Podcast Alert: Tim Leiweke – Oak View Group
Tim Leiweke – Chairman & CEO of Oak View Group – details some of his team’s most exciting projects in the works. He and AJ discuss the new arena and entertainment district in Las Vegas, Moody Center in Austin, and plans for a dozen new arenas around the world.
Tim also shares the process that went into building Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, and the challenge of turning a historic landmark into a state of the art, carbon neutral arena.
Details:
3:30 – Tim’s brother, Tod Leiweke
6:30 – Building Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena)
13:00 – Climate Pledge Arena
30:10 – New OVG Projects (including Las Vegas)
51:40 – Dan Griffis and OVG Global Partnerships
58:15 – The entertainment industry’s impact on the climate
1:08:20 – Rapid Fire Questions
You can find AJ’s interview with Tim’s brother, Tod Leiweke here: https://nvgt.com/podcast?ppplayer=98f56b6dd6dca41729f186d12a4d1251&ppepisode=59f0ef14b6b667427c867918556676b7
Transcript
+^[00:00:00] Tim Leiweke: And it created literally 10 billion dollars worth of economic impact with residential and condos and commercial and other retail. We could not get a grocery store in downtown Los Angeles when we were debating whether or not we were gonna build Staples Center downtown. And now if you look back at that economic commitment, it was not only gutsy and entrepreneurial. But it really singlehandedly changed downtown L.A. forever.
[00:00:49] AJ Maestas: Hello and welcome to the Navigating Sports Business Podcast. I’m your host, AJ Maestas Founder of Navigate a data driven consulting firm, guiding major strategies and decisions in sports and [00:01:00] entertainment. We started this podcast hoping to share the interesting stories and experiences of the amazing people we get to work with at.
And even though they’re visionaries and famous in many instances, their true stories aren’t often heard since they’re not on the playing field. Our hope is you get to know them better and learn from them. As we have.
Today, we’re gonna be talking with Tim Leiweke long time CEO of a AEG now, CEO of Oak View Group, where I think he’s truly changing our industry. Many amazing stops in between here and there, including running Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, running as the chairman of Major League Soccer and numerous other clubs as his career grew from his roots in Missouri and then into Minnesota and beyond.
Some of the things I think you’ll find amazing about this person is his ability, his will just, you know, sheer force of nature into getting deals done. And these are record-breaking commercial [00:02:00] deals like naming rights, getting arenas built, getting incredible people on board to build those teams. I think there’s some amazing lessons to be learned from the way he drives partnerships and the inspiration, the ability to push people into places where they’re uncomfortable and beyond what they thought was possible.
One of those is Climate Pledge Arena, which is just an incredible story. I can’t imagine there being greater challenges in an arena and having the results come out better. Unbelievable, but challenging much the same. He goes into some detail on the new entertainment district, hotel, casino and arena he’ll be building in Las Vegas. And even hints to us an announcement coming soon on a dozen arenas that they are going to be building around the world. Just pretty incredible progress in the six plus years that Oak View Group has existed. It’s hard to even believe that’s true. We even touch a little bit on his history and family and upbringing.
You know, Tod Leiweke, the CEO of the NHL Kraken is his brother. And the fact that the two of them didn’t have the opportunity to go to and graduate from college, but look what they’ve made of themselves. [00:03:00] So I think it’s interesting conversation with a very interesting organization that’s changing our world in really positive ways, possibly most noteworthy, their commitment to being carbon neutral and what they’re doing to help our industry raise the bar and help our planet and the world at large. I’m extremely grateful for that personally. I think there’s so much more we could be doing as an industry. And Tim Leiweke is an example of someone who’s doing well while doing good. So without further ado, Here comes Tim.
Today. I’m happy to be joined by Tim Leiweke, CEO at Oak View Group. Thank you, Tim, for joining.
[00:03:32] Tim Leiweke: Glad to do it. Really happy to be on here. I’m a little ticked at you that you got Tod first, but I’ll settle that with with him at Thanksgiving dinner.
[00:03:39] AJ Maestas: Yeah. I can’t wait to ask about that. And for those who are listening and the few that might not know that Tod Leiweke CEO of the Kraken minority owner of the Kraken and the Sounders and, and some other stuff is Tim’s brother, which makes you basically the most powerful brother combo in sports.
Right?
[00:03:57] Tim Leiweke: Well, you know, I’ve never kind of gotten hung [00:04:00] up on power. I think power ultimately is for others to ultimately judge, I think Tod and I are a lot alike. We tend to get more focused on not only how are we doing today, but where are we going tomorrow? And I think we spend a lot less time trying to worry about how people rate us or whether or not we actually have power.
[00:04:20] AJ Maestas: Yeah, I appreciate you looking through the windshield versus the rear view mirror. I agree on that, but it is gonna be tough to top Tod it’s in the archives for anyone wants to listen to it, but it’s, it’s a really awesome interview. Like he was really vulnerable and, and, you know, dove way back into your family history and you know, I mean, you know, he is a cool guy, right?
I mean, you grew up with him.
[00:04:39] Tim Leiweke: He’s awesome and, I actually tell everyone, I think what he’s done, not just these past few years with the Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena. But if you look at his body of work and you look at the influence he had in his short time being kind of the right hand for Roger at the NFL, but in particular Tampa Bay, where he [00:05:00] forged one of the great partnerships, I think in the history of sports. With Jeff Vinik and the culture and the core competency that they built there and seeing the results of how that today is still highly apparent, not just with the success of the Lightning on the ice, and off the ice, but the entertainment district and the development, in and around the arena, I think he’s had an amazing run and I am highly respectful that I think he might be maybe the best executive in sports today.
So I always pay him his due and his compliments, because I think he’s done some incredible things in his journey and with his career.
[00:05:38] AJ Maestas: That’s high praise from somebody who’s known him from birth. I agree with you by the way. And I really appreciate you mentioning culture. Because I think that’s Tod’s superpower.
And I’m gonna ask you later today about your superpower. He is very creative and he’s a revenue driver, but I really do think it’s the culture around those organizations. I mean, people are so happy to work with him. You know, the relationship with Vinik and the community. He matches that really well, but it’s more than [00:06:00] what he did at the Lightning, right?
The Seahawks, the Sounders and everywhere he’s gone. It’s yeah, I would summarize it this way. I have a friend who’s looking for, you know, an amazing leader of a sports franchise. And what I basically tell people, as I hunt for references is we’re kind of looking for the next Tod Leiweke but really that is really how I use that.
By the way, I don’t even know if you’ll remember the first time we met, but just to play the history game. It was the first time I was ever in that really fancy club at the bottom of the Staples Center, we worked over the years with AEG. And it was also the only time I ever had a physical sighting of Phil Anschutz..
What was that club? There was like this super cool,
[00:06:33] Tim Leiweke: It’s called the Chairman’s Club
[00:06:35] AJ Maestas: Chairman’s Club. Yeah. I wouldn’t expect you to remember, but I remember you fully suited up looking extremely professional. I felt out a place. It’s way below your pay grade, but
[00:06:43] Tim Leiweke: I absolutely do remember it and I ultimately, as I get older, the recollection is a little bit harder to come by based on just the sheer number of people that you meet. And the fact that we bounce around a little bit, but one of my favorite times in my career is the [00:07:00] ability to not only build Staples Center, Crypto.com now, but just managing that day to day and creating so many unique experiences.
And really, if you think about how fortunate we were there, that might be one of the greatest runs of championships in the history of professional sports. So we opened the building in ’99. And if you looked at the Lakers run and I think it was six championships, we won that building. And then you look at the Kings run and they won two Stanley cups in that building.
