SMG owned METRO RADIO ARENA is now officially in 10th place as one of the world’s busiest venues, ranked by paid attendance figures published by Pollstar magazine; with well over quarter of a million visitors to the venue for the first six months of 2010, this puts them ahead of many world famous venues, moving up one place from 11th since June 2009. Indeed 5 of the top 10 venues listed are based in the UK, and SMG, the world’s largest private venue management company and owner/operator of Metro Radio Arena, have 2 of their UK venues featured in the top 10 ‘venues in the world’, including the Manchester Evening News Arena, the largest in Europe at No 2. We also locally manage The Journal Tyne Theatre and the newly re-furbished Playhouse Whitley Bay based within the North East.
The figures include concerts and all other entertainment shows but do not include exhibitions, conferences and sporting events.
2010 is proving to be yet another superb year for the Arena with the likes of Michael Buble, MAMMA MIA!, Lady GaGa, Rod Stewart and Stereophonics having already performed, and Peter Kay, Lord of the Dance, Paul Weller, Andre Rieu, Arena record holders Scissor Sisters and a further show from Michael Buble plus many more still to come, offering a huge variety.
Paul Tappenden, Metro Radio Arena’s Marketing Director said: ‘We would like to thank our commercial partners and staff for all their hard work, and of course the North East public for their continued support of our venue. Despite slowly increasing ticket prices it proves that they still want to enjoy a great night out and see world class quality shows, even when times are particularly hard, as during the current recession. There’s nothing quite like being there! Recent announcements including shows like Scissor Sisters with tickets costing only £30, and the Pet Shop Boys later this month also from £30 have driven healthy sales, proving that top class live entertainment is still accessible at reasonable prices.”
