Arena Alliance: What's Leiweke Up To?

(Follow link for full article.)  

http://ampthemag.com/the-real/arena-alliance-whats-leiweke/

Arena Alliance: What's Leiweke Up To?

September 20, 2016
   
Dave Brooks

It’s only Tuesday and Tim Leiweke has already won the week. What happened when he announced the names of the 22 facilities that had signed up to participate in his Arena Alliance? Everyone lost their damn minds.

I received tons of emails from people reacting to the news that major facilities like the United Center in Chicago and the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia would be signing up for the Arena Alliance. People are addicted to news about Leiweke. They’re also addicted to talking about Leiweke. But here’s the thing — most people don’t know what they’re talking about.

All the conspiracies theories about Leiweke and Azoff forcing some kind of mandate on venues is just that, a conspiracy theory. Buildings were not coerced into joining as many like to claim. Quite the opposite, I’ve spoken to several GMs who said they saw their participation in OVG as a great opportunity. One GM told me he thought being in OVG would put his facility on the map and lead to more awareness of the market place. Another told me it was a no-brainer. If you’re a major arena, why wouldn’t you want to be in business with Leiweke, Azoff and now Peter Luukko. In the coming days, it’s going to be announced that the former Comcast-Spectacor CEO is going to head OVG’s Arena Alliance — he’s already bought in as an investor.