And you look at having that in our first, I don’t know, 12, 15 years. It was incredible how blessed we were that our teams were that good. And we continued to be a, a point of relevance because of the Lakers and the Kings and the fact that we also happened to manage it so that the Lakers carried us the first kind of 10 years.
And then the Kings carried it the next half dozen years. And it, it was funny that neither team was ever bad, but when they were great, [00:08:00] the Lakers were great. And then the Kings were great when the Lakers were kind of rebuilding, very fortunate. And so that’s one of my favorite times and a lot of my experiences of meeting people in the Chairman’s Club and the Lexus club and the events that we hosted there with several NBA All-Star Games and the NHLAll-Star Game and the democratic convention.
And it really is an amazing place. And it’s the uniqueness of L.A. Where you get to meet so many great people and be able to host so many phenomenal events.
[00:08:30] AJ Maestas: Yeah. Well, that building is, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, but that building is in my mind, it’s the first time that someone really used founding partnerships to make the deal work, you know, and it was sort of the model that AEG repeated and that today you’ve built and grown upon right.
With Oak View Group. And then you didn’t even mention L.A. Live. Right, I know that came years later, but the whole development of the real estate mixed use. I feel like that is the inception point, the seminal building where that practice got replicated, but correct me if I’m wrong.
[00:08:58] Tim Leiweke: Well, actually, I’ll [00:09:00] tell you a funny story.
So when we were going through the debate in ’97, actually ’96, ’97 with the city council in L.A., I always thought it was kind of stunningly absurd that we were having this debate with the city council about whether or not to approve Staples Center. Because if you look at the economic model, we spent about 350 million at the time building that arena, and we did it all privately.
And the only real help we got from the city was twofold. They acquired land around us that we agreed to repay them through a seat tax. And secondly, on the hotel that we were obligated to build we spent, Mr. Anschutz, spent a billion dollars on that hotel. I still today think it was one of the most entrepreneurial moments of truth I’ve ever seen and to give, Phil a lot of credit.
We built that thing and opened it right around ’08 when everything collapsed. But in ’96, ’97, as we were going through this [00:10:00] debate of this huge private development, that was gonna be privately financed. There was one city Councilman named Joel Wachs and he decided this was his moment to grab the microphone and kind of drug us through the mud on whether or not he was gonna approve this and kept on trying to extract extra concessions from us.
And we finally hit a point in the negotiation where we just told him, no, we’re done. It’s like, this is the deal. And if you don’t wanna do this deal: one, you’re crazy and two, well, L.A.’s a big place. And let us not forget. We’re moving from Englewood into Los Angeles city. You don’t have us today. And we had this one huge public hearing.
And he brought in this professor from Chicago that taught at a university that I won’t highlight here. And the professor came in and said in my opinion, and in my research and in analyzing every sports project built to date. The reality is, no matter what sports team owners say, they do not have an [00:11:00] economic impact on a community.
They don’t really create lasting jobs. They don’t really create lasting economic benefit for the community. And all of the things you’ve heard from them today, ultimately are not true and it’s never gonna happen. And I could show you a case history. And I got up right after him. And I looked at the council and then it turned around to the, there were 500 people in the audience going, what shocks me the most is he’s teaching our kids for tomorrow.
And it gives me high doubt about whether or not our kids are gonna have any entrepreneurial spirit, cause that’s the biggest load of crock I ever heard. And as it turns out, if you look back now at what Staples Center and L.A. Live did, it took a down-and-out downtown community with no development, no cranes and no one taking risks and it recreated, and it reaffirmed Los Angeles and downtown as the business center and the entertainment center for selling California southern it saved downtown and it created [00:12:00] literally $10 billion worth of economic impact with residential and condos and commercial and other retail.
And we couldn’t get a grocery store. We could not get a grocery store in downtown Los Angeles when we were debating whether or not we were gonna build Staples Center downtown. And now if you look back at that economic commitment, it was not only gutsy and entrepreneurial, but it really single handedly changed downtown L.A. Forever. And as I said at the time, it’s hard to believe he’s teaching our kids.
[00:12:33] AJ Maestas: Well, I won’t say it was a University of Chicago economic professor either. But let’s say hypothetically,
[00:12:39] Tim Leiweke: Well, I have a soft spot in my place for Chicago, cause we’re in the middle of a of a bid to take over the management of the McCormick Convention Center. So I loved Chicago. I just didn’t like the professor.
[00:12:52] AJ Maestas: By the way, you’re about to announce 12 new arenas, roughly, somewhere around the world.
How is this happening at the same time? I mean, how is this even possible? I mean, I met a lot of [00:13:00] your team who in the world is making this happen.
[00:13:03] Tim Leiweke: We’re very fortunate that so many good people have one agreed to join us and have this dream and ambition on making a difference. I’d say that’s the big thing is at OVG we get up every morning, we never rest on our laurels. We try to think outside the box and we try to say some people see things as they are and say why, we dream of things that could be and say, why not the great Kennedy saying. I think that’s what drives us every day is to make a difference and not be afraid to be entrepreneurial.
And we were fortunate enough to have a great partner in Silver Lake that joined Irving Azoff my partner. So Irving Azoff, and I started this company a little over six years ago. And when we started it, I had been two years in Toronto that we were just beginning to reap some of the benefits of the culture change.
And so I stayed an extra year there and the Toronto owners, Larry Tanenbaum, was gracious enough to allow me to do a dual role. So I stayed a year. [00:14:00] We started winning championships there. And by the way, well deserved championships, not only because of the brilliance of Masai Ujiri and the folks that were running TNOC,
but also the commitment that MLSE had made towards and the money they had spent on trying to change their culture and just the passion of that city, what a great sports town, but that’s where we started OVG. And we started with four employees. Four. We now have 5,000 full-time employees around the globe.
We have 25,000 part-time employees. And the theory here has been, if there are other great projects to build, then keep on hiring other great people to build them. And so what we’ve done is we have five phenomenal presidents that really run this company day to day. I’m just kind of the entrepreneurial leader and the rainmaker, but the five presidents in the five divisions drive this on a day to day basis.
Silver Lake has bought into the concept of a positive disruption to the [00:15:00] industry. So they’ve allowed us to continue to grow. And so we had great success with Climate Pledge Arena. No one thought we could pull that off. I remember another great story. So when well, when we were doing that, that was our first project and we were batting way above our pay grade there.
We were making commitments that we were gonna have to go figure out a way to fund. And so when we finally were at a point where we were gonna win the bid, our competitors decided to pull out. So instead of being told they were gonna lose the bid, they decided to shoot at the bid and pull out saying, it’s a farce, this thing wasn’t well, it wasn’t right.
You didn’t do it legitimately. And by the way, these guys can’t pull it off. They’re not gonna be able to pull it off and be careful because we don’t think they’re gonna deliver what they promised. That letter today still is that’s the beginning of our museum here at old OVG and it drives us on a [00:16:00] basis and it reminds us, they not only didn’t think we were gonna do it, they published an ad in the paper telling everyone we weren’t gonna be able to pull it off.
We pulled it off. We spent almost a $1.2 billion doing it. We preserved the historic landmark, that’s that 1962 World’s Fair Arena and the roof. We made it carbon neutral to be the first carbon neutral arena ever. And that letter has become absolutely the platform and the culture that drives us every.
Another great lesson, which is be careful when you throw stones, you may ultimately go create a competitor that gets even more driven, more focused and more ambitious because of what you say about them. Especially if you’re taking shots at their character and they took a shot at us, and that has driven us to 5,000 employees and dozens of projects around the world.
