Nine months ago, our 2017 SEVT Lifetime Achievement Award winner embarked on yet another chapter in his life. But while the lifetime of achievement isn’t over, the bar is already set so high that Peter Luukko, current chairman of the Arena Alliance for Oak View Group as well as executive chairman of Sunrise Sports Group, was the unanimous choice for this award presented by the University of South Carolina and Venues Today.
He will be both keynote speaker and award recipient at the 20th Sport, Entertainment & Venues Tomorrow conference set for March 22-24, in Columbia, S.C. He has a lifetime of great achievements and is, at the same time, a mentor to many.
Robert Esche, Garden Entertainment, Utica, N.Y., looks at Luukko as a mentor. He recalled Luukko’s visits to the locker room when Esche was playing for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, of which Luukko was president. “He has such a genuine heart,” said Esche. “He would be in the locker room and walking around and would give me advice on how to get into the industry. He’d tell me it was a hockey-friendly business. He knew the type of person I was and straightened me out. Now I’m the owner of Mohawk Valley Garden and a hockey team.”
Luukko spends his days and nights giving advice. As part of Oak View Group, he’s advising the New York Islanders about their best options — a new arena being the expected outcome.
His new career, similar to his old career, is nonstop. Referring to his partners, Irving Azoff and Tim Leiweke in Oak View Group, he said: “Basically over the spring and into the summer, we were on a whirlwind tour to all major arenas to explain to them what the vision was, which is to supplement their bookings. We’re not going to run their buildings. They don’t need our help. But help with bookings, additional sponsorship opportunities that come from the aggregation of buildings that host more than 70 million people, that’s what we do. For some companies it’s too much work to do a one-off in a single city. We will be announcing some major deals soon.”
Meanwhile, he’s also working at Sunrise Sports Entertainment, which entails working with the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League and BB&T Center, Sunrise, Fla. “Your day is you call Dale Tallon, president of hockey ops, and ask him what’s going on, what are you seeing, what do you think? And Kevin Grove on events, Jim Willits in sales, and Matt Caldwell, our president. Then I’m spending a lot of the day on various issues at Oak View, like responding to the RFP in Seattle (KeyArena) and working with the Islanders to develop a strategy on what they will do long term.”
Basically, for OVG, “I’ll be the East Coast guy, Tim is the West Coast guy,” Luukko said. It couldn’t be more perfect because they work so well together. Ask them about each other and this is what you get:
Leiweke on Luukko: “When I was at AEG we would bid and compete against each other, yet we had the most fantastic relationship. We never had cross words, never had a competitive moment and never had a disagreement, ever. I found him to understand that relationships and friendships are forever and disagreements last a minute. So let’s not have any. To this day, Peter and I can tell you that despite the many years we competed and now are proud to work together, we never ever had a bad day with one another. Peter was influential in building SMG, and in building Global Spectrum, not many people in life have that knowledge and experience. What he did with Ed Snider and the Flyers and Wells Fargo Center and the impact in Philly was amazing. He goes down to Florida and helps turn that situation around, which was amazing. And we could not be more proud he is working with us to help shape the future of where we are going with facilities.”
Luukko on Leiweke: “He’s a really, really good, hardworking guy. He’s a good person. He doesn’t want to hurt anybody. He’s a hardworking businessman. He’s relentless. He’s always working, but my experience with Tim is he always listens to what you’re saying. Some people just talk at you. That’s not him. He uses resources. I’m a big fan.”
A LIFETIME OF WINNING
In 1981, Luukko began his career at age 17 as an intern at New Haven (Conn.) Coliseum, and was quickly hired as director of marketing. “My only experience in marketing was at a grocery store,” he said, laughing.
The significance of those early days is that he formed relationships that have served him throughout his career. Steve Lombardi hired him. Luukko was in marketing and Hank Abate (now with Madison Square Garden, New York) was the box office manager. “In 1983, Steve got the job at Providence (R.I.) Civic Center and both Hank and I went with Steve. In 1985, Tony Tavares (legendary team president and SMG head) hired me to go to work at SMI in Philadelphia. I was director of facility administration.”
“Nothing’s changed,” he said with a smile, referring to his current role which is basically director of facilities.
In 1988, SMG (which replaced SMI) had the opportunity to sign up the L.A. Coliseum and Sports Arena. Their partner was MCA Records, run by Irving Azoff. “We won the bid and Tony sent me West. I had the opportunity to work with Dick Shaff (the late manager of Moscone Center, San Francisco, for SMG); it was incredible to get to know Dick. And this is where I got to know Irving. Irving was our partner and I was the day-to-day representative from SMG. I remember calling Irving who, even then, was as powerful an executive in the record industry in L.A. as there could be. I remember calling him up and saying, ‘Who do you want me to report to on the venture?’ and he said, ‘Me,’ with some funny line like don’t you like me?”
Luukko was only 28 at the time, and Azoff introduced him to the powerful people in L.A., a role Tavares also played back in Philly. “Tony was a great mentor in terms of making arena deals and booking shows. We were one of the first people dealing directly with agents and managers. Tony turned those relationships over to me because I was out there. They’ve helped me create all my music relationships. I grew up in sports. I wanted to work for the Boston Bruins. Those guys helped with the music side.”
