MSG, Sphere, and Oak View Group Launch New New Venue-Brand Partner Company for Sports and Live Entertainment

Madison Square Garden Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment and Oak View Group have founded Crown Properties Collection (CPC). CPC is a new entity that will, in conjunction with MSG Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment, manage marquee partnerships with sports and entertainment brands and venues worldwide. With this announcement, industry veteran Jay Voelker will join OVG as president to lead CPC.

In what the founders call the first global partnership company of its kind, the OVG-led entity will represent the important brand assets in the sports and live entertainment industry. In addition to being founding partners, MSG Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment will also serve as CPC’s first clients, with CPC overseeing the global partnership and sponsorship representation of all brands and properties across the MSG family of companies, including Sphere (which opens in Las Vegas on September 29), Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, Beacon Theatre, The Chicago Theatre, New York Knicks, New York Rangers, MSG Networks, the Radio City Rockettes and the Christmas Spectacular.

Global partnership sales and strategy will be managed by CPC, while the MSG family of companies will provide expertise and advisory services to CPC, as well as retain partnership activation and fulfillment – leveraging the companies’ well-established track record in successfully developing and executing unique partnerships with the world’s leading brands.

“Crown Properties Collection’s purpose is to provide unprecedented global representation for world-renowned sports and entertainment brands and venues, and there is no greater portfolio to begin with than the MSG family of companies’ world-class assets. I am honored to join OVG, the leading full service live entertainment and hospitality company to represent CPC and create a new model for global partnerships in our industry,” says Jay Voelker.

“The alliance of our two global powerhouses through Crown Properties Collection will revolutionize the partnership space across the sports and entertainment industries,” says David Hopkinson, President and Chief Operating Officer of MSG Sports, who oversees global marketing partnerships across the MSG family of companies. “We’re honored that our iconic brands will be the first to be represented by CPC and that, together, we will be on the forefront of creating game-changing opportunities for our venues, teams, and brands.”

“Under Jay’s leadership, Crown Properties Collection will represent only the most valuable properties in all of sports and entertainment together with the most revolutionary venue in the world, Sphere in Las Vegas. This, along with OVG’s already industry-leading Global Partnerships platform, which has proudly sold $4.5B in partnerships over the last five years, will create the largest partnership of its kind in the live industry and change the game for partnerships as we know it,” says Tim Leiweke, chairman and CEO of OVG.

Before joining the company, Voelker served as senior vice president of business development for the PGA TOUR where he oversaw the TOUR’s global sponsorship business. Voelker will report directly to Leiweke and assume his new role effectively immediately.