Ed Sheeran First For New Perth Stadium

Ed Sheeran will apparently be the first music act to play the new, 60,000-seat  in Australia March 3. 

Ed Sheeran
Owen Sweeney / Invision / AP
– Ed Sheeran
Mann Center For Performing Arts, Philadelphia, Pa.

It’ll be the first stop of his tour down under, which includes seven stadium dates through Australia and New Zealand for Frontier Touring.

Despite delays in the construction of the billion-dollar stadium, the West Australian state government confirmed an opening for March 2018, in time for the first kickoff for the Australian Football League season.

Sheeran also plays

A total of 340,000 tickets go on sale around the country May 23. But response to pre-sales May 16 was so strong that Frontier added extra shows in Melbourne and Auckland. Managing director Michael Gudinski confirmed he is negotiating for more shows, and urged fans not to go to secondary ticketing agencies. But within hours of the first Melbourne sell-out, A$165 (US$122.10) tix were on sale on Viagogo for $500 ($370.06).

The 2018 run contains his biggest shows Down Under. His ÷ album returned to the top of the Australian Recording Industry Association charts after the tour announcement, marking its ninth week in pole position.

In early May, his single “Shape Of You” set a chart record for time at No. 1 with 15 weeks, overtaking the 1976 milestone by Abba’s “Fernando.”

The March 29 concert in Dunedin is his first show in that city.

Terry Davies, chief executive of Dunedin Venues, which runs

According to the New Zealand Heraldmost accommodation in the city were snapped up four minutes after the tour announcement, and all cheap flights booked out, Air New Zealand will schedule additional flights for the show.

Enterprise Dunedin manager Ryan Craig estimated the concert will pump NZ$7 million to NZ$10 million ($4.9 million to $6.9 million) into the city’s economy.

In 2015, his fifth visit in four years, he played to 190,000 in April, and returned at the end of year for five shows in larger venues.

This story was updated on 5/16/2017.