Canberra’s AIS Arena to drop concerts?

Concerts could be scrapped at Canberra’s AIS Arena, as part of a major change of direction by the Australian Sports Commission, The Canberra Times reported,

It’s not just music that’s affected. The plan is to turn the 35-year-old multi-purpose arena into a specialised Centre of Excellence for Volleyball. This would leave out all other sports as well as conferences, exhibitions, graduations, media events, trade shows and gala dinners.

New strategies are being discussed in the wake of Australia’s low medal tally in the Rio Olympics.

The move is one of a number of options that the Australian Sports Commission will decide at the end of the month. Targeting a wide range of events has apparently not brought expected revenue.

The Canberra music industry is concerned as the 5200-seating capacity AIS Arena is where major tours as Pink, John Farnham, INXS, Bob Dylan, Sting, Santana, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Delta Goodrem, Alice Cooper, Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson have played. 

The fear is that without a venue of this size, future tours might bypass Canberra.

Next week it hosts The Wiggles and WWE NXT Live, while Human Nature’s Ultimate Jukebox Tour goes through in February.

However, the change will not come into effect until 2020, so all current bookings will be honoured.

However national promoters say that as a music venue, the arena will not be missed. They are calling for a new 7,000-capacity indoor arena to be built in the capital city, to fill the gap between the 2500-seater Royal Theatre and 30,00-capacity GIO Stadium.

Sydney-based Michael Chugg told The Canberra Times he’d cut back on using the arena because it badly needed renovation. "A 5,000 capacity is really hard to make money out of with big international acts," he said.