(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — AEG and O2 Germany have announced a 15-year comprehensive strategic partnership for the planning and implementation of O2 World, a modern, multi-purpose 17,000-capacity arena.
Construction on the facility is scheduled to begin later this year with a completion date set for 2008. In its first three years of operation, over three million visitors are expected to attend over 300 events.
“We said: We will build the arena when we are certain that the company that will give our arena its name, its face, and its spirit, is a partner who will work with us to transform a dream into a specific vision, and from there, a reality. O2 Germany is this partner,” said Timothy J. Leiweke, President and CEO of AEG.
“I view O2’s partnership with AEG as a cutting-edge step for the whole industry, not just for O2. Through our comprehensive alliance, we are assuming a position at the vanguard, which shows that future collaboration between telecommunications companies as content providers and the entertainment industry will be far-reaching and substantive – the benefit of consumers,” Rudolf Gröger, CEO of O2 Germany, explain of his company’s partnership with AEG.
The most significant detail of the $150 million construction project will be a 1,800 square meter LED wall that will transform the front façade into a massive video screen, inviting visitors into the arena. The dimensions of the mammoth video screen will surpass even the largest advertising spaces in New York’s Times Square.
The partnership with O2 will allow AEG to expand into more technologically-advanced fields with arena management, such as early event notices sent to member’s cell phones, pre-purchase privileges, and the ability to download live content from events directly to mobile phones. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
