive from 2013 to 2015.
Live Nation will serve as the arena’s booking partner and bring concerts and other live events to Hamilton. Work on the facility will begin in spring 2024, and the building is expected to open in fall 2025.
“Our timing is perfect,” says Leiweke, noting that billions of dollars in construction for ten projects in Hamilton is planned for the fast growing region. “It’s a great market as Toronto has run out space for new construction. We’re making a big bet but we feel great about it. We have a great team here in place, a lot of great companies that believe in us and we are feeling very optimistic.”
OVG recently worked with Louis Messina, promoter of the Taylor Swift tour, to sell sponsorships for the singer’s six night run in November 2024 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
“We already have a great infrastructure in place with a strong team up here,” said Leiweke. Besides Hamilton, Oak View Group recently completed renovations at the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore and plans to complete work at Coop-Live arena in Manchester, U.K. later this year.
The Hamilton Arena Project was designed by Brisbin Brook Beynon Architects and is part of a larger downtown revitalization project known as “The Commons”, which includes the arena, renovated convention centre, the Art Gallery of Hamilton as well as new residential, office, and retail space development.
Leiweke tells Billboard the new facility “will completely transform the downtown area with its accessibility, technology forward improvements and priority on sustainability.”
The Oak View Group will unveil its Theater Fund during the inaugural gala for the OVG Theater Alliance headlined by Rachel Platten, Jake Wesley Rogers, Lindsay Ell and country a cappella group Home Free at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville on Oct. 11.
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“Part of our mission at OVG is to identify ways we can help our members,” says Joe Giordano, vice president of OVG’s three facilities groups — the Arena Alliance, Stadium and the recently launched Theater Alliance, which debuted in January. The Theater Fund will be operated in collaboration with Music’s Promise as a 501(C)3 that will support Theater Alliance members, many of which operate through or with non-profit entities.
“We will take all the money raised from the fund and divy them up equally between all the foundation non-profits in the Theater Alliance,” Giordano explained, noting that 21 foundations will benefit from the event.
The goal is to help Alliance members rebuild in a challenging post-pandemic environment for arts organizations, which are dealing with decreased attendance, a decline in annual subscriptions, gaps in government support, rising costs and competition with more modern buildings.
While the concert business has bounced back strong from the pandemic, along with Broadway, “fine arts based organizations have indicated to us that they have lost audiences since the pandemic that they will never get back. The revenue piece has been a key component of whats missing for many of these groups.”
Platten told Billboard in a statement, “It’s my honor to give back to the establishments that have been so crucial in hosting the most influential live entertainment in our country.”
In addition to the live performances and a silent auction, attendees at the gala can network with high-level Industry executives, promoters, agents and managers.
Tim Leiweke, chairman and CEO of Oak View Group, said, “The Theater Alliance has enabled Oak View Group to gather the top theaters and performing arts venues in the nation to keep our finger on the pulse of this vibrant and essential corner of our industry. We know that – especially coming out of the pandemic – funding is critical for theaters to thrive and support their communities, and we have droves of talent, promoters, managers and industry leaders who are going to see to it that these venues have access to the resources they need to succeed.”