And by the way, thank God we have yet to have a project that doesn’t [00:17:00] live up to what we committed to doesn’t live up to what we promise and isn’t exactly as we’ve agreed to. So the thing I’m most proud of with all of our employees in our company, Is those people that took shots at us. Those people that threw rocks at us that has created a moral fiber, where we deliver everything we say we’re gonna do to the people that we’re partners with in Seattle, in New York and Austin, in Manchester and Savannah and Coachella Valley and all of the new projects that are coming and that reputation is why everyone wants to deal with us.
And it’s not lost on people that watch what the other guys do and the way they handle rejection and the way we handle rejection. And so again, at the grand old age of whatever I am, how many life lessons that we ultimately can still sit back and learn on a daily basis and how those life lessons, including some that have come in the last five [00:18:00] years become the core competency and value we could build this new company off of.
[00:18:06] AJ Maestas: So you probably know that we worked with you on that one. And, but just to be honest, I was pretty skeptical of what was gonna happen in Seattle. I hate saying that, you know, to prove I’m wrong and I’m one of those people, especially when we’re a part of the team, but we had a history, we had worked with the Seattle Center.
We’d worked with what was, you know, then Key Arena, you know, the political climate in Seattle, I’m somewhat familiar with. I went to college in Seattle. So just for fun, looking back at that, you know, because to your point, you have to deliver. It wasn’t hard to see cost overruns, right? Dealing with that footprint, that city and the cost of construction and what was going on with all the other development happening.
Like I don’t even know how you got contractors to work with you given all the things that Microsoft and Amazon were building at the exact same time in Seattle. It was one hell of a bet that you had to get, right. If it failed, if something went wrong, I mean is Oak View group not Oak View Group, because I feel like you really thread a needle with that one.
I mean that, that is about as difficult of a city political, [00:19:00] you know, geographic footprint, construction cost climate in which you were going to take on a project. Congratulations, by the way. By the way, Populous we’re a long term partner with Populous, love the work they do. If I could ask you multiple questions at one time, I would also love to know how in the world you kept that carbon neutral, you know, because there’s this historical building things in Seattle, like the wavy old glass that was in front of that dilapidated Key Arena you had to reinstall.
So I don’t know how you keep the building from seeping and bleeding energy. But if you don’t mind digging deeper on that because. Oak View Group is not Oak View group without success. And that couldn’t have been a more difficult first assignment.
It’s crazy.
[00:19:40] Tim Leiweke: And by the way, let’s add to it two recessions.
So the, the one at the beginning of COVID and the one we’ve seem to be in now. COVID and shutdowns and mandates, shipping issues, inflation issues, labor issues, all hit at the same time. And we started that project before COVID hit, but [00:20:00] that project was built during the two years of COVID and the project opened during this epidemic.
And so, to me, that was just a wonderful example of what happens when you can find like-minded entrepreneurial spirit that also look at it and say, I get everyone’s telling us we can’t do it. I get everyone’s betting against us. And I understand the obstacles that everyone is trying to tell me lays before us on this path that we choose to travel.
But we were very fortunate, twofold. Number one, to this day, I’m grateful that the people we were bidding against ultimately misread the city. So they literally, the only reason we won that bid is my competitors asked the city to float bonds. When the city very specifically said in the RFP, don’t ask for bond money.
So we didn’t, we came along and said, we’ll privatize it and we’ll go raise the debt ourself. Instead of asking the [00:21:00] city to put it all in their books. That’s why we won that bid period. That people could say anything they want. But at the end of the day, we followed the rules. They didn’t follow the rules, we won the bid. But the genius was Chris Carver at Populous.
So everyone told me you can’t save that building. You can’t save the roof. And we came along and said, I think you can. And it’s just engineering and math and money and by the way, in particular money.
Yeah. And by the way, for people who don’t know this story, they suspended the roof above the construction site.
And would you 3X the footprint of the building underneath it? You know, the thing is underground. I mean, it’s a ridiculous for those who didn’t ever see a construction photo or get to tour it it was laughable to think that, yeah, continue.
So we went out and hired a crew to film this whole thing, and we have all of this at archives and we’re working now on putting together a special so that people could go see what came of the engineering and the construction of this.
And [00:22:00] so a couple of real interesting facts that I think for the most part, people don’t realize. So one, the actual greatest sustainability act in the history of our industry was saving the roof and the walls. So we didn’t had to produce new concrete or new glass or new steel or new roof we used existing.
The other thing that was interesting is the roof’s historic. Not only national historic, state historic, and local historic. So we had three different historic bodies that had to approve everything we did on the design of the building and the construction of the building. I don’t think anyone’s ever had to go through that before.
Very unique that there were three historic foundations that all had a vested say in the outside, the facade, and the look of the building. Chris Carver figured out a way, geniusly, to put up temporary steel and we floated a roof literally for two years. And then we came [00:23:00] down, took out the old arena, dug the hole twice as deep and then wide.
And we created 850,000 square feet, which used to be 350,000 square feet. And then we built a totally brand new arena. And then we dropped the roof on it at the end of it. And so hugely expensive to do that. But we also were fortunate enough that we got historic tax credits for keeping the roof and keeping three sides of the building.
But the other piece of it is the contractor quit on us, so our original contractor kind of came back after they agreed to do it and said, we can’t do this. There’s not a way in hell this thing could get built. We quit. So we had to go shop and the only contractor we could get to come in and do it was M.A. Mortenson. And David Mortenson, who I knew from the twin cities.
And I knew from many, many years ago when they built Target Center for us, when I was with the Timberwolves. I remembered his dad and we went to see him and he essentially [00:24:00] said, I’ll share the risk with you. So I’ll take 50% of the risk on the construction side. You gotta take the rest of the risk on things that we just can’t ultimately put a number to.
And that’s the deal we did. And then Mortenson came in and the way they handled this project and the job that both Populous, Mortenson, and then our project team at ICON, CAA, those three were phenomenal. In fact, we just recently won the facility of the year at Sports Business. Journal’s annual awards. And it was fairly amazing to think that you had the Raider’s stadium, you had SoFi and Stan’s phenomenal commitment on what he built there.
And that, that really is, I think, one of the wonders of the world. And you had all these other facilities around the world that had been built in these last two years, because we hadn’t had a chance to pull everyone together and have the awards. So this was kind of a, an accumulation of an awful lot of brilliant [00:25:00] projects, but I think the industry recognized what Populous, Mortenson, Icon did.
And then we were really fortunate. We had a guy named Steve Collins. That’s one of our presidents and Steve spent most of his adult life, for three years with a project team overseeing that building. And then halfway through that process, Todand I made a decision to go carbon neutral, which meant we had already put in all the gas and all of the pipes.
The concession stands, our commissary, our kitchens, everything was gonna be driven by gas. And we made a decision. We were gonna be the first carbon building ever, but that meant we had to eliminate all of the gas. It meant that we had to power 100% of our energy in our building through electricity. It meant at the end of the day that every concession stand, every burner, every oven had to be driven by electric instead of gas.
And in addition to that, one thing, one [00:26:00] consequence of making that decision we’re the first building, along with UBS Arena, that put it in the MERV-13 filterization system to trap bad things like COVID. So we’re the first ones that have a hospital level filterization system in our air handling system, which means we trap it and burn it in the arena.
But they’ve never done this. And our engineers had to come along and figure out a way to go burn it without using gas because the system was based on gas. And we had to go back to any engineering that did a phenomenal job and tell ’em figure out a way to do it with electric. They said, can’t be done.
