BOOKING, EH? Alex Patton started the new role officially in late October. (Courtesy OVG)
Canadian Alliance has 20 charter member venues
Toronto’s Alex Patton, who has more than 15 years booking experience at Live Nation, IMG-Endeavor and The Agency Group, is the new senior director of booking at Oak View Group’s Canadian Alliance, where she will find content opportunities and share information among a slate of Canadian venues.
“A lot of our GMs that are in the managed arenas, they’re running the whole arena, and booking is another thing that’s added to their to-do list,” Patton explains. “So, I wake up every day and I am focused on talking to promoters and managers and agents all day, every day, saying, ‘How can we get more shows? How can we look at your routing to make sure that all of our arenas are working together to clear dates and make sure that we’re not missing out on any opportunities?’” Oak View Group is parent company to VenuesNow.
The Canadian Alliance is an extension of the Arena Alliance, which launched in 2016 shortly after the formation of Oak View Group, with 20 charter member venues including Scotiabank Arena in Toronto and Rogers Arena in Vancouver. Following the Arena Alliance were the Stadium and Theater Alliances.
“We’ve been very protective over the Alliance in terms of who can actually join it,” said Joe Giordano, vice president of OVG Stadium, Arena, and Theatre Alliance. “It’s pretty much high-profile NHL, NBA, major-markets type (venues) in the States, and the Canadian Alliance is no different when you consider the biggest cities in Canada and the NHL profile that most of them have.”
Giordano says the Canadian Alliance will not be splintering into divisions for theatres and stadiums. OVG operates more than 300 venues globally.
OVG opened its Canadian office in Toronto in 2022, to oversee the $200 million overhaul of FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, Ontario and other Canadian interests. They have a staff of three dozen, helmed by president Tom Pistore.
Patton, who will report to Pistore and Giordano, had just started at Oak View Group Canada when VenuesNow was given a walk-through in mid-September of the gutted Hamilton arena, but her appointment was officially announced in late October. “That was my first week,” she said. “I had just come on and I hadn’t even been into the venue yet.”
In her role, Patton says she will work to enhance live event programming with all the arenas that OVG works with across Canada.
“There’s [12] properties that I’ll be helping enhance their live programming and see if we can bring more shows into the market and leverage the opportunity of all those venues working together to tour across Canada,” she said.
“Somebody who’s in Windsor could benefit from us leveraging an artist that we have coming to the new Hamilton arena because I can pull them into the conversation and say ‘Why don’t we hit this market that might not have been on the routing before?’”
According to stats provided to VenuesNow by OVG, of the 12 Canadian venues, five are Alliance members: Edmonton, AB’s, Rogers Place; Winnipeg, MB’s Canada Life Centre; Quebec City, QC’s Videotron Centre; the aforementioned Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, along with the yet-unnamed Hamilton arena.
“We can talk to any promoter or agent,” she said. “A lot of the Alliance arenas have sports tenants in the building that they have to prioritize, so it’s helpful to have somebody out there booking that’s focused on music, comedy, family entertainment.”
Giordano explains the core concept: “We have four pillars of deliverables, or value, that are part of the program: book together, sell together, think together, and buy together.” There’s strength in numbers, which can lead to block-booking multiple venues.
“Partnerships is a huge part of direct ROI, so, selling sponsorships in the buildings with open assets the teams have, we can come in and cover paths and drive revenue directly to the building,” he continues. As for the “thinking,” the team has monthly calls sharing information. “When you work with the best in class, that information is highly sought after, very valuable,” Giordano said.
Patton’s role will include increasing membership to the Canadian Alliance.
“This is the first role and person that they’ve had focused on booking in Canada, so everything that I’m doing is starting at step one,” she said. “Once we get up and running, how can we make sure that we’re bringing more arenas into the fold and really capturing Canada as a market and a landscape for anyone who wants to tour in the arena space?”
Ultimately, Giordano says that the need for the Alliance is no different in Canada than it is for the States.
“These arenas that we brought in, they really weren’t talking to each other a lot. In Canada, there might be a little bit more connectivity because there’s less buildings, but it’s important to profile with some of the bigger ones for the smaller markets,” he says.
“From a partnerships perspective, these brands have different budgets for Canada, so we had to create a division with OVG Canada to really make sure that they can capture those dollars and make sure that we’re growing the pot for everybody.”
