Live Nation To Exclusively Book San Diego’s Soma

Courtesy of Live Nation – Soma
Live Nation announced an exclusive booking deal with San Diego venue Soma on Tuesday.

Live Nation announced an exclusive booking deal with San Diego venue Soma on Tuesday.

“Soma’s 2,300 capacity is a perfect fit for us in San Diego,” said Ben Weeden, COO of Live Nation’s clubs and theaters division, in a statement.

“The city is a vibrant music market with a population base that we think is underserved at this size,” continued Weeden. “Many of the shows playing similar-sized venues in SoCal, such as the Palladium, Wilter and House of Blues Anaheim, currently skip San Diego; so the fans there are missing out on amazing shows.”

Recent sellouts at the venue include Flatbush Zombies, who grossed $56,350 in June 2018, and “You Are Going to Hate This Fest,” a February 2018 pop-punk event featuring Diet Cig, Jeff Rosenstock and more that grossed $57,075.

Live Nation’s Soma deal follows several other Southern California booking partnerships the live music behemoth has entered into in recent months.

Last December, Live Nation announced a deal with Ventura County’s Majestic Ventura Theater. That same month, Live Nation unveiled an exclusive booking agreement with the Observatory clubs in Santa Ana and San Diego – before acquiring those two venues outright earlier this month.

“To give you some perspective, in the last year alone, we’ve added 10 venues, which is just an incredible number,” Rob Bension, president of Live Nation’s rapidly expanding clubs and theaters division, told Pollstar in December. “I think we’ve kind of reinvented the service aspect of this business. We really have focused our energies on not only building the best-in-class venues but providing the best-in-class fan and band service.”

The Soma deal is just one element of Live Nation’s bolstered San Diego strategy. In March, the company announced a three-year deal with the San Diego Padres and PETCO Park to book eight concerts annual at the Park at the Park, the three-acre green space behind centerfield.