We’re like, yes, you can figure it out. You’ve got to reinvent this system because we want the system, but we won’t and we can’t use gas. So we pulled the gas out. We figured out a way to cook our food without gas. We figured out a way to do MERV-13 without gas. We even had to convince the equipment manager of the Kraken that we could dry the hockey equipment, just as [00:27:00] effectively with electric compared to gas with dryers.
So it was a huge Herculean effort. And the other hero here is David Bonderman and the Kraken partners because we spend 50 million. Trying to convert the building to not just all electrical energy, but it’s all sustainable electrical energy. So almost 85% of our power comes from solar, which is crazy.
So we not only installed solar farms on our roof, but on our parking garage. But we pull the majority of our excess of electric needs from the solar farm that Amazon has outside of Seattle. So that project’s just an amazing one because as you said, most everyone bet against us. No one thought we were ultimately gonna win the day.
We went through five mayors, five. All decent human beings. And by the way, love the current mayor. Who’s been courageous in how he has changed the attitude towards [00:28:00] Seattle in a very short period of time. But we went through five mayors. We went through two contractors, we went through a pandemic epidemic.
We went through two recessions. And here we sit. And I still think that that building very similar the way I feel about Stan and what he did at SoFi, that’s entrepreneurial spirit. So this day and age, when people wanna question the ingenuity of America or the United States, people want to question whether or not these arenas or stadiums create an economic benefit.
People want to question whether or not there is a, a moral fiber within our society today. Go look at these buildings that were privately built in very difficult times against the grain of what all of the perception was as to whether or not they were likely to happen. And you have a private guy in Stan Kroenke, what he did with SoFi, I think is incredible. And I’m really proud that David Bonderman, our partners with the Kraken, [00:29:00] the city of Seattle, tod, and the whole crew. What we pulled off up there is fantastic. Now for us. AJ, that was just a springboard. And it got us even more motivated that if we could do this, we could do anything.
And I think that’s what drives us every day. Is this insatiable appetite to go out and keep on writing the next chapter and make it better than the last?
[00:29:23] AJ Maestas: Well, it was an audacious project and it faced all kinds of unexpected, but also many expected headwinds. I really can’t believe it, especially when you look at the entertainment district, you know, SoDo where the existing transit comes in.
It’s unbelievable to me knowing Seattle as well as I do. So congratulations, that will be a part of the lifetime achievement award summary and paragraph because
[00:29:44] Tim Leiweke: I get it. But remember they only give lifetime achievement awards to people that think they’ve achieved, what they gotta achieve in their lifetime.
That ain’t me yet.
[00:29:52] AJ Maestas: What is driving you then? What in the world? I mean, what do you have left to prove? Why do you wake up every day? And why are you about to [00:30:00] announce a dozen new arenas? Good God, I mean, what’s going on?
[00:30:04] Tim Leiweke: You know, I don’t think I ever had to prove anything. I think we only are accountable to ourselves, our family and our God.
And so at the end of the day, I never felt like I had to prove anything, but I also think we’re down here and we’ve been given this wonderful gift, which is life. And I think what I thrive on every day is why not keep on pushing? And I feel great. I’m surrounded by 5,000 incredible partners that are really driven.
My daughter’s one of the presidents here, Irving’s son, Jeffrey is involved in his company, which means my daughter and Jeffrey who went to school together, get an opportunity to continue this and make this a, not just kind of a 10-year plan, but a generational plan of what we could do as a company.
We’re building phenomenal buildings and I’m proud of the fact. That if you look at everyone told us, we’d never be able to make a deal with the University of Texas, and we’d never be able to take a building, [00:31:00] privately, build it and then donate it to the school and make it economically work. But ourselves and Live Nation, Michael Rapino my partner over there.
We kind of persevered, plowed through it. And then again, during the pandemic with all hell going on with all the shifting issues, we built that arena in two years, built it privately, gave the largest donation in the history of the University of Texas, back to them in Moody Center. And then we came along and actually built it on time and under budget, which is incredible.
So that’s what drives me is my team and my group and OVG. We keep on reinventing kind of what’s next. What’s better. How do we keep on trying to figure out the next level? And that’s what gets me up is. There’s bigger, better things to do in Manchester. There’s bigger, better things to do in, in Lisbon where we’re gonna buy the existing arena and form a partnership with those partners.
And try to, Lisbon, I think is one of the great growth cities in Europe, because it’s just a [00:32:00] beautiful, wonderful place. And Portugal is a very predictable place to do business in. We love Lisbon. We love London. We love Manchester. We just we’re shortlisted for a new arena in Vienna, which we’re really excited about.
We absolutely adore Singapore. And then we have our biggest announcement and biggest risk that we’ve ever entered into, which is a $3 billion project in Las Vegas. And again, a lot of people are telling us it ain’t gonna happen. We’re never gonna get it done, we’re one of many arenas that gets announced, but never gets built.
People say, you know, you’re a fool’s dream. I don’t think so. I think Vegas is built on live of entertainment. I think that’s what brings people to Vegas. And I think what it doesn’t have is it has lots of live entertainment venues, stadiums, four arenas, all kinds of theaters. What no one’s built to date is a point of destination entertainment district that combines it all into one campus where the [00:33:00] hotel, the casino, the theaters, the clubs, the restaurant, and the arena are all interconnected into one experience, very similar in L.A. Live.
And we have phenomenal partners who we haven’t announced yet, but we have unbelievably good partners that between us and them, we have the pipeline to ultimately make sure that campus will be busy 365 days a year. So we like those things. We like thinking outside the box. We love it when people tell us can’t and I think we have found 4,999 other people here that are like minded alone saying this is what we’re supposed to do every day, which is push ourselves.
[00:33:42] AJ Maestas: So I, I really wanna ask about those two, by the way, the, the Moody Center in Austin with the University of Texas and this new project in Las Vegas, I’m using publicly available numbers here so we’re not getting in trouble, but cost reported at $375 million to your earlier point built in two years under budget ahead of schedule [00:34:00] donated back to the university year one revenue in sponsorship alone, 20 million plus. Is this something you want more of? You know, how many universities would like to have a professional grade arena be donated back to them?
And yeah, there’s some revenue sharing here, but they, they play rent free. Right? You’re gonna have men’s basketball in there rent free among other teams. Do you want more deals like that? Is that feasible? Is that something that’s important to you?
[00:34:22] Tim Leiweke: Yeah, it is. But you gotta go find great leadership. Like the University of Texas.
We were very blessed that the previous president Greg was unbelievable on his vision. He really pushed this vision and was the one that said, I think we could get an arena built for us without us having to spend state money or dip into the money that we’ve created within our endowment.
[00:34:44] AJ Maestas: Greg Fenves that is? This started,
[00:34:46] Tim Leiweke: Yes, Greg Fenves who was the president at the time. The real hero’s Chris Del Conte who’s the athletic director was and is and is just a force in nature and a great friend and a really good partner. Tough as nails, [00:35:00] hard to negotiate with, but by the way, exactly the way I’d want it, because I always know where Chris is headed and what he’s trying to do.
And so sometimes when you have people that are visionary, hard driven, but are Frank on kind of here’s where I’m at and here’s where we gotta get to. That’s a much better partnership because you leave nothing to chance and you know exactly what they expect out of you. And so the new president’s fantastic.
He’s stepped right in and he came from the business school. So that was a huge gift for us, that he looked at this thing and said, completely get it go. I’m supportive. And by the way, what else do you want to do? And then as it turns out, they hired two phenomenal basketball coaches, men’s and women. They have a great program, an emerging program.
