SMG Wants To Expand Venue Portfolio In Germany

– König-Pilsener-Arena
The venue in Oberhausen, Germany, has a capacity of 12,718

Henrik Häcker, general manager of the König-Pilsener-Arena in Oberhausen, Germany, said, it was SMG’s “big goal” to expand its portfolio of multi-purpose arenas and conference centers in the country.

“König-Pilsener-Arena is one of the economically most successful arenas in the world. It’s time we thought outside the box and deployed our know how in other cities and regions as well,” he said in an interview published on the arena’s website.

He confirmed that arena operator SMG was in talks with various multi-purpose arenas in Germany, some of them “completely new,” adding that calls for tenders were pending.

Pollstar wanted to know, which venues Häcker had in mind, but did not hear back at press time.

– Henrik Häcker
General manager of König-Pilsener-Arena

Häcker said that König-Pilsener-Arena managed to break its own record for number of events hosted in one year by staging 94 events in 2018. “It’s safe to say that we were able to set an absolute record year for the location of Oberhausen. It will be hard to beat, but we’re doing our best,” he said.

Artists that performed at the 12,718 capacity arena in 2018 include Rod Stewart on Jan. 27, who grossed $1,089,763 with 9,840 tickets sold, according to Pollstar‘s box office data.  The Kelly Family sold 9,583 tickets, grossing $623,859 on March 17. Harry Styles grossed $717,474 with 10,591 tickets sold for his March 24 show.

Helene Fischer played five shows at the arena, Feb. 20-25, selling 46,490 tickets in total for a gross of $4,564,527.  Schlager is still going strong in Germany. “Das Große Schlagerfest” featuring various artists representing the genre sold 8,243 tickets on May 5, grossing $639,543.

Upcoming highlights include the revival of “The Dome” on Nov. 30, one of Germany’s most successful music shows broadcast on TV, which premiered in Oberhausen in 1997, as well as Elton John, who’ll stop at the arena during his mammoth farewell run,  May 12, 2019.

According to Häcker, his team spent the summer grappling with people’s individual sense of security, investing in security personnel, video surveillance, entrance gates with metal detectors as well as bollards around the arena intended to stop heavy vehicles.

Häcker joined König-Pilsener-Arena last year from the exhibition center in Salzburg, Austria.