Asia: K-Pop Arena Breaks Ground, Streaming Still Big In Japan

CJ LiveCity Arena.
Business Wire – CJ LiveCity Arena.
said to be the first K-pop dedicated arena.

K-Pop Arena Under Construction

South Korea’s first arena dedicated to K-pop concerts started construction on October 27, according to the Joongang Daily. The CJ LiveCity Arena in Goyang, Gyeonggi, is schedule to open for business in 2024 with 20,000 indoor seats and an outdoor capacity of 40,000. The arena will be owned by a subsidiary of the giant South Korean entertainment company CJ Group, and will cover some 326,000 square meters, or 80 acres, altogether, comprising an arena, a hotel, offices for content creators and attractions aimed at fans of Korean TV dramas and movies. CJ LiveCity was set up in 2015 to build the arena and is 90 percent owned by CJ ENM, with the remaining 10 percent owned by minority shareholders. 
In a statement released to the media, CJ LiveCity said that presently there is no venue in the country that is “specifically designed to hold major music concerts. To embrace audiences of more than 10,000, K-pop artists had to use sports facilities,” like the Olympic Stadium south of Seoul. Consequently, it was also difficult for Korea to attract major global superstars without such a dedicated arena. The international entertainment company, AEG, is said to be one of the prime investors, though the stake has yet to be divulged.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, the mayor of Goyang said that Korean pop culture, now the toast of the world, should be used for more than just raising Korea’s profile and should be generating positive economic effects. The cost to build the complex is reported to top $1.5 billion. CJ LiveCity expects 20 million visitors a year and annual revenues of $1.3 billion. 
Continuing The Stream
Although some COVID restrictions are easing in Japan, some promoters and entertainment companies continue to offer music fans alternatives to live, in-person concerts. 
One company offers hotel rooms overlooking Tokyo Dome, the city’s biggest concert venue, that come with video projection facilities that show guests videos of their favorite artists’ concerts and supply them with penlights that they can wave in the air as if attending a real concert. 
The service, called the “oshikatsu overnight stay plan,” has been so popular since it was launched in July that it continues to book plans for the end of the year despite the fact that the government has eased attendance restrictions and concerts have started happening again. Normally, the hotel is booked up full with fans when certain artists play Tokyo Dome, but since the pandemic started the hotel has seen revenues fall, that is, until July when the new service started.