24 TIM LEIWEKE

CHAIRMAN/CEO OAK VIEW GROUP

Since the beginning of 2022, Leiweke and his team (which includes the company’s new COO, his daughter Francesca

Bodie) have built seven arenas — five that it owns and operates — including Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif.; CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore; and UBS Arena on New York’s Long Island. He says he’s just warming up. “We’re well on our way to having 20 of the top 50 music arenas in the world that OVG will own and operate,” he says. “We’re going to double down on the half a billion we’ve already spent on building these beautiful buildings and spend another half a billion now.”

In April, OVG plans to open Co-op Live in Manchester, England, a $460.3 million, 23,500-capacity arena — the largest in the United Kingdom and the first carbon-neutral venue in Europe — whose investors include Harry Styles. The company is also developing a $10 billion casino resort and 20,000-seat arena and an additional amphitheater on Las Vegas’ South Strip, and, in partnership with Live Nation, the Anhembi Arena, part of its expansion into international markets. (OVG’s venue management business, OVG360, also works with over 300 clients.)

Leiweke has been quoted saying that he hopes to attract an NBA team to the Vegas complex, but he tells Billboard that his business strategy is focused on music — not surprising, given that his business partner and OVG’s co-founder is Irving Azoff. He estimates OVG’s venues grossed around $500 million in 2023 and says he expects to double that with eight new facilities that will open in the near future. “Everybody always thought the facility business was about anchor tenants,” he says. “What we’re doing now is proving that it could be about music.”