Luukko’s career is a parade of powerful relationships, many of which were planted in L.A. In fact, Ed Snider was among those L.A. connections, though Luukko ended up working with him in Philadelphia most of his career. The late owner of the Philadelphia Flyers and Wells Fargo Center began working with Tavares, Azoff, Don Webb and Luukko on a deal to keep the NFL’s Raiders in L.A. (Luukko is still working on a deal with the Raiders, only this time it’s to get the Raiders out of Oakland and into Las Vegas. Another example of nothing changes.)
They did keep the Raiders in L.A., but when renovations never materialized, the team eventually moved to Oakland. Luukko counts the late Al Davis, longtime owner of the Raiders, and Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, as friends. “Jones is a brilliant guy,” Luukko said. It is his style to give credit where credit is due and Luukko especially likes sports team owners who are venue oriented like Davis, Jones and Snider.
“A lot of owners are so excited to buy the team, they are more team centric,” Luukko observed. The same is true on the music side, though there are music moguls like Dennis Arfa, Howard Rose and Azoff who “really, really understand the venue side. From their standpoint, they want to deal directly with the real estate owner. They are hands-on people.”
While working with Snider and Davis in L.A., albeit the junior guy on the deal, Luukko was the boots on the ground and he impressed Snider, especially in terms of their mutual love for hockey.
So in 1993, Snider asked Luukko to go run the now defunct Spectrum and get involved with the business of the Flyers. Snider was a one-third owner in SMG, where Luukko worked at the time, a major private management firm. “It was an interesting point for Ed; were we going to build a new building or renovate the Spectrum?” Nothing’s changed. Now it’s an interesting time for the Islanders.
“Something had to stick,” Luukko said, laughing. “It’s not that I’m smart, you just do it enough. It’s like hockey; I’ve been skating my whole life.”
At the time they were leaning toward building Spectrum II, as it was called, but they did want to take one last hard look at renovation. “A renovation is half the price of building a new arena. How close can you get to the economics of a new arena? You have to look at it,” Luukko advised.
In his professional opinion, a lot of the buildings of the 90s, when they started putting in restaurants and clubs and midlevel suites, can be renovated. As every major arena looks into the future now, “I think the answer is going to be renovation.” The problem with the relics of the 70s is the small footprint, thus the demise of icons like Chicago Stadium, Boston Garden and the Spectrum. They simply weren’t big enough to accommodate change.
“In my opinion, the next changes aren’t going to be bricks and mortar. They are going to be the technology,” Luukko said.
Luukko’s respect for Snider grew tenfold when the entrepreneur, from whom he learned so much, basically took out a personal mortgage and put his team and assets on the line to build CoreStates Center (which became Wells Fargo Center).
“He put it all on the line again,” Luukko marveled, referring to Snider’s first big risk establishing the Flyers in the first place and building them a home. “He had to be in his 60s by then. I certainly have a lot of respect for that.”
In 1995, they formed Comcast Spectacor when Comcast wanted them involved in purchasing the Philadelphia 76ers. Comcast wanted to form a regional sports network and Snider had one, PRISM. “Looking to where Brian Roberts has taken that company, it’s mindboggling,” Luukko said of the CEO of Comcast.
In 1998, Snider sold his third interest in SMG and had a two-year noncompete. In 2000, Snider and Luukko started Global Spectrum with Mich Sauers’ Global Facility Services. “Then I hooked up with a dear friend, Kenny Young, and we started Ovations Food Services. Then we became involved with Paciolan [now Spectra Ticketing & Fan Engagement] and did all that. That was Comcast Spectacor Ventures. Ed awarded me sweat equity for putting those companies together.”
Nothing’s changed. Once again, Luukko is participating in building a business, the Oak View Group.
“It’s very similar,” Luukko mused. “Irving and Tim started the venture with James Dolan [MSG} and they got together with me and asked if I’d like to join the band.”
“I’ll never forget, Tim called me when he was in Toronto [Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment] and said, ‘I’ll be leaving and I’ll call you in March,’ and he called me in March.”
“Tim is tireless, it’s endless, it’s great, it’s so much fun.”
Luukko is not prone to hyperbole. He keeps it simple and on point. For OVG, “the idea is to all work tighter to find more stuff.” The not-quite-year-old company is open to vetting new concepts and looking at opportunities, he said.
“We just want more,” Luukko said. “I used to run an arena. We all need more. A good arena manager is afraid of the dark.”
PETER’S WISDOMS
> Get your foot in the door. Don’t be so concerned with finding a specific duty. You’ll find your way.
> Sometimes students don’t realize most of us came from the bottom up and we remember it like it was yesterday. That’s one of the most satisfying parts of my career, helping people. How do you pay an Irving Azoff or Tony Tavares back? You can’t; you pay it forward by helping someone else.
> I was very fortunate moving to L.A. because that got me in the music business. It hadn’t been that long that the music business moved out here. Everything was emerging.
> Return every phone call. Gary Bettman, David Stern, Irving Azoff, they call everyone back every day; I think you can, too.
> You don’t have to take every dollar off the table. If you want to be in business long term, everyone in the deal has to make money.
> Word of mouth is the best advertising and, if you have not been fair in deals, you will have a short career.