Dublin could be getting a new music and sports venue larger than the 3Arena, with Live Nation confirming it has acquired a site in the docklands for development.
The consortium behind the project – Live Nation, Oak View Group and the Desmond family’s Gaiety Investments – has completed a roughly €90 million off-market purchase of a near three-hectare site on East Road and East Wall Road, previously used as a commercial storage facility and now known as Merchants Yard. The land was bought from Bennett Construction’s Benarman Limited.
Early indications point to a capacity of up to 20,000, which would put the new venue significantly ahead of the 3Arena’s 13,000 concert capacity – closer in scale to the 23,500-capacity Co-op Live arena that Oak View Group built in Manchester. Estimates put the total cost of the project at around €500 million. Planning and design work is now beginning, with no construction timeline confirmed yet.
A Live Nation spokesperson confirmed the acquisition to the Irish Times: “Live Nation, Oak View Group and Gaiety Investments are in the early stages of plans to develop a new world-class entertainment venue at the recently acquired Brick Yards site in Dublin. Dublin is a vibrant, culturally rich capital with an unrivalled passion for live entertainment and a long history of welcoming artists and fans from around the globe. The partners look forward to working closely with local stakeholders, Government officials and the community as plans develop, with the aim of further strengthening Dublin’s position as a leading international destination for live music and culture.”
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The rationale is plain to see. Ireland has one of the highest per-capita ticket sales rates anywhere in the world, and the 3Arena has been operating at serious capacity in recent years – Kneecap, Fontaines, Amble, Kingfishr and Dermot Kennedy are among the Irish acts to have packed it out recently as acts now look to book the venue over multiple nights too.
A bigger venue would let Dublin host shows currently scaled for arenas that don’t fit here, and could reduce the number of nights some touring acts need to spend in the city to meet demand.
Live Nation already owns the 3Arena through its subsidiary Apollo Leisure Group, and also owns Ticketmaster and promoters MCD – so this is Live Nation building a bigger version of something it already controls.
A new company, Live Nation Brickyards Limited, was registered in Ireland last month, with funding to date including €15.9 million from Live Nation, matched by Brickyards Property Holdings Limited – controlled by Oak View Group CEO Chris Granger – and a further €3.5 million from Gaiety Investments – owned by Denis Desmond and Caroline Downey Desmond.
No date has been set for planning submission or construction start.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
Photo you are using is from many moons ago .