Sound & Vision: Q’s With Tim Leiweke On Co-op Live’s Opening

No matter who you speak with about Manchester’s Co-op Live, from the architects to the bookers to the sponsors to the construction firm, they all refer back to the vision and leadership of Tim Leiweke, chairman & CEO of Oak View Group (Pollstar and VenuesNow’s parent company). Since early into OVG’s inception, Leiweke has had his sights set on a new state-of-the-art arena for Manchester. Now, with the building set to open in mere days, we spoke with Leiweke about his vision and how everybody working on the mammoth Co-op Live project executed at the highest levels. Here, too, he discusses his love for the UK and the venue revolution on the horizon.

Pollstar: Can you describe the vision you had of Co-op Live, when it came to you, and what’s going through your head so close to the building’s opening?
Tim Leiweke: Well, it may be just that I’m stubborn. It goes back to the days when we were building AEG and The O2 in London. I was always fascinated that even when The O2 opened, the Manchester building would be neck and neck with The O2 on tickets sold. Then I started spending time in Manchester and began to understand: Manchester is the cultural capital and a central capital of the northern UK. If you look at arenas, and the north of the UK, from Dublin to Liverpool to Newcastle, they don’t have a big arena. They all gravitated to the AO, back in the day, The MEN [Manchester Evening News Arena] as I knew it.

The fact that you had an [aging] building doing the kind of ticket sales it was doing, that spoke about what a great music market Manchester is, its culture and history, the artists that have come from there. It’s an amazing market. We knew it was going to be a very early-stage high priority for our company. We also made a bet that we would build an arena that would ultimately be the most expensive, most sophisticated, most advanced, and most revolutionary arena built internationally anywhere. And, as it turns out, that’s exactly what happened. We love the market, we love the history of Manchester. We love what the market has traditionally done in ticket sales. And guess what? Our ticket sales today absolutely prove that point, and the number of events we’re going to do in our first year is stunning.

With a project as complex as building an arena, especially as cutting-edge as Co-op Live, how do you make sure the many partners, contractors and subcontractors are aligned on the initial vision, and are working toward the same goal?
We have one of the world’s great partners in City Football Group. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Ferran [Soriano], and Marty [Martin Edelman] at City Football Group most of my adult life. I have great admiration for City Football Group, what they’ve built, and their brilliance as an organization both on and off the pitch. To have them as a partner, to be a part of the Etihad Campus, is phenomenal.

Secondly, we got Harry Styles, who’s obviously part of the Azoff management family. I not only have a huge amount of respect for Harry as an artist, and one of the biggest-selling artists of this era, but as a very intelligent, thoughtful business person. He’s from Manchester, and feels strongly about what we’re doing there. It gives you a lot of comfort that Harry has lent his vision, ideas, and creativity to the things he cares about, in particular the artist compound, the acoustics, the fan experience, the loading dock and the bowl. He’s given us a lot of feedback.

Then, from Mayor Andy Burnham to the head of the Council, Bev Craig, they’ve been phenomenal in their partnership with us. They are, for example, equally passionate and committed about sustainability as we are. This is the most sustainable building ever built anywhere outside the U.S. We believe it’ll be the second carbon-neutral arena built after Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena.

So, we’ve had good partners, good leadership and a great community. That doesn’t mean we haven’t had hurdles, we have, but the team did a great job.

Can you talk about partnering with Populous on Co-op Live’s design?
We’re blessed. I challenged Declan [Sharkey] out of the London office to reinvent the industry. We talked about what we’ve learned from the Forum, the Sphere, the Garden, Climate Pledge, Moody Center. Between our partnership with the Garden, and the buildings we own, Declan had an enormous amount of information and experiences he could lean against, to do what he ended up doing, which is a revolutionary design that’s going to change the industry – from the 23,500-seat bowl to a floor capacity that gets close to 10,000 to the intimacy of the bowl as it relates to music to the acoustical treatment, which is the single most acoustically-driven installation I’ve seen in any arena anywhere. Only Sphere ultimately has the kind of acoustical build out that we put into this building. It’s absolutely stunningly remarkable. The way Declan and Populous thought through our premium space, back-of-house space, loading dock — I’m really grateful to them.

