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Connie Bruck's profile of Philip Anschutz, Tim Leiweke and their empire in downtown Los Angeles — Staples Center, L.A. Live, the Los Angeles Kings, the proposed Farmers Field football stadium and more — is behind the magazine's pay wall. It's about time the Anschutz story — the story of L.A. most's unknown power player — gets freshened up, so let's hope Bruck accomplished that. Here's a snippet from the online abstract of the article in Monday's issue.
Leiweke, the president and C.E.O. of A.E.G., likes to show off the view from his office window in downtown Los Angeles. Fifteen years ago, the area was an urban wasteland. Now Leiweke can point to Staples Center, a twenty-thousand-seat arena, and to L.A. Live, a bustling entertainment district, which are almost entirely owned by A.E.G. Beneath flashing billboards advertising L.A. Live sponsors like Coca-Cola and Toyota, there are dozens of restaurants, a J.W. Marriott/Ritz-Carlton Hotel, the Nokia Theatre, the Grammy Museum, and a multiplex Regal Cinema. Across the plaza from Leiweke’s office window is the entrance to Staples Center, home to the Lakers (partly owned by Anschutz, the chairman of A.E.G.) and the Kings (majority-owned by A.E.G.).Anschutz, who is seventy-two, owns A.E.G. and has an estimated net worth of seven billion dollars, according to Forbes. He has made his fortune in oil and gas, real estate, railroads, telecommunications, and sports and entertainment. He is one of the largest landowners in the U.S., and his empire of more than a hundred and fifty companies, nearly all privately held, is worldwide. Anschutz, who lives in Denver, is intensely private and does little to publicize his ownership of A.E.G. or any of his other business activities....
Anschutz has pledged to spend more than a billion dollars to build the stadium, but he and Leiweke must reach a deal both with the N.F.L. and with one or two teams to move to L.A. Describes how Leiweke came to work for Anschutz. Tells about a number of Anschutz’s current and former businesses, including Regal Entertainment Group, Qwest Communications International, and his movie-production companies, Bristol Bay Productions and Walden Media. Also tells about those who oppose the construction of the new stadium by A.E.G.