Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment Announces Willis Group Holdings Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment Announces Willis Group Holdings as a Major Partner of the Barclays Center in BrooklynBusiness WireBROOKLYN, N.Y. -- July 26, 2010Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, a sales and marketing arm of the BarclaysCenter, today announced that Willis Group Holdings plc (NYSE: WSH), the globalinsurance broker, has become a major partner of the planned Barclays Center inBrooklyn.The partnership with Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment marks another boldbranding move for Willis in the U.S. market. The broker, with operationsaround the world, doubled its size in North America with the 2008 acquisitionof Hilb Rogal & Hobbs, and in 2009 significantly increased its global brandawareness by securing the naming rights to the former Sears Tower (now WillisTower) in Chicago. Aligning itself with the Barclays Center, one of the mostimportant new sports and entertainment facilities in America, representsfurther momentum for the Willis brand in New York City and, indeed, everywhereprofessional basketball and other events staged at the arena command worldwideattention.As part of its integrated marketing platform within the arena, the Willisbrand will be displayed prominently as the exclusive sponsor of the BarclaysCenter’s 38 Loge Boxes. The Willis name also will appear in all marketing andadvertising associated with this premium seating, including a significantpresence on Barclayscenter.com.“We are thrilled to become partners with Willis and to help enhance its brandin Brooklyn and throughout New York City,” said Brett Yormark, president andCEO of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment. “The Barclays Center will serve as apowerful catalyst in driving new business to Willis, which has built itsreputation by providing world-class client service and global expertise.Offering unlimited networking opportunities, the Barclays Center will soon berecognized as a place where business gets done.”“Brooklyn is a great global brand that’s reaching new heights with theBarclays Center. The borough has earned a storied place in sports mythology,from the heroics at Ebbets Field to being the birthplace of legends such asVince Lombardi, Joe Torre and Joe Paterno,” said Joe Plumeri, Chairman and CEOof Willis. “Willis helps manage the world’s most complex risks, and we lookforward to both helping the Barclays Center through its multi-facetedconstruction process and, when the arena is opened, to working with MikhailProkhorov, Bruce Ratner, Brett Yormark, Jay-Z and their team to carry JackieRobinson’s legacy forward and bring a new generation of champions to Brooklynand New York.”Willis will provide insurance and risk management services to the BarclaysCenter and will play an integral role as an associate sponsor of the BarclaysCenter Business Alliance, the premier business association for the arena’spartners.“Willis and the Barclays Center are a natural fit,” said Joe Gunn, New YorkRegional Partner for Willis. “Willis is all about challenging the status quoin the insurance industry and advocating fiercely for our clients around theworld. We sense that same energy and excitement in our partnership with theBarclays Center, which will soon take New York and Brooklyn by storm andchange the professional sports and entertainment landscape in this town. Wecouldn’t be more excited about our partnership, or more proud to provide theinsurance and risk management services that will help Barclays Center become areality.”Joshua King, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Willis,said, “Like our deal for the naming rights to Willis Tower in Chicago, ourinvolvement in Brooklyn is part of a strategic marketing program to elevateour brand and connect in a powerful way with clients, prospects and thecommunity at large – here in New York and around the world. We look forward toa great partnership that will benefit all parties as we work together to makeBarclays Center the home of future champions, and at the same time, raise theWillis flag even higher.”In addition to Barclays, the naming rights partner, and Willis, the BarclaysCenter currently has 10 major partners, including: ADT, Cushman & Wakefield,EmblemHealth, MetroPCS, MGM Grand at Foxwoods, Jones Soda, Haier America,Phillips-Van Heusen, Anheuser-Busch, and High Point Solutions.About WillisWillis Group Holdings is a leading global insurance broker. Through itssubsidiaries, Willis develops and delivers professional insurance,reinsurance, risk management, financial and human resource consulting andactuarial services to corporations, public entities and institutions aroundthe world. Willis has more than 400 offices in nearly 120 countries, with aglobal team of approximately 17,000 employees serving clients in virtuallyevery part of the world. Additional information on Willis may be found atwww.willis.com.About Barclays CenterThe state-of-the-art Barclays Center, to be located at Atlantic and FlatbushAvenues, will host more than 200 events annually, including professional andcollegiate sports, concerts, family shows, and NETS Basketball. The arena willoffer 18,000 seats for basketball and up to 19,000 seats for concerts, andwill also have 104 luxury suites, including 15 Brownstone Suites (16 seatseach), 68 Loft Suites (10 seats each), 11 Backstage Suites, six Studio Suites,and four Party Suites. The arena will also include six clubs and restaurants,and the onsite practice facility at the Barclays Center.While construction has been on-going since last fall, a ceremonialgroundbreaking was held in March 2010 to mark the next phase of constructionof the arena, which is expected to open in late spring/early summer 2012.The Barclays Center, designed by the award-winning architectural firms EllerbeBecket and SHoP Architects, will be one of the most intimate seatingconfigurations ever designed into a modern multi-purpose arena, withunparalleled sightlines and first-class amenities.For more information on the Barclays Center log on to www.barclayscenter.com.Contact:Brooklyn Sports & EntertainmentBarry Baum, 917-847-1737orWillis Group HoldingsWill Thoretz, 212-915-8251