Ancienne Belgique and Sportpaleis among the best in the world
The American music magazine Pollstar has published its annual list of the 100 most visited concert halls in the world. The rankings are based on the number of tickets bought for music events. The Belgian concert halls Ancienne Belgique (AB) and Sportpaleis are both in the top 10 in their category.
The AB sold 236,768 tickets in 2013 and is, just as in 2012, in third place in the Club Venues category. The Club Venues list is led by House of Blues in Boston (285,975 tickets) and 9:30 Club in Washington (279,479 tickets). Dirk De Clippeleir, AB Director, was satisfied with the ranking: “It is important for Flanders’, Brussels’ and Belgium’s image that the AB is among the best in the world. We allow young artists the opportunity to perform in front of a larger audience for the first time. We give them huge opportunities and we often see these artists later at big Belgian festivals and playing at venues such as the Lotto Arena and Sportpaleis.”
The Sportpaleis sold 741,319 tickets and is therefore in 8th place in the Arena Venues category. The O2 Arena in London is number 1, having sold 2.1 million tickets. The Lotto Arena and the Grenslandhallen Ethias Arena are also in the top 100 Arena Venues (86th place with 161,561 tickets sold and 94th place with 145,424 tickets sold respectively). Jan Van Esbroeck, Director of Sportpaleis, is proud of the three mentions for venues in the Sportpaleis group: “This proves yet again that we can, in terms of the music industry, strive to be among the best in the world; in festivals as much as in technical facilities and infrastructure, we are players in the champion’s league. As manager of three of the world’s top 100 arenas, we are reaping the benefits from the pioneering work of well-oiled organisations such as the AB, where it seems that it cannot be denied that government subsidies are being well-spent. It delivers a productive interaction, almost comparable to a public-private partnership.”