That’s what’s brought Tim Leiweke, chairman/CEO of Oak View Group , to Toronto in November. Joining us in a boardroom at OVG’s Toronto office in Liberty Village while an Eras Tour pre-party raffles off tickets to the excited sounds of “oohs” and “aahs” in the next room, Leiweke says Taylor Swift Mania represents a pivotal moment for the city and its big and growing live music industry.
As it readies the new arena, which is poised to operate on a scale you’d more often see in Toronto, OVG has been increasing its presence north of the border. It’s conference and festival , and partnering with venues like Rogers Place in Edmonton, Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg and Scotiabank Arena in Toronto as part of its
I’m also a huge fan of Coldplay, and they kind of sometimes get lost in the Swifties. They opened our building at Climate Pledge Arena in 2021, and they’ve been touring ever since. These guys have been on the road for like four years! We have Sir Paul McCartney at our building in Manchester next month, and to me that’s just another incredible story. Here’s this 80-year-old guy and he’s still in phenomenal shape. We have Springsteen doing three nights. He’s 70-something years old.
Toronto is one of the biggest global touring markets and Hamilton is relatively close by. Is that proximity part of the appeal to build there? Michael Bloomberg always used to tell me if you want to see economic development, go out and ultimately be the first one in with a vision and then watch how many people will follow you. So, we privatized all 300 million dollars in Hamilton. That’s an amazing commitment on behalf of our partners and the company. And Live Nation, which is interesting that now they’re jumping into the facility business.Carefully. As you may know, we got dragged into the lawsuit .
Now you come along and you want to whack me? And the question I have is, shouldn’t we be like the gold statue winners for entrepreneurial spirit? All I’ve done is given people choices now on food and beverage companies, or facility management companies, or facility development companies. And I’m competing with all these other people. You . And I’m the dumb schmuck that took them on. I’m the one that went and competed with them. And by the way, I kicked their butt.