NEC Group partners with Oak View Group

Oak View Group (OVG), the global venue development, advisory and investment company for the sports and live entertainment industries, has welcomed NEC Group in Birmingham to its International Venue Alliance. NEC Group Birmingham becomes the second founding member of the Alliance, following Silverstone Circuit.

The NEC Group’s membership in the Venue Alliance covers the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, along with the four other venues: the ICC, The Vox, Resorts World Arena and Arena Birmingham. The partnership will focus on helping the NEC drive new commercial partnerships across the venues.

The Venue Alliance is modelled on OVG’s highly successful Arena and Stadium Alliance in North America, which is an invitation-only partnership of 28 arenas which enables independent venues to attract global sponsorship opportunities, drive additional events and content, and achieve efficiencies of scale by buying together.

Commenting on the partnership, Sam Piccione, OVG’s International President said: “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 maximise new and unique commercial opportunities and additional revenue through driving content and leveraging our platform. The NEC Group is a 1^st class organisation 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.”

Phil Mead, Chairman Arenas and Ticketing, NEC Group, said: “The NEC Group really recognises 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.” 

The partnerships follow the launch of OVG’s International office in March; the announcement of its first European development project - the Santa Giulia arena in Milan; and the announcement that OVG is to begin public consultation on the construction of a new arena in Manchester. The Group plans to make further announcement around the growth of the Alliance in the coming weeks.