Sportpaleis Takes Forest National

Music Hall will retain ownership of the building.

The 8,000-capacity venue built in 1971, once dubbed “the temple of rock,” joins a Sportpaleis Group portfolio that already includes Antwerp’s 23,000-capacity Sportpaleis and the same city’s7,500-capacity 

It also has the 15.000-capacity Ethias Arena and 2,000-capacity Ethias Theatre, which are both in Hasselt, home of the country’s Pukkelpop Festival.

The Sportpaleis has just completed a four-year euro 25 million ($34 million) refurbishment, focusing on the roof, balcony, and bleachers.

It also upped the capacity from 18,4000 to 23,000.

“Most important for us is that now we can also serve the French speaking part of Belgium as all of our other venues are situated in the Flemish (northern) part of the country,” Sportpaleis Group co-chief exec Jan Van Esbroeck said.

The announcement of the Forest National deal came Sept. 24, when Van Esbroeck and Vereecke announced the schedule for this year’s Night Of The Proms series.

Van Esbroeck and Sportpaleis co-chief exec Jan Vereecke founded the event in 1985. It’s subsequently become the largest annually organised indoor event in Europe.

This year’s NOTP is at Antwerp Sportpaleis Nov. 7-17. Last year’s similarly sized Antwerp run shifted 100,477 tickets.