NEWS

The European Arenas Association announces vice president role and appoints a new board member
Published on 19 October 2022

Under president Olivier Toth, the new board pledges to continue implementing the association’s four-pillar strategy

The EAA has appointed a vice president in a newly created position, and a new board member. This brings the number of board members to five.

Elections took place at the Rockhal Arena in Luxembourg at the first in-person General Meeting to be held since the Covid-19 outbreak. Olivier Toth’s position as president was confirmed for the next three years, board member Jorge Vinha da Silva, Altice Arena, takes up the newly created role of vice president and Konrad Koziol, Arena Gliwice, joins the board. Existing board members Lotta Nibell and Adrian Doyle were re-appointed in their roles.

Commenting on the new appointments, EAA President Oliver Toth said:

“I look forward to working closely with Jorge in his new role as vice president and with our new board member Konrad as we continue to implement our four-pillar strategy. We are grateful to our former president John Langford and board member Girts Krastins for their hard work and dedication in developing the new strategy and setting us on the path for change”

Jorge Vinha da Silva is CEO at Altice Arena Lisbon. As vice president, he will offer full support to the existing president Olivier Toth, CEO Rockhal, in addition to representing member arenas from the southern region. Konrad Koziol is sales & marketing director at Arena Gliwice and has joined the board to represent the eastern region members. Lotta Nibell, CEO at Got Event AB and Adrian Doyle, director experience operations at The Odyssey Trust were re-appointed in their existing roles on the board representing the northern and western regions respectively.

Jorge Vinha da Silva added:

“I look forward to continuing my involvement with the EAA as vice president as we develop tangible actions that benefit our members and also our sector as we work together to address the challenges and opportunities for recovery and growth”

For the full press release click here.

The European Arenas Association welcomes new member Paris La Défense Arena
Published on 21 July 2022

Paris La Défense Arena is the fourth new member to join the association since the easing of restrictions began for live events

The EAA has announced that Paris La Défense Arena has joined the Association taking total membership to 37 arenas across 20 European countries.

Inaugurated in October 2017 in a location just 15 minutes away from downtown Paris, Paris La Défense Arena is Europe’s largest multifunctional venue with a capacity of 10,000 to up to 38,000 for concerts, sports events and corporate events.

“La Défense Arena is very pleased to join the European Arena Association. The last 10 years have been more demanding than ever for the venues. All across Europe, venues are facing challenges; sharing these challenges, talking about them and working together to resolve them, are the best way to take control of our actions and development. The EAA has always been at the forefront of our sector’s progress. Becoming a member of the EAA means being part of our sector’s development and being able to work together to be the best at what we do.”
Raphaëlle Plasse, Booking and Operations Director La Défense Arena

“We are delighted to welcome Paris La Défense Arena into our association as we continue to embrace new members and to share our collective expertise. Our recently published figures are a stark reminder of the devasting impact Covid has had on the live events sector with an average audience reduction of 73% in 2020 and a further 23% reduction in 2021 making it even more important for us to strengthen our membership and work together on our recovery.”
Olivier Toth, President EAA

As a result of the Covid-19 closures, the latest EAA research reveals total attendance for member arenas in 2020 fell 73% from 19 million to 5.1 million. Last year saw further falls of 23% to 3.9 million. The total number of live events fell 59% from 2,915 in 2019 to 1,181 in 2020, although they registered a slight increase of 2% last year to total 1,202.

In 2020, music events accounted for 48% of total events compared to 23% for sports events. At the end of last year sport accounted for 52% of total events compared to 25% for music events, although music still made up 50% of total audiences compared to 33% for sports.

For the full press release click here.

The European Arenas Association welcomes Arena Gliwice and AO Arena as new members
Published on 12 October 2021

The EAA has announced that Arena Gliwice and AO Arena Manchester have joined the Association taking total membership to 36 arenas across 20 European countries. The announcement was made after the Association’s first General Meeting held under the new president Olivier Toth, which took place virtually on October 8.

For the full press release click here.

The European Arenas Association appoints Rockhal’s CEO Olivier Toth as new president
Published on 27 September 2021

The European Arenas Association has elected Olivier Toth, CEO Rockhal Luxembourg, as President succeeding AEG Europe’s John Langford who is stepping down after completing his two-year tenure. Rockhal is one of Luxembourg’s leading entertainment venues hosting a wide range of international and regional artists. The venue is based in Esch-sur-Alzette and has a capacity of 6,500 people.

