Home (Court) Is Where The Hart(ford) Is: Market Focus

With a modest population of less than 2 million and a stone’s throw (or two-hour drive) from both Boston and New York City, the Hartford-New Haven market still punches above its weight in show count.

“The Connecticut market ranks no. 3 for the most concerts per capita next to Vegas and Nashville, this summer,” says Tom Cantone, president of sports & entertainment worldwide for Mohegan Gaming, which includes the 10,000-capacity Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, about 40 miles east. “Just last week I counted 624 shows at 32 different venues starting this month for the summer. We dominate in that market, but it just shows you the amount of competition and the amount of entertainment that’s being produced just here in our backyard. The concert market here is pretty big.”

This article is part of Pollstar’s monthly Market Focus print feature, which includes additional charts, information and editorial content.

The arena opened in 2001 on the property of Mohegan Sun casino resort, which boasts one of the biggest gaming floors in the U.S., but, as home of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun and with a capacity of 10,000, is unique.

“The difference here is we use a concert-arena model, right? The casino has very little impact here. We share the national average for demographics that go to concerts,” says Cantone ahead of the weekend’s performance from Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. “We’re not a casino showroom filled with players and ticket giveaways. Ours is different. We’re (the) Madison Square Garden in New England.”

With convenient routing between Boston and New York City, the venue is a regular stop for many touring productions, with recent or upcoming shows from Megan Moroney, Halsey, Kane Brown (two nights), Sting, Jonas Brothers, Def Leppard, Tony Hinchcliffe and many others, the arena has received many accolades, including numerous Academy of Country Music awards and last year’s Pollstar Award for Casino Venue of the Year.

While the venue operates apart from the casino, it does benefit from the property, Cantone admits.

“The difference with our venue and a standalone, which is pretty much all the others, is that under one roof, you’ve got it all,” he says. “You’ve got top restaurants, you’ve got a full mall with retail, nightclubs, two hotels, and you have free parking, which to me is a big deal.”

With a built-in hospitality focus, Cantone takes pride in taking care of artists and working with them as they’re coming up, often playing the venue’s 350-capacity Wolf Den venue, with examples like Eric Church “playing to about 40 people” before becoming a superstar country artist playing arenas and stadiums across the world.

“There isn’t a dark weekend now,” Cantone says. “We’re booked every weekend, some mid-weeks. Between all of our concerts, our WNBA team, we’re so busy that we’re constantly ranked either one, two, or three for our size every month.”

In nearby New Haven, home of Yale University and known for offering an affluent blend of New England charm mixed with a cosmopolitan city life, a home-grown, DIY approach has led to the success of a new outdoor venue of a similar capacity, bringing more options for artists and fans in a different setting.

“What we found was the niche of the market that wasn’t being fulfilled,” says Keith Mahler, president of Manic Presents/Premier Concerts, which books or operates local venues including College Street Music Hall in New Haven (2,000 capacity), Space Ballroom in Hamden (295 capacity) and the Westville Music Bowl, a former tennis stadium located on the Yale Athletic Campus that has become an active outdoor concert venue hosting shows into 10,000 capacity.

The former Connecticut Tennis Center, which opened in 1991 as one of the largest tennis stadiums in the country, was converted into a concert venue in 2021, opening with socially distanced shows by Gov’t Mule. After announcing a booking partnership with northeast concert powerhouse Bowery Presents, this summer’s calendar includes Goose, Beck with the Westville Philharmonic, comedian John Mulaney, Haim, and many others.

Some of the venue’s quirks as a tennis venue actually were beneficial when repurposing it for music, Mahler says.

“We had to cut the east side of the venue for our loading docks and ultimately get our stage in there, and we eliminated the entire eastern side of the lower bowl, but remember, as a tennis stadium, the whole place was designed originally for 360 degrees, 15,000 capacity,” Mahler says, which means every seat has a good view of the action. Being built for 15,000 and cutting capacity for concerts means ample bathrooms, parking spaces and concession stands as well.

“It’s really the only true outdoor play in Connecticut,” says Mahler, whose Manic Presents — partnered with Premier Concerts, led by senior talent buyer Mark Nussbaum — books concerts in-house as well. Mahler acknowledges larger venues in the region such as Xfinity Theatre in Hartford and Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater Bridgeport, but both are covered rather than fully open-air, stadium-style venues.

“Westville is really a boutique facility because it’s an intimate play for an artist,” Mahler said, with the venue’s ability to scale from 3,000 to 10,000. “Our backstage facilities are some of the best in the industry. The creature comforts are beyond belief and every artist that comes through can’t wait to come back.”

Upcoming shows include hometown favorites Goose, who were one of the first to play the venue. “We’ve been with them from the beginning,” Mahler says, who says it’s rewarding to be able to grow artists in the region from the club level up to Westville. The venue is owned by the New Haven Center for the Performing Arts, who reached out to Mahler about repurposing the failed tennis stadium before the pandemic. Manic Presents/Premier Concerts serves as the venue’s facility management company, with Bowery as booking partner and in-house, local food and beverage operations.

“We’re so pleased to have Bowery Presents as our booking partner, and Westville has really finally come into its own with the 2025 season and ‘26 is already shaping up nicely with a lot of holds in place,” Mahler adds. “In spite of some of the economic signs, we’re all cautiously optimistic about the economy and what’s going on in America.”