Major concert promoters and conference bookers are the latest industries to throw their support behind the Macquarie Point stadium, the world’s largest oval-shaped timber-roofed stadium, with the stadium forecast to return profits of up to $2 million a year from hosting hundreds of year-round events. That is according to James Avery, CEO of Stadiums Tasmania, who spoke to the TPC public hearings in Hobart late last week.
According to Avery, the stadium, which, according to a poll conducted by the ABC, is opposed by 60% of swing voters, has strong business fundementals: “We’re in ongoing discussions … to ensure that we’ve got a strong pipeline of content and events coming in, and our obligation, very clearly, is to maximise the number of events and content and activation year-round,” Avery told the panel. “Sweat the asset, if you like.”
“We think that the model represents a strong cash flow operating performance at a truly multipurpose facility that delivers year-round events across a wide range of sectors. And produces a robust and diverse events calendar that very clearly indicates that this is much more than a stadium for football games.”
New venue could host more than 334 events year-round…
In total, Avery said the stadium would host 334 events each year, including 37 days of live sport and entertainment featuring AFL and Test cricket, 40 major conferences, with over 450 delegates, and 260 non-event day bookings, such as corporate dinners, weddings, university graduations, and other private functions. Avery said the stadium’s calendar also assumed one full stadium concert, and another smaller, “arena” concert each year, as well as community events similar to the MCG’s Pink Lady breast-cancer awareness football match.
Avery said the interest shown in the lucrative business events market had been particularly encouraging for the stadium’s economic prospects. “Interstate data about the appetite to bring events down here is very important information, and we’re getting that from the agencies that book those events across the country,” he said. “Conference organisers are always looking for somewhere new, somewhere different.”
The new flyover offers a new look at Macquarie Point’s stadium.
The TPC hearings, which continue this week, come as the Macquarie Point Development Corporation has unveiled a new walkthrough showing what the new $945 million stadium will look like “under the roof.” The 82-second video, first revealed by Pulse Tasmania last week, opens at a bustling entrance plaza and shows the stadium glowing under an adaptive lighting system that appears to shift colours to suit different events.
The venue, expected to begin construction later this year if approved by the state government, will seat 23,000 spectators, with a 1,500-person conference facility also planned inside. The walkthrough shows capacity crowds at an AFL game before switching to a cricket match and a concert. However, the project is under scrutiny, with concerns that its cost could exceed $1 billion, alongside opposition from various political figures and the Hobart City Council. And while the stadium has the backing of Liberals and Labor, smaller parties like the Greens and the Tasmanian Nationals have gone to the election vowing to scrap it.
- To learn more about Macquarie Point, click here for Wood Central’s special feature, including the full plans for the stadium.
