OVG adds NEC and D.LIVE into its Int. Venue Alliance fold

Article posted by Coliseum, October 1^st, 2019

Image: MJR Group Ltd. / OVG / NEC / D.LIVE

The NEC Group has been included as the second founding member by Oak View Group (OVG) of its International Venue Alliance.

OVG has also added into its fold the Dusseldorf-based D.LIVE group of venues as the latest founding member of its International Venue Alliance.

OVG is the global venue development, advisory and investment company for the sports and live entertainment industries. The company will scout for new commercial partnerships across the organization’s facilities in Birmingham, England.

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Following the inclusion, NEC Group becomes the second founding member of the Alliance, following Silverstone Circuit, home of Formula One and MotoGP’s British Grand Prix events.

The NEC Group’s membership in the Venue Alliance covers the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham, along with its four other venues: the ICC, The Vox, Resorts World Arena and Arena Birmingham.

OVG has taken a leaf out of its successful Arena and Stadium Alliance in North America and the Venue Alliance is based on that. It is an invitation-only partnership of 28 arenas facilitating stand-alone venues to woo global sponsorship opportunities, give a boost to additional events and content and realize efficiencies of scale by buying together.

Sam Piccione III, OVG’s International President, commented, “It’s very exciting to have NEC on board. We’ll be partnering with them as an extension to their talented sales team to find the right naming rights partner for the NEC and Arena Birmingham. We will also help them maximize new and unique commercial opportunities and additional revenue through driving content and leveraging our platform.”

“The NEC Group is a first-class organization with strong leadership and plays a vital role in hosting the very best events in the UK across their portfolio of leading venues. As the Venue Alliance grows, we’ll continue to help our members in areas that are important to them and the overall business, which will extend to everything from ticketing and premium hospitality strategy, event scheduling, and unique sponsorship opportunities,” he further commented.

Sam Piccione III was a speaker at Coliseum Summit EUROPE in London this year.

Phil Mead, Chairman of Arenas and Ticketing at NEC Group, shared, “The NEC Group really recognizes the mutual benefits of the Venue Alliance and will be putting plans in place to work in true partnership from the start.”

“As a first step, we’re looking forward to dovetailing our NEC Group commercial team with the Venue Alliance team to extend the reach and resource applied to commercial rights sales. We are equally optimistic that further value will be added to our events programming through the Venue Alliance,” said confident Mead.

The NEC Group and Silverstone partnerships follow the launch of OVG’s International office in the UK in March; and the announcement of its first European development project – the Santa Giulia arena in Milan.

The Group is all set to declare the growth of the Alliance in the coming weeks and the OVG is also drawing a strategy to work with the City Football Group (CFG) on the likelihood of developing a new facility on land close to the Etihad Stadium, home of English Premier League football club Manchester City.

Coming to D.LIVE, it comprises the 54,000-seat Merkur Spiel-Arena, home of Bundesliga football club Fortuna Düsseldorf, the 13,000-seat, multi-purpose ISS Dome, the 7,500-seat Mitsubishi Electric Halle, the Alltours Kino open-air cinema and the 3,000-seat Castello Dusseldorf.

The German venues become the first continental Europe members of the Alliance and join the bandwagon of Silverstone Circuit, home of the Formula One and MotoGP British Grands Prix, and Birmingham-based NEC Group.

Said Piccione of D.Live making an entry, “As with Silverstone and NEC Group, we’ll be helping D.LIVE venues deliver world-class events, content and corporate partnerships. Dusseldorf is an important city in the live event space and we appreciate their trust and vision to join the OVG International Venue Alliance.”

Michael Brill, Chief Executive of D.LIVE, added, “We offer the most diverse portfolio of live entertainment venues in Germany to agents, promoters, sport federations and producers. Our membership of the International Venue Alliance will ensure we grow our market position and we are looking forward to seeing the success of the Alliance as it develops.”

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