They’re now headed into the SEC here in a couple of years. And so if you look at timing, timing was perfect. And then our partners are Live Nation and C3 and Matthew [00:36:00] McConaughy. So they get music, they get culture. That’s gonna be one of the busiest music buildings. It’ll be a top 10 music building this year in Pollstar in the world, which is incredible.
You’re talking about Austin, Texas being one of the top 10 music markets in the entire world for live entertainment. But live Nation And Charles Attal, my partner, they saw it and we saw it and Chris saw it and we figured out a way to go take that demand and that growth in Austin and be able to privatize the risk.
But in particular, make our money off of partners, sponsors, premium seat holders that all had this pent up demand for going to an arena as nice as the Moody Center. So very blessed. We’re doing over a hundred million of gross revenue there. Our first full year. Just incredible. The demand we’ve had. We got Harry styles playing down there for five nights [00:37:00] this fall incredible. He’s playing Madison Square Garden. He’s playing the Forum, he’s playing the United Center and he’s playing Scotiabank in Toronto, and then he is playing Moody Center in Austin. Yeah. We wouldn’t have that conversation three years ago.
[00:37:17] AJ Maestas: Yeah. Austin, top 10 music venue in the world is kind of shocking given the size of the city and we know the music history there and all that.
But did you ever consider putting an NHL team in that arena? Was that a discussion?
[00:37:28] Tim Leiweke: Well, we’ve been approached and I don’t think it’s any secret that Gary Bettman and I have grown up in the business together. We were in the NBA together. We’ve been in the NHL for a very long period of time. I was on his executive committee for many years.
Obviously we’ve been in involved in two of the most recent buildings in UBS Arena with the Islanders, which went 30 years. And no one ever thought they were gonna figure out a way to get an arena built. And between us and Scott Malkin and his partners, we figured out a way to get it built. And then obviously with [00:38:00] what David Bonderman did with the Kraken, with Tod and the team up there on Climate Pledge Arena.
So do we have a few more of those in us? Yes. It’s up to Gary to decide where those are. Can those be in existing markets where there’s an opportunity to build a new arena? We’re always open to those conversations in every arena I’ve ever built, including the seven, we have either open or about to open.
And then the next dozen that are coming, I have partners in every deal. I firmly believe in partners. I firmly believe in local partners and I firmly believe in finding good people that you love being with that. You want to go do great things with, to have Jerry Bruckheimer, who I’ve known most of my adult life as my partner in Seattle, with the Kraken with Tod and Bondo to have Andy Jassy who’s the, the CEO of Amazon, to have the Wright family who owns the space needle. That’s the great group. We’re having a hell of a time up there. And it’s a lot of fun to work with all of [00:39:00] those local partners to be able to have Live Nation and Christ Del Conte and Matthew Mcconaughey as partners in Austin, that’s a lot of fun.
The City Football Group, Man City is my partner in the Co-op Live. That’s a hell of a lot of fun. So every project we have, we have partners are there existing teams that need arenas. We talk to them and we’re more than happy to partner because that’s what we do. Are there places, ultimately there’s very large markets still in the United States without an NHL team.
And so do I think there’s opportunity to expand. If the commissioner so chooses, we will follow. And yes, we occasionally have those conversations with them. And so I don’t think we built our last NHL arena.
[00:39:45] AJ Maestas: There was a time I’m going way back now to Kansas City, but there was a time where I kind of had this feeling that you and Gary Bettman had a handshake on the NHL in Kansas City when you were at AEG and built that arena.
I mean, how much uncertainty is there in this? You [00:40:00] know, and I’m, I’d love to bring this back to the Vegas project. And I realize there’s a bunch of reasons to have live entertainment in Las Vegas in the casino, but still you’re gonna build an NBA-ready arena in Las Vegas without knowing who that owner’s gonna be or what team that will be, you know, is there, is there a risk of having a Kansas City situation?
[00:40:17] Tim Leiweke: Kansas City is one of the most profitable, Sprint Center, which is now T-Mobile Center. So the other great thing about Seattle is we’ve forged these partnerships with a lot of partners and the good news is. We’ve been able to create a great relationship with T-Mobile even though Verizon was our first partner at Climate Pledge Arena. Since then, the guys at T-Mobile came in, God bless. They bought a suite, we developed a good relationship with them. We’re gonna do things with them because we find them to be pretty amazing. They haven’t even yelled at me yet for building a new arena in Las Vegas when they have T-Mobile arena there.
So Sprint Center, now T-Mobile. If you look at that building, it’s one of the best [00:41:00] rates of return that not only the city of Kansas city has, they’re gonna pay off the bonds in half the time that they projected because that building and the economy was doing so well. And for AEG, who took the risk back in the day when I was there, that they’ve put all of that money back in their pocket and they’re doing quite well.
Is it an opportunity to ultimately have an NHL or an NBA team? Two things had to happen. One, there has to be a team available, either expansion or move relocation. And two, there has to be an ownership group. There had been a couple of teams that were in play that we danced with at the time Sprint Center.
We just didn’t have the local ownership group that stepped up. And it wasn’t us, because I’m not allowed to own an NHL team because of my conflict of interest with Kraken and Islanders and maybe others. And so I can’t control that. We did what we said we would do, which is we’re gonna go create the arena.
Now you need [00:42:00] a local group to step up and go chase the teams. It’s too bad that opportunity didn’t occur early on because now you got NBA teams worth several billion, NHL teams worth, probably approaching a billion and a half to 2 billion. And so what we’re seeing is maybe the greatest increase in valuation in the history of professional sports, because of what we just saw after with the Denver Broncos.
And so harder to go find those teams now. That said Vegas was never built for the, we are not dependent on the NBA. I’ve known Commissioner Silver, again, my whole professional career. And he, I considered him to be one of my best friends and I absolutely love Adam. He’s the reason I went to Toronto in the first place is not just the opportunity in the city, Adam Silver.
And I went and saw David Stern and Adam Silver before I took the job because everyone thought it was about [00:43:00] hockey and the Leafs. But I kept on saying the greatest opportunity ever is the Raptors. They got 35 million people, they got an entire country that they own and they haven’t figured it out yet. Let’s go figure it.
So Adam is not only a confidant and a friend. There’s not a way in hell I’m trying to misread where the NBA is. The NBA is not ready to talk about expansion and I accept that. So we figured out a way to go build Vegas without counting on the NBA, but should the NBA wanna move or relocate or expand, their decision, we’ll be ready. So we’re gonna build it like we did, seattle did not have an NHL team when we won that bid. Seattle doesn’t have an NBA team currently, nor is there anyone planned for Seattle, but we spent $50 million with Climate Pledge Arena, making it NBA-ready. There’s a locker room. There’s media areas. There’s broadcast [00:44:00] positions. There’s all of the space.
Every economic deal that Tod and I did in Seattle, naming rates, founding partners, arena partners, presenting partners, suite holders, bumper suite holders, club seat holders. Every deal was built to make sure that if the NBA decides to come to Seattle one day, again, their decision, we will create an economic model that will be top third, without an owner having to go spend $2 billion, which is what the Clippers are gonna spend on their new arena. And so those that argue, the NBA’s gonna come and they’re gonna build their own arena in Seattle, never gonna happen and all due respect, because I don’t think you could ever get it approved in that city.
And I don’t think you could afford it. It’s still one of the two or three most expensive markets in all of the us to construct. Vegas is different. So what Vegas doesn’t have is it doesn’t have an arena and a campus built for live entertainment. [00:45:00] And if you think about music, if you think about UFC, if you think about boxing, we can make it work economically by building the greatest arena ever built in Vegas.
