AEG Partners With Golden Boy

Anschutz Entertainment Group has acquired shares of Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and will jointly promote boxing events worldwide.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but the agreement makes AEG the second-largest shareholder in Los Angeles-based Golden Boy after De La Hoya, according to a May 8th statement.

"Our new partnership will create so many new synergies from jointly promoting events in their arenas worldwide to exploring new ways to develop successful promotions built around our boxing shows taking place in their facilities," De La Hoya said.

The boxing legend and Golden Boy have worked with AEG since 2000, with AEG hosting a De La Hoya fight as well as other bouts at Los Angeles’ Staples Center and The Home Depot Center. The partnership discussion was furthered once De La Hoya acquired shares in Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo franchise, which AEG owns.

"They are the future of boxing and a company we are proud to be associated with," said AEG president/CEO Tim Leiweke. "We have committed to adding all of our resources and assets to provide additional opportunity to grow Golden Boy into the most dominant promoters and providers of content in boxing."

AEG plans to break ground on a $500 million, 20,000-seat arena behind Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas this summer scheduled for completion in 2010, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

However, the AEG partnership doesn’t mean that Golden Boy will abandon its working relationships in Las Vegas.

"We don’t have an exclusivity deal with them," Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer told the paper. "We did that deliberately because we have longtime partnerships in Las Vegas that we don’t want to see end.

"I have a very close relationship with Richard Sturm of the MGM Grand, and we plan to continue to do business with them."