BEIJING — For Tim Leiweke, president of the Los Angeles sports-marketing company AEG, the race for gold in China begins after the Olympics.
It'll start with selling the naming rights for Wukesong arena, site of the Olympic basketball games. Leiweke thinks the rights can fetch at least $100 million. AEG, which owns Staples Center, Home Depot Center in Carson and the Los Angeles Kings hockey franchise, is a partner with the NBA in operating and managing the 18,000-seat indoor stadium in west Beijing.
But Leiweke has much bigger plans for Wukesong -- and China. He wants to develop and run stadiums throughout the country, filling the venues with sports, concerts and other high-profile events. In Beijing this week, he said AEG planned to spend at least $100 million in China over the next five years, adding that the company would make a more detailed announcement shortly after the Games.
"Our highest priority is Asia," he said, sitting in the lounge at JW Marriott Hotel Beijing, his eyes shifting to an Olympic beach volleyball match on television. "We own a piece of that," the 51-year-old remarked, referring to AEG's stake in the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour. AEG's vast interests include boxer Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions Inc., the O2 arena in London and the Hamburg Freezers hockey team in Germany.
Despite the deep pockets of AEG's billionaire owner, Philip Anschutz, and the company's reputation for hosting world-class sports and entertainment events at its venues, AEG is a relative newcomer to China and is little known in the country.
AEG made a splash in March when it brought its Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team for an exhibition match in Shanghai. And Leiweke has made frequent trips to other Chinese cities, including Nanjing and Qingdao, to lay the groundwork for possible new stadiums there. Even so, AEG has just a dozen staff people in China, one-tenth the number the NBA has.
The NBA is pursuing its own China dreams and is trying to reach a deal with the Chinese Basketball Assn. that would extend its reach in the basketball-crazed nation. (The NBA wouldn't divulge details.)
The NBA and AEG teamed up to help the owner of Wukesong create an American-style stadium, replete with restaurants and VIP suites. Since then, there's been widespread speculation that the pair would expand their partnership to develop and operate as many as a dozen stadiums in China.
