EAA’s Bid To Step Up Research

Some of Europe’s major arenas are hoping to team with their UK counterparts in a bid to step up their research and share information.

The initiative came from the European Arenas’ Association meeting held at Berlin O2 Arena Oct. 14.

The EAA is hoping to work alongside the UK National Arenas’ Association to produce a quarterly report on such things as the type of shows the venues are hosting, ticket prices and the size of audiences.

The NAA, which already produces an annual report that’s traditionally unveiled at ILMC, was expected to discuss the idea Oct. 28.
EAA managing director Linda Bull isn’t saying if the new quarterly reports her association’s suggesting would be made public.

“We’re at a very early stage with this and I can’t say if it’d be given to the press or not. We haven’t got as far as discussing it and it may be that publishing a quarterly would lessen its impact,” she told Pollstar. She said there could also be a consideration of the costs involved.

One of the report’s main purposes would be to help venues looking for civic support or sponsorship, enabling them to demonstrate the commercial benefits an arena can bring.

The current NAA research extends beyond the association’s 13 members and any venue with a capacity of more than 5,000 is welcome to send in returns.

If Bull’s 30-member European association, which includes four UK venues, was to follow the same strategy, it would mean polling several hundred arenas dotted across Britain and the continental mainland.

It was the EAA’s first full general meeting of the year. The one it scheduled for Split, Croatia, in the spring was lost under a cloud of Icelandic volcanic ash. A hastily arranged substitute in Paris was well-attended considering the notice, but most of the big business looks to have been saved for Berlin.

The day before the general meeting, it was confirmed the board headed by Philippe Ventadour from Paris Bercy, France, would remain as it is.

Bull stays as managing director, Jos van der Vegt from Rotterdam Ahoy in The Netherlands is treasurer, and Juan Carbonel, from Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid, Spain, is vice president. The other members are Edgars Buncis from Lativia’s Riga Arena and Thomas Torkelsson from Sweden’s Gothenburg Scandinavium.

The three new arenas that have brought the membership up to 30 are Sweden’s Malmo Arena, Belfast Odyssey in Northern Ireland, and Hungary’s Budapest Arena.