“I’d love for Hamilton to have a PWHL team”: Former MLSE boss Tim Leiweke on turning the Hammer into a mini Toronto

In 2015, you quit your job as CEO of MLSE to found Oak View Group, which builds and runs big venues around the world. Did you miss us? The reality is that MLSE chair Larry Tanenbaum and the board always knew I had intentions of eventually starting my own company. Even though I founded OVG in 2015, I ended up staying at MLSE another two years to help with the transition. My four years there were probably the most fun I’ve had in my career. My wife, Bernadette, and I lived in Yorkville. We loved living in Toronto because of the people, the arts. It was also fun improving the Leafs, Raptors and TFC—and winning trophies. I really like Keith Pelley, the new CEO. You’re going to start seeing many partnerships between OVG and MLSE.

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What exactly is OVG up to these days? Right now, we’re revitalizing the former Copps Coliseum in Hamilton to the tune of $280 million, which is 100 per cent of the costs. So I’m putting my money where my mouth is. We took no tax dollars, no subsidies, and we signed a long-term lease with the city. We’re also going to invest an additional $300 million over the life of the contract to keep the building up to standard. And our general investment in the GTHA will likely go up to $1 billion within 10 years. Between our Canadian headquarters in Liberty Village and our Hamilton office, we have about 100 people working for us. I predict that within four years, we’ll have 1,000 full-time OVG employees in Canada. We’re a Canadian company with Canadian executives, and I’m proud of that.

OVG’s strategy in Hamilton has been to make the venue world class for music, not just sports. Are acoustics and decor enough to attract A-list artists to a smaller city? Will Rihanna play Hamilton over Toronto? Well, Andrea Bocelli’s Hamilton show this coming December is pretty much sold out. Hamilton is part of the Toronto metro area, so I never think of what we do as drawing artists away from the city. OVG and MLSE will be working together to book our arena and Scotiabank Arena. More people in the GTA are moving to Hamilton for affordability. It’s easier to get in and out of Hamilton too, since there’s less traffic. The population of the GTHA is close to 8 million, and when you factor in people from Buffalo and Detroit coming in for shows, it’s even more massive. This market needs a relief valve. There are four arenas in New York, four arenas in Los Angeles. There’s one arena in Toronto. If you live southwest of Toronto, our building in Hamilton will be your building. But I have no interest in the NHL.

Why not? We’ll have a professional hockey team, perhaps from the AHL, playing in our arena, but as I’ve said, MLSE is our partner, and I have personal and financial ties to the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken. I also don’t want to get ahead of commissioner Gary Bettman, who has final say on matters of expansion. Still, we’d love to host a Leafs pre-season game.

Your former boss Larry Tanenbaum now owns the Toronto Tempo. Have you spoken with him about hosting games in Hamilton? Yes, we will offer availability, because Larry’s going to need dates, and my opinion is that that franchise deserves a magnificent building, which is what the Hamilton arena will be. We’ve already got the Toronto Rock, and we’re going to go after UFC, boxing, WWE and NCAA basketball. I would love for us to be the home base for a PWHL team one day. Toronto can’t satisfy all this demand for entertainment with one arena.

I find it odd that an entrepreneur like yourself supported the Rogers takeover of MLSE. You don’t see it as a monopoly? No. When I was CEO, I had the distinct privilege of keeping co-owners Rogers and Bell from beating each other up. I also got along with Larry Tanenbaum, even though I probably drove him crazy with all the changes I wanted. In the process, I forged a good relationship with Edward Rogers. He’s a great owner, and he is of, for and by Toronto. And now, with the Blue Jays, Leafs, Raptors and TFC together as one entity, that will serve Toronto sports fans in a unique way. MLSE now has so many resources to invest in those teams, all privately.

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OVG’s sandbox includes arenas, theatres and conference centres. Are condos and apartments also in your future? We’re not in the condo business, but we partner with companies that are. Developers tend to follow and join our projects. We’ve built districts that connect our buildings to hotels, condos, offices and retail. It’s what we’re trying to do in Hamilton. There are a lot of cranes going up there, and I’m a big fan of the GO train between it and Toronto.

A $280-million investment is a pretty penny. But then I look at arenas like LA’s Intuit Dome, which cost something like $2.5 billion and comes with more than 1,000 toilets. Is that the standard now, and can Toronto compete with that? I’m a friend of Steve Ballmer, who owns that arena as well as the LA Clippers. I’m going to steal some of his ideas. Steve had a particular vision, and I admire him for it. Now look at some of the other arenas being built today. They cost roughly half a billion US dollars. That’s a better analogy to what a brand-new music-first arena would look like if built from scratch. We’re emulating that in Hamilton. The bones of the old Copps Coliseum were great; everything else wasn’t. So you don’t have to spend $2.5 billion on a new arena these days.

Last November, OVG and your partner Loft Entertainment purchased Canadian Music Week and rebranded it Departure Festival. Will you start investing in small and medium-sized venues across the GTA? I ask because our music scene has lost many beloved halls recently. Yes, we’re sniffing at a smaller venue in Hamilton, plus a world-class restaurant in the arena that will be open 24/7. We’re also considering smaller music venues in Toronto, along with Seattle, Austin, Tampa and other cities around the world. Artists like Coldplay filled up theatres before they filled up arenas. It’s important to give emerging artists a place to start. You will see us expand into that sector.

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And what about Trump and his tariffs? Has he affected your bottom line? He has. The good news in Hamilton is that 95 per cent of our project was bought before tariffs hit. I do think there’s a method to his madness, and this will all pass at some point. But I stay out of politics, and I won’t tell you who I voted for.

OVG is loud and proud about DEI. Are you facing pressure from your peers—and even Washington—to axe your programs? Look, there are things about the Trump administration that I support. I agree with it on borders: we have to figure out a long-term immigration policy. We also need to think about drugs flowing into the States. He’s doing things that have to be done, and I get that. He’ll get to the right place on tariffs eventually. But there are other things he does that I don’t agree with, like his position on the environment. I happen to think the earth is on fire. Diversity is also important to me, and I don’t see it as a political issue. I have 70,000 employees, and 125 million customers go through my facilities every year. I want all of them to feel like OVG is a mirror image of them.

As an American who has lived and worked all over the States, what has your time in Toronto taught you? I absolutely adore Canada and what it stands for. There is not another country with a better quality of life. Toronto was a wonderful place for my family to live. My grandkids are dual citizens. My wife and I are currently working on being Canadians for life. What always amazed us about the city was that everyone was kind.

Any shining examples? In 2013, I volunteered with Covenant House and slept outside in the cold to raise awareness about homelessness. Former police chief Bill Blair did too. Later, he offered to take me on a tour of Toronto’s tough neighbourhoods. Halfway through the trip, I asked him when we would get to those tough neighbourhoods. Some of those areas felt like the average Dairy Queen in LA—they didn’t feel tough! You don’t have the anger in Toronto and Canada, unlike America. It’s a clean city that values the outdoors and the lake. When you live in Toronto, you’re proud. You’re happy.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.