By the way that’s acknowledging there’s the Sphere that Jim Dolan’s building down the street and it’s spectacular. But what he’s going for is an experience. It’ll be residencies. It’ll be programming that he creates. It’s gonna be, I think, incredible. I think he’s gonna reinvent the business. And I think that’s actually a calling card for us because I think more people are gonna wanna come to Vegas.
What we’re gonna build as a campus. Where the biggest events in music, the biggest events in sports will happen in our campus and we’ll create an arena. And look, the last deal I did at AEG was T-Mobile. And so I know that arena and I love the MGM guys, because they stepped up and said yes, in one meeting. It’s fantastic for what it is.
We spent roughly $365 million on the arena. I’m gonna [00:46:00] spend a billion dollars on this arena. It’s gonna be spectacular. It will be a arena that will not only be the finest music venue in the country, but the finest sports venue. And if the NBA wants to come to Vegas, believe me, this building will be able to capture the revenue streams in an unencumbered way for the NBA to make it worth someone writing a check, to buy a franchise or to buy an expansion team.
But we’re not counting on that because I won’t get ahead of Adam. I just won’t. And Adam and I have had very straightforward conversations about this in no way, shape or form, have we been promised nor do we expect an NBA team in Vegas, but if you read the tea leaves. I’ll take that risk, because we could make it could work off of music and off of boxing and off of UFC and off of other events that we could put in that building.
Look, the arena in Austin, Texas is gonna do probably 120 events this year [00:47:00] without UT men’s and women’s basketball. If I could do 120 events in Vegas by building the greatest arena they’ve ever seen and having partners that are in the content business, we’re gonna be just fine. And then we’ll build a point of destination where the hotel and the theater and the casino and the restaurants and the retail and the pool, everything will be intermixed together to create the first true point of destination in Vegas. Built solely around live entertainment. It’s a risk we’re willing to take.
[00:47:31] AJ Maestas: If your best friend purchased the Memphis Grizzlies and was looking for a new home, would you send him to Seattle or, or Vegas?
[00:47:38] Tim Leiweke: No, I’d send him to Memphis.
I would. At the end of the day, we know that deal fairly well. There are bonds committed to that arena that were backstop by the team’s lease. There’s improvements that the city of Memphis are talking about making in that arena. And so I saw what happened when the Sonics left Seattle, that you don’t wanna see that happen.
And [00:48:00] so we’re not here in Seattle, we didn’t steal a franchise. We went out and wrote a check for $650 million to the partners in the NHL. Because I believe in the NHL, David Bonderman believes that the NHL. We weren’t out trying to steal a team franchise and that’s, you don’t go build a business plan or make a $3 billion investment in Vegas by trying to steal somebody else’s team.
That’s up to the league to figure out if and when they wanna move or if, and when they wanna expand. If they do, Vegas is there. Do I think it’s gonna be about a team moving there? That’s up to the 30 owners of the NBA for them to make that decision. Not mine. If a team became available, do we have an ownership group ready to go in Vegas?
Yes. Do we have an ownership group ready to go in Seattle? Yes, we do. And so. We’ll follow the lead of the commissioner, but in the meantime, Climate Pledge Arena is doing fantastic. It’s doing exactly what we promised we would do up there [00:49:00] with the NHL team. The Storm, by the way, are having the best attendance right now in their history.
Sue Bird, maybe the greatest women’s basketball player ever is now playing her final games in Seattle. That’s had a huge impact on that team. That team’s generating more revenue than at any time in the history of the team. And I’m proud that they’re an anchor tenant. We’ve had everything we could imagine in that building, including two nights of Sir Paul McCartney and three nights to Odesza and all kinds of additional content coming up, we’re doing fine up there.
And so never was it built saying we gotta get an NBA team and if we don’t, it’s not gonna make sense. Vegas is not built solely on the premise that we had to get an NBA team, but Vegas and the arena will be built so that if the NBA one day wants to consider Las Vegas, one of the single best arenas ever built for NBA basketball will be at their beck and call.
[00:49:59] AJ Maestas: Well, I [00:50:00] consider it fait accompli that there will be two more NBA teams. It just makes a lot of sense. In my mind, you build this beautiful palace in Vegas, and I believe everything you’re saying, because if you can do what you did in Seattle, then this stuff is easy. But in my mind, you know, how does Seattle, Vegas and Mexico City compete?
[00:50:16] Tim Leiweke: Well, AJ, as I said, we don’t have any, there’s no secret deals, no secret handshakes and no unrealistic expectations and what we proved in Seattle and what we proved in Austin is. These buildings, if you build them right, and you build them smart and you have the right kind of markets with the right kind of partners, you can make it work without an anchor tenant.
And that’s what we’re doing in Las Vegas. And so I’m not trying to get ahead of anybody. And at the end of the day, one of the reasons Adam Silver still likes me is I don’t try to put words in his mouth. And I don’t tell people things that he hasn’t told me. We have no commitments on Vegas and I, if they come knocking, I’ll answer the door, but I ain’t waiting by the door.[00:51:00]
[00:51:01] AJ Maestas: There’s so many teams that would make that a favorable move that I think that’s how Vegas happens, but that’s my opinion, not yours. I’m not trying to put words in your mouth. One more big business question, and I wanna get into some of your personal life if you’re willing, but I’m so impressed by these deals that Dan Griffis and his team are signing in the middle of a global pandemic record, breaking, naming rights deals.
When I think back to your AEG days, I think of these and I want you to correct me if I’m wrong, but I always think of the sponsorships as being the key point of differentiation, where you’re able to, you know, collateralize that revenue into a bond, or you’re able to economically make the stadium stand out, right. The arena stand out because you just went above and beyond in premium seats and sponsorships in particular. Am I missing something there? I mean, I’d love to know if that’s true and how in the world, did Dan and his team close these deals in the middle of a global pandemic. I mean, incredible deals.
[00:51:53] Tim Leiweke: Yeah. So Dan was one of the first four employees. We had at OVG and he’s been in the cornerstone of our success and he’s [00:52:00] took a huge risk. He left Target where he got to spend the money and then had to come over to the dark side and ask for the money. And so he’s now built out a team of 150 people worldwide.
Pretty amazing the number of people that we have in our global partnership division. I think what’s unique about our partnership and our philosophy. And I will take two companies as an example. So Amazon team in as our founding partner and naming rights partner with Climate Pledge Arena, because they had a mission which was, can we tell the world about sustainability and having to save the earth?
It’s amazing. The job that our team has done with Climate Pledge Arena, I mean we opened up with cold play who came in into the worldwide broadcast to show everyone how we could build a carbon neutral arena, had a huge influence on the band who went out and did the most sustainable world stadium tour ever this year.
So amazing that that influence of trying to talk about [00:53:00] Climate Pledge is actually working. That’s exactly what Jeff Bezos and Amazon wanted. In addition to that, we’ve now integrated Amazon into the just take out technology is in our other arenas and we’ll be in every other arena I go do because I love grab and go.
And I think it’s fantastic. What they’ve created? No checkout lines, no forming to purchase. You could get in, you could get out and it’s unbelievably driven by technology.
[00:53:25] AJ Maestas: I love it too, but it’s so expensive.
