Anschutz Entertainment Group

The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), also known as AEG Worldwide, is an American global sporting and music entertainment presenter and a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation. It is the world's largest owner of sports teams and sports events. Under the AEG Presents brand, it is the world's second-largest presenter of live music and entertainment events, after Live Nation. AEG Presents was founded in 2002 as AEG Live. Overview AEG owns and operates a variety of venues, sport teams, and entertainment concerns. For venues, AEG owns and operates Crypto.com Arena and Dignity Health Sports Park, and managed the XL Center and Rentschler Field. In England, it operates The O2 which includes a 20,000 capacity arena. As part of the development of the O2, Anschutz also purchased the London river service company Thames Clippers, and supported the development of the nearby David Beckham Academy (which also had a branch at the Home Depot Center). The company had its headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles. In sports teams, the company owns the Los Angeles Galaxy, 50% of the Los Angeles Kings, Ontario Reign, Eisbären Berlin with Berlin Mercedes-Benz Arena, 23.5% of Hammarby IF, as well as interests in the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Sparks. AEG also owned Hamburg Freezers before ceasing its existence in 2016. 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 stadiums in which these teams play to host various other entertainment events, most notably concerts. Philip Anschutz created the company by buying up several small local promoters in Los Angeles in order to fill up the schedule for his new sports venue, Staples Center. These included ConcertsWest and Goldenvoice, which had been founded by Gary Tovar, and promotes the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. AEG was the second-largest event promoter in the United States. AEG Presents, previously AEG Live, came to international public attention in 2009 when it acted as the promoter for Michael Jackson's This Is It concerts. Jackson died just three weeks before the series of 50 concerts were due to begin.