Leiweke Lays Out A Vision For His New Empire

(Follow link for full article.)

http://ampthemag.com/the-real/leiweke-lays-vision-new-empire/

Leiweke Lays Out A Vision For His New Empire

November 14, 2016

Dave Brooks

The next threat will not come from the ground, explained the Oak View Group’s Tim Leiweke. His new security group Prevent Advisors is preparing arenas for a new anti-terrorism challenge — the use of drones by bad actors seeking to do harm.

“Anyone can buy one, anyone can figure out how to put something bad in that drone, and anyone could fly it over a stadium, an arena, an entertainment district, a festival site,” Leiweke said Thursday during the second day of the Billboard Touring Conference in Beverly Hills during a Q&A with Billboard Senior Editor Jem Aswad that touched on everything from his days with AEG owner Phil Anschutz to working with legendary rocker Jon Bon Jovi.

.   .   . 

Besides shaking up security, developing a new sponsorship platform and disrupting the way tours are routed, Leiweke explained that he wants to shake up the conference and trade media space to bring more of the big players in sports and music together.

“We shouldn’t have a music conference anymore. We shouldn’t have a facility conference anymore,” Leiweke said. “We should have an entertainment and facility conference because that’s the investment that they made. That’s how they see the world. They consolidate all of this into one balance sheet at the end of the day,” he said.

Leiweke said OVG will be a positive force for disruption in the entertainment industry and is not looking to put anyone out of business.

“We are not promoters, we are not managers, and we are not agents,” he said. “We come in peace. Our job is to create new content. We think we are going to bump content in our buildings by at least two or three shows minimum this year. I think that will continue to grow as we fight hard to make sure that we get every tour that we can go through our arenas and be a part of our industry.”