Overview
AEG owns and operates the Staples Center and the Home Depot Center, and manages the XL Center, the Rose Garden, and Rentschler Field. In England, it owns the Manchester Arena, and currently operates the The O2 which includes a 20,000 capacity arena. In Turkey, AEG operates 13,800 capacity Ulker Sports Arena and Galatasaray S.K.'s new home ground 52,695 capacity Turk Telekom Arena. As part of the development of the O2, Anschutz also purchased the London river service company Thames Clipper, and supported the development of the nearby David Beckham Academy (which also has a branch at the Home Depot Center). The company has its headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles.
The company owns the Los Angeles Galaxy, 50% of the Houston Dynamo, 50% of the Los Angeles Kings, Ontario Reign, Manchester Monarchs, Eisbären Berlin with Berlin O2 World Ice-Arena, Hamburg Freezers, 49% of Hammarby IF Fotboll, as well as interests in the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Sparks, Hartford Colonials and Reading Royals. The company also purchased the Champions on Ice figure skating tour in 2006, and own 12% of Djurgårdens IF Hockey. The company makes a significant amount of its money by leveraging its sports interests, already significant earners, by using the stadia in which these teams play to host various other entertainment events, most notably concerts. Indeed, Philip Anschutz created the company by buying up several small local promoters in Los Angeles including ConcertsWest and Goldenvoice, promoter of the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in order to fill up the schedule for his new sports venue, Staples Center. It is now the second-largest event promoter in the United States.
AEG Live came to international public attention in 2009 when it acted as the promoter for Michael Jackson's This Is It tour. Jackson died just three weeks before the series of 50 concerts were due to begin. Members of Jackson's family have said that they would like to see an investigation, in general, into the role of AEG Live in the final weeks of his life, and also, in particular, into the role of the personal advisers and representatives whom they believe the promoters put in place for him.
On September 18, 2012, The Anschutz Corporation announced its intent to sell Anschutz Entertainment Group and its holdings. The company has retained financial advisors Blackstone Advisory Partners to assist in AEG's sale process. There has been some concerns about the sale as AEG was instrumental in the development of Farmers Field, a proposed football stadium in Downtown Los Angeles intended to attract an NFL team to the city (which has been without an NFL team since the Los Angeles Rams relocated to St. Louis, Missouri and the Los Angeles Raiders relocated to Oakland, California, both respectively in 1995), approval to begin construction of Farmers Field in 2013 for a 2016 completion was in the process of being finalized at the time that AEG's sale was announced.
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