Oak View Group in New York today announced the creation of its national Theater Alliance, with an inaugural roster of 39 marque theaters and performing arts venues in 18 markets across North America, including the Fox Theatre in downtown Detroit.
Members of the alliance will benefit from collective buying power, routing of non-traditional content, sponsorship opportunities, industry best practices and resources, and shared proceeds from an annual fundraising gala.
Oak View Group, a global venue development, advisory, and investment company for the sports and live entertainment industries, announced the inaugural members of the Theater Alliance at the Association for Performing Arts Professionals conference Opening Plenary Session today. Members include:
- ACL Live at the Moody Center (Austin, Texas)
- AT&T Performing Arts Center (Dallas)
- Beacon Theater, Hulu Theater at MSG, and Radio City Music Hall (New York)
- Boch Center (Boston)
- The Chicago Theater (Chicago)
- First Interstate Center (Spokane, Wash.)
- Fox Theatre (Detroit)
- Kimmel Center (Philadelphia)
- Loew’s Jersey Theater – opening 2025 (Jersey City, N.J.)
- Pabst Theater Group (Milwaukee)
- Paramount Theatre (Denver)
- Paramount Theatre (Oakland, Calif.)
- Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (Pittsburgh)
- Portland’5 Centers for the Arts (Portland, Ore.)
- Ryman Auditorium & Grand Ole Opry (Nashville, Tenn.)
- Segerstrom Center for the Arts (Costa Mesa, Calif.)
- Stifel Theatre (St. Louis)
- Tulsa Performing Arts Center (Tulsa)
The Fox Theatre, which was designed by C. Howard Crane and opened in 1928, offers more than 5,000 seats. The venue is part of 313 Presents, a live entertainment company that promotes and produces concerts, theatrical productions, sporting events, and family shows at the Fox Theatre, Comerica Park, Little Caesars Arena, Pine Knob Music Theatre, Meadow Brook Amphitheatre, and Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre.
“313 Presents is proud to be an inaugural member of the OVG Theater Alliance,” says Howard Handler, president of 313 Presents in Detroit, a joint venture between Ilitch Sports + Entertainment and Pistons Sports and Entertainment.
“The Fox Theatre, Detroit’s crown jewel, is a destination for everyone within our community. This alliance provides opportunities for us to share and learn best practices from other iconic theatres around the country and to deliver even more to artists, tours, and our guests.”
To give member theaters and performing arts centers a competitive edge within their markets, the Theater Alliance will help drive unique, exclusive, and traditionally mainstream content to its member venues; for example, intimate acoustic performances by some of the top names in entertainment.
Oak View Group has hired music industry professional Noël Mirhadi as director of the Theater Alliance, who is tasked with building, launching, and growing the group. A longtime music agent, most recently at United Talent Agency (UTA), Mirhadi has spent her career focused on booking Adult Contemporary artists into venues nationwide.
She brings a depth of knowledge and relationships as an expert in the world of performing arts and seated theaters. Additionally, she brings experience in the brand partnerships division, having paired UTA clients with top brands, products, and platforms. She previously worked in the Performing Arts divisions of APA and The Agency Group, which was acquired by UTA in 2015.
“Theaters serve as the heartbeat of their community. I understand and appreciate this sentiment having started as a musician and having gone on to dedicate my professional life and career to music and the arts,” Mirhadi says.
“I’m thrilled to have joined Oak View Group as we create and launch our new Theater Alliance, which will support these critically important institutions and help them continue to thrive. We’ve put together a collective of premier venues that operate in strong markets and within even stronger communities. The Alliance will allow us to tangibly support their continued growth and success.”
The Theater Alliance is modeled after Oak View Group’s Arena & Stadium Alliance, a collection of the top 38 venues in North America that provides a united platform for booking, content development, procurement, and sponsorship sales opportunities.
“The demand for the Theater Alliance was certainly amplified coming out of the pandemic,” says Joe Giordano, OVG vice president overseeing the Theater Alliance and Arena and Stadium Alliance. “Performing arts venues across the nation, which are traditionally costly to operate, all face similar challenges.
“The Alliance, under Noël’s outstanding leadership, is eager to continue building the network of top venues in first tier markets to help them meet and exceed their programming and budgetary goals, and bring opportunities to the table that they didn’t even know were possible.”
The Theater Alliance is another way Oak View Group serves the industry, says Chris Granger, president of OVG360, a division of Oak View Group.
“These theaters represent the best of the best,” Granger says. “They are committed to work in concert not only to improve their operations and overall guest experience, but, perhaps more importantly, to creatively elevate the arts and attract a new generation of theatergoers from within their communities …. because we are all better when the arts thrive.”
For more information about the Theater Alliance, visit OVG Theater Alliance.
Oak View Group is a global sports and entertainment company founded by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff in 2015. For more information, visit OakViewGroup.com.
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