New general manager to lead Lexington’s convention center, opera house and Rupp Arena
A new management company took over operation of Lexington’s convention center, Rupp Arena and the Lexington Opera House on Friday, and the company has named Brian Sipe general manager of the facilities.
Sipe is an employee of Oak View Group Facilities, which is operating Central Bank Center under a five-year management contract approved by the Lexington Center Corp.
Central Bank Center, formerly known as Lexington Center, is comprised of the convention center, Rupp and the opera house and is owned and operated by Lexington Center Corp. Oak View will report to the board of Lexington Center Corp. under the agreement announced last summer.
Lexington Center Corp. executive Bill Owen, who has worked for Lexington Center since 1991 and been president and CEO since 2000, is staying on to oversee the completion of the $300 million expansion project going on at the convention center but will retire effective June 30. Sipe, his replacement, took over Friday as general manager and said he is already “taking on more of the operational role in the complex.”
He said he’s “super excited” about the renovation, which will give the convention center 200,000 square feet of space.
“We’ll be able to bid on a lot more national conventions, fill a lot more hotel rooms, bring a lot more people to our city,” he said.
While Sipe is new to the general manager’s role, he is not new to Central Bank Center. Since April 2019, Sipe has worked as Oak View’s director of booking at Rupp Arena.
“During his tenure, Rupp Arena recorded its fastest sell-out (Luke Combs), the highest gross (Sir Paul McCartney), and had more events on sale in a single year than ever before in Rupp Arena’s 45-year history,” Oak View said in a news release.
“Brian has quickly demonstrated his passion for making Central Bank Center among the must-stop destinations for national touring acts,” Bob Elliston, chairman of Lexington Center Corp., said in a news release. “We are excited to have Brian, and the entire OVG team lead the center to even greater achievements for many years to come.”
In 2018, the Lexington Center Corp. board hired Oak View under a five-year agreement to better market and attract live events to Rupp Arena.
In late August, it was announced that the board had decided to bring Oak View in to manage the entire Central Bank Center. The move was prompted in part by Owen’s decision to retire, as well as the departure of some other senior staff.
“Central Bank Center has been fortunate to have tremendous leadership from Bill Owen and his team for the past two decades,” Elliston said then. “As we prepare for Bill’s retirement in the summer of 2022, the selection of OVG Facilities was the right choice to position the center to achieve even greater heights as our nearly $300 million capital expansion comes online.”
Sipe said Oak View has already helped the center bring in more shows and generated increased revenues. He said he’ll also be working to increase the number of shows at the Lexington Opera House.
“I want to build on the success that we’ve had,” Sipe said.
Current employees of the center are becoming employees of Oak View Group.
“We will be staffing up as our operation returns to normal” and more events return, he said.
Sipe said Central Bank Center has about 60 full-time staff and expects to hire 10 to 15 more over time.
He said the center will also be working to increase its part-time events staff, which Sipe acknowledged has been a challenge coming out of the pandemic.
“It’s a great, fun place to work with a very diverse schedule of events,” he said.
Before joining Oak View, Sipe worked as general manager of the 8,050-seat Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township, Pa. He has also worked as box office manager at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, N.J.; booking and box office manager at the Sovereign Center in Reading, Pa., and general manager at Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington, W.V., according to the news release.
Oak View, founded in 2015, says it “specializes in event programming, venue assessments and security and emergency preparedness” and “is the largest developer of sports and entertainment facilities in the world with $5.3 billion of deployed capital across eight projects.”
As for its management of Rupp Arena and relationship with the University of Kentucky, Sipe said “we’re excited to work with such a great college basketball program.”
He mentioned that the University of Tennessee’s 22,000-seat Thomson-Boling Arena in Knoxville is also an Oak View client. The company has a booking arrangement with the venue.