[00:53:27] Tim Leiweke: It’s it’s just awesome. And it’s where there will be a day and time eventually where we’re a hundred percent driven by all of our concession stands by just take out with Amazon. I’m that bullish on that product. But there’s another side and we’re about to announce a new company called Goal. And it’s a sustainability company. And what it is is essentially LEED certification for operations. And we’re gonna teach building stadiums, arenas, theaters, clubs, commercial buildings.
We’re gonna teach everyone how to operate [00:54:00] on an annual basis in a sustainable fashion, and then create a grading sheet that allows people ultimately to come along and grade themselves every year. So they can be accountable to their community, to their customers to their fans and to the earth. And so we’re going to create a system that on an annual basis has real accountability and a real ability to go back and communicate what you’ve been able to do and the progress you’re making every year to go to a more sustainable world.
That’s all driven by Amazon and that partnership we created and how they inspire us. I think that’s the difference is we don’t just put somebody’s name on a roof. We figure out what their mission is and what is driving them. And then we make that part of what we do every day and we eat it and we breathe it.
UBS is our partner and is ingrained in our thinking about how we grow as a company and how Silver Lake grows as a company and how we can develop and generate new clients for [00:55:00] UBS house, including Silver Lake. And so they’ve told us quietly that the majority of the investment they’ve made on naming rights, we’ve already returned back to them in value.
That’s why everyone follows us and joins us because the majority of sponsorships we enter into and the majority of these naming rights, Dan and global partnerships have done, we are driven by accountability because we got 12 more arenas coming. So I wanna walk in the door and be able to have a conversation with Amazon or UBS or American express or Tito’s. We’re one of the largest clients of Tito’s now for vodka and our company, because we’ve ingrained that culture and that product into the way we think about food and beverage.
We bought a food and beverage company so that we have the ability of being smarter about how we ultimately can activate and implement. And so really proud of the fact that I think if you went to any of our major sponsors in any of our building, [00:56:00] It’s not just that we did the deals. It’s that they’re happy.
That to me is more important, which is are we doing what we said we would do. And are we activating for you in a way that makes a difference on your bottom line and your brand? And that’s why a lot of partners keep on coming back with us and growing with us on each new new project. And it’s that competency, that culture and that predictability that give us such great faith that those companies are gonna follow us to Vegas because they know what we’re gonna create there.
And they know the vision and the ambition that will drive us. I think that’s the best thing Dan’s done is not the sales part of it. It’s the implementation part of it.
[00:56:43] AJ Maestas: Well, I’m really impressed by that, zero carbon emissions, you know, Climate Pledge. I’m really grateful that you’re doing that. I think. That our industry hasn’t done enough in that space.
I think that we have a stage and a platform and a megaphone, you know, from which we can share that message. And I actually have an upcoming podcast with an expert on that [00:57:00] subject that will as a sneak peak to that session, it’ll be electrify everything exactly what you did with Climate Pledge Arena.
And I can’t believe you ripped out gas halfway through the project, but that is the kind of commitment it takes to be electric sourced and to all electric and execution on site.
[00:57:16] Tim Leiweke: Hundred percent. So look at what happened this summer and our world look at what happened in Europe and in the UK. Look what happened in Texas and New Mexico.
And, and it used to be, you know, people made it political people used to say, you’re not raking your forest in California. Has nothing to do with that. Go look at England. And what happened here this summer, go look at France and what happened there this summer, it’s not about raking our leaves. Our earth is warming up every year.
Glaciers are melting. Those coastal areas are ultimately going to see a dramatic rise in sea level. That’s a fact, it’s not politics. It’s not red. It’s not blue. If we, as an industry, let’s admit we do one thing, really, we [00:58:00] do a bunch of things well in our industry, one thing I’m proud of with sports and music.
We lead culture on issues that most other people wanna ignore. We do our athletes and our artists are not afraid of, if you think of the very nature of a musician, it’s because they are writing about something that they feel strongly about, that they want to inspire their fans and their listeners. If you think about what it is that these athletes do, they inspire and represent communities.
And if you think about it, they’re one of the few things that put that community name on their chest. Why wouldn’t we take the lead on this? Because yes, we have short term issues today that are going to grab the headlines, but you want a long term issue and it’s a long term issue we can’t ultimately live without it’s called our planet.
And if we don’t figure this out in the next 10 years, We have absolutely failed our kids and our grandkids and their grandkids because we cannot turn it back. After 10 years from now. We [00:59:00] have 10 years to stop this cycle. That’s it. And so today we get caught up in gas, in inflation and cheaper prices, and we suddenly throw sustainability out the window for the moment in order to be able to get past what we need short today, which is cheaper gas.
Well, guess what, that’s gonna come back to haunt us. And so this is the issue of our lifetimes and our kid’s lifetimes and their kid’s lifetimes.. The one thing that the Climate Pledge people taught us the most and it’s ingrained in us now is we got 10 years. That’s it. If we don’t fix this in 10 years, no matter what we do from 2030 on, you will not be able to put this genie back in the bottle.
It won’t happen. It’s over. And that’s telling that we are facing a crisis that we know that is real and predictable. So look, can we single-handedly change climate issues? [01:00:00] No. Can we have conversations like this or what Climate Pledge did and what Amazon did? And what Jeff did is it starts a conversation. And now suddenly we went from a building to a new company with hundreds of buildings that are gonna join us and be accountable on an annual basis on recycling and sustainability and health and wellness for our clients and our customers and our employees.
That’s a good thing that Climate Pledge did. And that’s why we can find these moments with partners and companies, and we could find these opportunities with an arena, like Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, where we can make a massive difference and figure out a way to have that public-private partnership and create a platform that is a good and noble platform for us to go talk to the world about. I like that. Why wouldn’t you get out of bed every day? If you get to go do that. That’s awesome.
[01:00:56] AJ Maestas: Yeah, I agree. This is critical and I couldn’t be more [01:01:00] grateful that you’re using these stadiums and that platform to do so to move that forward. It is so important. So if you don’t mind me going back to your brother, Tod, I just have to know, you know, when he leaves the Chief Operating Officer role at the NFL to come run the Kraken, is this just two brothers texting each other? I mean, is this an inside deal? How did that moment happen?
[01:01:20] Tim Leiweke: So we were involved in Seattle back in my AEG days. So if you think about it, We not only had a, a music office there and had several theaters and we did the music festival up there that was on the Seattle campus.
We actually managed Seattle, the Key Arena. AEG had that contract. And that was kind of me instigating that within our company. And then we had a good, really good relationship with the, the Seattle Sounders and Adrian, the owner. Who’s one of our partners now. And so I introduced Adrian to Joe Roth, Joe Roth to my brother, Tod. And Tod [01:02:00] and Joe Roth put together what is now the MLS team, the Sounders with Adrian who owned the soccer team up there.
And so we helped fix all of that and get that to a point where that that team came into MLS at the time when I was the chairman of the board at MLS. If you think about our impact on the Seahawks, Tod hired the coach, Pete Carroll in my backyard in L.A. because Pete and I had been friends forever. So there has always been a special place in my heart in Seattle.
And then when we started the company, Tod came to me and said, Seattle is the most underdeveloped asset for the NHL and the NBA out of the entire country. You can go get a deal done, go look at that building. So he kind of turned me onto the challenge. And then I spent more money than ever expected and we figured it out.
But when we were in the middle of it, I think the telling point for him [01:03:00] is the day I called him and said, we just sold 10,000 season tickets in about 9 minutes. And he had to go do this because one he’s really one of the most respected leaders in Seattle from his time running all the Paul Allen sports and music assets.
