The Leadership Letter

Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.

Paying for Exclusion: When Access Is the Real Asset

The most valuable thing you can own isn't the venue — it's the right to keep your competitor out of it.

Brian Smith (Live Nation): AEG has the Ben Platt tour. AEG are asking to come into the venue during our time frame. I want to say we don't work with AEG here as this will then allow them to include The Bowl when they are making a pitch to a potential client. On the other hand, this is a sold out show during a traditionally slow time frame at the Bowl. LAPA described AEG as a content provider NOT a co-promoter. It feels like it could be a can of worms for us to even buy this show.

Andy Hewitt: The bowl has been off limits to AEG during our season. We have paid a premium for the bowl to keep AEG from having access within our season. It seems like LAPA has come up with a way to have a huge guarantee from us and allow AEG in their time period. I think we should discuss in our negotiations with them.

Colin Lewis (Live Nation): All good, completely agree with you, no AEG under any circumstances.

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Court Exhibit
United States v. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. & Ticketmaster L.L.C.
1:24-cv-03973 (NYSD), Doc. 1276-2, filed 2026-03-20
March 23, 2021
Public domain
View the primary source →