Finally, BAM, our contractor. They have had probably the biggest bumps in the road within this process, yet, they persevered. I’m absolutely astounded by the work they’ve done, their eye for detail. The quality craftsmanship of the finishes in this building are some of the finest I’ve seen in my career. What I love about our construction workers is how proud they are of this building. They know they’re building the greatest international building ever built. They know they’re building the most expensive arena ever built outside of the U.S. So their pride, their commitment to quality has been unbelievable. We overcame COVID, Brexit, and the fact that it’s harder to get the trade and the craftsmen we needed. Somehow, BAM got through all of that, and will get us to the finish line. I’m extremely grateful and proud of BAM.

Co-op Live marks a full circle moment in your career — coming back to the UK after opening the world’s busiest arena, and now being on the brink of doing it again. Can you talk about what makes Co-op Live a special venue for you?
I have had a very good relationship with the UK for many years. Converting the Millennium Dome into The O2 Arena was a dream, an ambition, and the very entrepreneurial spirit that drove Phil Anschutz, AEG, and myself. Being a part of that, driving that facility, it’s hard not to fall in love with the UK. London is the most important city in the world. Manchester reminds me an awful lot of places like Seattle and Austin. I love the people in the UK, I love the respect they gave us, I love the fact we had a good reputation and relationship with the various folks, so they knew coming in what we were capable of. I love being there. I’m moving there for two months to help get the building opened.

I love the crew we put together, from Jessica [Koravos] to Mark [Donnelly] and Sam [Piccione], and that these are all people that worked for me in a previous life, and all came back and wanted to be a part of this journey. They feel very passionate about it, and they’ve all done a great job. So to me, it’s home. I joke that I’m going to find a country estate, hopefully be anointed Sir, and settle down there with my dog. I find it to be a wonderful country with wonderful people. I have huge respect for 3,000 years of history that we can all learn from. It’s a great place for us as a company to invest.

It’s not our only investment. We bought Rhubarb last year, which is one of the largest catering hospitality event companies based in London, operators of the Sky Garden. There’s more coming from us. We’re looking at other investments in the UK. We have thousands of employees based in the UK. I think that number will be close to 5,000 employees by the end of this year. This is a special place.

Speaking to Europe’s promoters, most would welcome more music-focused buildings, where sports isn’t going to disrupt avails. How much of a blueprint is Co-op Live for your upcoming plans?
It goes back to great partners that believe in the vision to begin with, i.e. Co-op, and the fact they jumped in early on. We not only created a great naming rights and branding relationship, but the early on-sale has pushed Co-op Live to sell just as many tickets as The O2 in early on-sales. But we also have Simon Moran and Denis Desmond, they’re equity partners in the building, and they have been spiritual partners, advisors, and leaders, not just on Co-op Live and what it should look like, but how to continue to build this out, because there is a huge demand. Music has never been more popular. The live music experience has never been bigger and never better.

But if you look at the new venues built in the UK, in Europe, you can literally rattle them off on one hand, shockingly. The UK is the number-two market in the world for live experiences, but there are no new significant arenas being built. Italy, France — same thing. And if you look at the arena that ultimately gets all of the content and all of the bookings, it’s old. So, this is the beginning of a revolution. The way we design this building, the experiences we create in the building, the way we treat people, the food we serve — Rhubarb helping us with the premium and the catering will be a revolution for Europe and the UK. This building is going to create a whole new level of expectation for both artists and their fans when they go to a live experience. And there are 20 places in Europe in the UK that need new arenas. We’re very fortunate that the best promoters in the UK are my partners. Stuart Galbraith has also been fantastic at helping and advising us.

A lot of our corporate partners want us to take this vision and now emulate this in other markets in Europe. And we have an industry and an artist base that’s exploding. We’ve been outspoken about London, but there’s another half dozen arenas you’re going to hear about by the end of the calendar year that we’re going to build in Europe and the UK.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I’m told we’re going to be at about 60,000 employees in this company by the time we open this building. I’m grateful for the passion that the 60,000 employees have for their company, grateful for the passion that our partners bring to the table, and unbelievably grateful to Manchester for the support they’ve given us before we even opened the doors. We’re not going to disappoint them. The building’s stunning and we have some massive surprises coming as we continue to roll out what will be probably one of the greatest first years of entertainment that any new building in any marketplace has ever seen. We’re highly grateful that they allow us to be a part of this community and we won’t let them down.