And he had done a great job with both the Seahawks and the Sounders and the Trailblazers. And so I knew he wasn’t gonna, don’t tell Roger I said this, but I knew he wouldn’t stay at the NFL forever because he was probably the only person that didn’t wanna be the commissioner. Right. And so Tod had a different ethic and a different moral compass.
What he loves is owning something and operating something that’s a platform that one can make a difference, two could be successful, and three could be done it in a way where the culture moves communities. And if you look at what he’s done up there, the diversity of that organization, [01:04:00] the commitment towards sustainability, the guts we had to privatize the building, the outreach and the 20 to 30 million dollars we’ve now generated back into charity. Mr. Bonderman and the owners just agreed to a matching pledge program up there. So similar to what Jeff Vinik does in Tampa Bay, where Jeff’s donated $10 million now to the community, they’re starting that next year with the Kraken. That’s all Tod. He’s really amazing.
He needed to do this because one Seattle needed him. And two there’s no one better at it. And so I think it was a perfect marriage. I hope the marriage last for a very long period of time. And we had the good fortune having him involved with us at OVG, because he’s still my advisor, my best friend and my confidant.
[01:04:47] AJ Maestas: I like hearing you say that. That’s great. You know, in the podcast we did with your brother, he shared quite a bit about your childhood and your upbringing. I don’t mean to push you into the personal realm, but do you [01:05:00] ever pinch yourself? Do you ever sort of ask yourself what in the world’s going on?
I mean, I imagine the wealth creation, you know, that you’ve experienced in the last six years with what you’ve done with Oak View Group and where you came from, the way you guys grew up. I mean, is there something we could share with the next generation person that wants to be the next Tim Leiweke.
[01:05:18] Tim Leiweke: Well, actually, I, I never did OVG for wealth. And in fact, I’ve never pulled a penny out of the company and we put everything right back into the company. It’s one of the reasons I love my partners at Silver Lake, neither of us have pulled a penny out of this company. And yes, we’re making money, but it’s all going back in and it will continue to go back in.
We never did this because I was driven by wealth or the possessions and the trappings of wealth. We did it to build a great company that will last generations, I hope, and to make a difference. I think that’s what Tod and I wanted when you sit here and watch your mom died cancer for five years and fight it.
And that’s what shapes your childhood. And it means he didn’t go to college. I didn’t go to college. [01:06:00] It’s kind of ironic that I’m sitting here with a partnership with the University of Texas and building that arena there. When in fact I never had the chance to go to college. Tod and I were, we were dogs doing a dog paddle in the middle of the lake. We were trying to get to the shore. And college just, wasn’t gonna be part of that swim and we got it. So did it shape who we are? Yes. Does it drive us on a daily basis? A hundred percent. Is it dreaming about wealth because we had none when we were kids? No, neither of us will tell you that. Am I grateful that we sit here in nice offices and I have a company that has 5,000 fantastic employees that gets me up every morning, a hundred percent.
And I thank my mom and my dad and my God every day for that. It is that character and culture that we watch when our mom that ultimately has built what I think we believe in today that has become the culture of OVG or the culture of the Seattle Kraken or the culture and [01:07:00] Climate Pledge Arena. And so that’s what it taught us.
[01:07:03] AJ Maestas: Yeah. Well, I loved the story and I think that it’s not a coincidence, you know, that people are shaped and their values are shaped by moments like that. Losing two mothers in the path of the journey and not getting that opportunity to go to college, but not letting that stop you, not letting that hold you back.
It’s pretty, pretty admirable stuff.
[01:07:19] Tim Leiweke: Well, I will say I watched what goes on at the University of Texas on Friday nights and I’m like, damn, I wish I would’ve gone to college.
[01:07:27] AJ Maestas: Like that would’ve been fun. That looks like a good time. And think about it with Chris Del Conte at the helm, I’m thinking their future is about to get a lot more fun with, with CDC’s leadership.
So if you don’t mind, I’d love to wrap up with just some really quick hitter questions.
Favorite place to travel?
[01:07:42] Tim Leiweke: I just got back from eight cities in Europe and it’s the first time I’ve been to Lisbon. Oh my God. Is that a beautiful city? So, you know, look, every day I get to go travel, no matter where it is, I get to travel to, it’s fascinating to see new places or go back to places like Seattle.
I haven’t been to Seattle in a few months [01:08:00] now and I miss it. So I’d say I got a wide variety of places I get to travel for business and they’re all fun. And I enjoy every one of them.
[01:08:10] AJ Maestas: Well, I see the Hollywood Hills behind you right now in your window. And I’m thinking for a boy from rural Missouri, this is just waking up every day in Los Angeles has to be nice.
What advice would you give to a young person that wants to follow in your footsteps?
[01:08:22] Tim Leiweke: Be driven by your entrepreneurial spirit and don’t let anyone tell you you can’t
[01:08:27] AJ Maestas: And I’d love to know your superpower and by superpower, I mean, what is the key point of differentiation between you and the people that you know, can’t be, won’t be, haven’t had the opportunity to be you.
What is the, what is the one thing?
[01:08:40] Tim Leiweke: Energy enthusiasm, optimism. The most contagious disease in the world is enthusiasm. It’s not COVID and if you have it and you, you wear it every day, it’ll take you to wonderful places and it will allow you to overcome all that you will ultimately encounter that will be negative in your life.
But don’t[01:09:00] especially for the young kids today, because I feel like, you know, you look at the things we’re throwing at ’em now and what social media does to their minds and their wellness. And you look at, you know, when we were kids, we didn’t grow up playing war games with automatic guns and grenades and bombs that we were killing people every day.
We didn’t have any of this. So now you look at all of this and go, God, what have we done here? The influences we surround our kids with. And that’s why I think it’s highly critical that we have to go back to them now and tell them, you have to learn how to be optimistic and you can’t let the dark clouds drag you down because I see more kids troubled today.
I see more of our employees troubled today, and I worry about their, not just their physical wellbeing, but in particular, their mental health. I just think we’ve got to create a new era of optimism. And if you look at our country, We spend all of our time criticizing and all of our time tearing [01:10:00] down the other side, there has to be now the other side, we gotta get rid of that. And we gotta get back to saying we’ve been given a wonderful gift, which is an opportunity to be on this planet and go do something special. And we control that, but we control it with the attitude in which we wake up and approach every day with. And we gotta go teach that to our kids.
We need to make them understand that they do have control to be positive, no matter their surroundings, no matter what life has given them, no matter what bad breaks may come their way, there is an opportunity for them to overcome with optimism and enthusiasm and understanding that entrepreneurial spirit.
And we’ve lost that. And I think we gotta get that back into our culture now.
[01:10:42] AJ Maestas: I appreciate that. Thank you. And thank you for this entire discussion. Honestly, this has been fun. You’re bringing the energy you’re describing right there. So I appreciate you living that yourself personally, before I let you run anything, we missed anything I should have asked you today?
[01:10:57] Tim Leiweke: No, on behalf of the 5,000 employees of OVG, [01:11:00] thank you for keeping me preoccupied for two hours. So they’ve had two hours unencumbered without my energy and my craziness. So good for you, AJ.
[01:11:08] AJ Maestas: Well, I’m super grateful that I gave everyone a break. Let everyone regenerate for a moment before you come back and can pull further.
And I really am super grateful for your time. Again for those listening. This is AJ Maestas with Navigate joined by Tim Leiweke. Thank you again for joining us on Navigating Sports Business. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to us. My email is AJ@NVGT.com. And you can also connect with us on my personal LinkedIn page or the Navigate page.
If you’ve got questions for Tim. Don’t be shy. We’ll pass them on. He’s a pretty generous person. I think he’ll answer those questions.