LN Media Circus Reaches Sweden

If Live Nation international chief exec Alan Ridgeway took notice of all that’s being written in the trade papers, he’d likely think his company was leaving all of Europe.

Having rubbished reports in German weekly business magazine Wirtschaftswoch that said LN has given up on Germany, Ridgeway now faces seeing the story repeated in the latest edition of EU Ticket News.

“Live Nation Entertainment Cutting Back in Germany and Sweden,” the ticketing paper’s headline said, saying the Nordic cutbacks are apparent because LN just sold the 1,800-capacity Stockholm Circus.

When the Wirtschaftswoch story broke, Ridgeway told Pollstar what puzzles him most about such reporting is that none of the papers actually called Live Nation to check if their information is true.

In all cases the source of the story is described as an (unnamed) artist manager within the circle of former Live Nation Germany managing director Johannes Wessels.

“If they learned from a similar sort of source that [car rental firm] Hertz was pulling out of Europe, I can’t believe they’d run the story without someone first phoning up Hertz and asking if it was true,” Ridgeway explained.

Rather than signaling any sort of retreat from Sweden, where arch-rival AEG opened and then closed its Stockholm-based operation within three years time, the sale of Circus is no more than a continuation of LN’s strategy of selling off its venues.

Over a year ago it sold its UK theatre holdings to Ambassador Theatre Group for close to £100 million.

Circus may not fit LN’s business model but no doubt the U.S. company will have every opportunity to continue to make good use of the venue, given that the Swedish investors who’ve bought it include three top execs from its Stockholm office.

The EU Ticket News story said the venue had “once again landed in Swedish hands,” but didn’t mention the hands belong to such top Nordic LN execs as Thomas Johansson, Carl Pernow and Staffan Holm.

The fourth member of the syndicate is Palle Gustavsson, who’s been chief exec at the venue since 1993.

“I’m proud to lead Circus forward and now that I’m also included in the ownership it provides an additional incentive to take on the challenges,” Gustavsson said in a statement announcing the sale.

As for Germany, Ridgeway says selling the 20 percent stake in German promoter Marek Lieberberg Konzertagentur to majority shareholder CTS Eventim doesn’t mean LN can’t continue partnering with Lieberberg on its German tours.

The stories about LN leaving the country came in the same week as tickets for Rihanna’s German tour – its latest joint-venture with Lieberberg – were put on sale.

Given that the relationship with Wessels barely lasted six months, LN’s subsequent slow progress in Germany may be down to Ridgeway being cautious about rushing into a new one.