“I can think of no better person to lead the EAA. Since joining the association, Olivier has been working tirelessly on behalf of the members to deliver the association’s goal of strengthening ties with the European Union and boosting the advocacy impact of the EAA at EU level” said outgoing President, John Langford.

Olivier Toth, an EAA board member, was a co-founder of the EAA EU Subgroup which morphed into the Arena Resilience Alliance during the Covid-19 crisis when it became clear that the live event industry needed a unified voice through which to open dialogue with EU governing bodies. ARA has been active throughout the pandemic through a wide range of self-funded activities to raise awareness on the current crisis and has been in active conversations with top level national and European policy-makers, working towards the development of a uniform regulatory framework for the mandatory requirements and measures that will bring back live events across Europe.

In addition to the work being done by ARA, Toth was instrumental in the reshaping of the EAA’s vision for the future designed to create a more inclusive membership structure and to address the challenges and opportunities for recovery and long-term growth. The association’s activities will centre on four pillars:

• knowledge exchange, education and training
• advocacy
• networking
• content development

Commenting on his appointment Olivier Toth said;
“I am honoured to be appointed as the EAA’s next president and look forward to further developing and delivering the EAA’s realigned objectives and to continue to work closely with the EU on arena-related topics. Through the Arena Resilience Alliance, we have seen how arenas play a vital role as the hub of the live events ecosystem and how necessary it is to have a collective voice for our industry. I think we can all agree the world we are returning to is not the same one we left behind and I am confident that the EAA and its ARA subgroup will work towards building a stronger and more unified European live events sector .”

Commenting on the EAA’s realigned objectives, EAA Board Member and Chairman of the Board at Arena Riga, Girts Krastins said:
“2020 and 2021 clearly show that well established pan-European institutions are the ones whose voice counts and that they can serve as a united platform for raising awareness of our industry and people. This period has been a turning point for the EAA as it initiated the re-evaluation of the organisation’s objectives and ambitions. As a result, the EAA has marked a clear path ahead through its “Four Pillar” strategy to maintain and strengthen its position in Europe and the event industry.”

EAA Board Member and CEO Got Event AB, Lotta Nibell said:
“The challenges we all have faced during Covid, shows the importance of both sharing and building knowledge of our industry. Arenas function as a catalyst for the local and national tourism industry but decision-makers very often lack insights on our ecosystem. The EAA provides a solid platform, where we can both generate knowledge and together create a strong voice so we can start to rebuild and expand.”

Adrian Doyle, EAA Board Member and Director of Xperience Operations at the Odyssey Trust, Belfast also commented:
“The Covid crisis made us realise very quickly that the live event community needed to get organised in terms of speaking to elected officials at both national and EU levels. The position of arenas as the hub of the live ecosystem put us in a perfect position to speak on behalf of the wider community and to start to build a lasting advocacy structure.”

EAA Board Member and CEO Altice Arena, Jorge Vinha da Silva added:
“We need to work even harder on creating new and innovative content and to meeting the expectations of a new generation of fans and visitors. We will continue to share ideas, know-how and creativity to ensure the cultural well-being of all our stakeholders.”

For the full press release click here.

The European Arenas Association welcomes Navarra Arena as a new member
Published on 20 September 2021

As the EAA celebrates its 30th year we are delighted to welcome a new venue boosting membership of the Association to 34 arenas across 20 European countries.

New members Navarra Arena, in Pamplona, Spain are a multifunctional, purpose-built venue using innovative technology to host a wide variety of national and international events.

John Langford, EAA President highlighted that “The strength of the EAA comes from the diversity of our members. As we exit the restrictions of the pandemic and look forward to the restart of sport, live music and entertainment programmes in our arenas we are grateful for the shared knowledge and best practice built between us, knowing that having this means we can keep providing great entertainment safely for all those who use our spaces. We’re delighted to welcome new member Navarra Arena, taking the association to 34 members in 20 countries”. Navarra Arena, Pamplona, Spain opened in September 2018 hosting cultural, sporting, leisure and corporate events in its adaptable event spaces offering capacities of up to 11,800. The building is equipped with the latest technology designed to enhance the efficiency of spaces.

The EAA is proud to extend its membership to include the new Arena, further supporting endeavours that promote communication and best practice between its network of members allowing for a greater depth of knowledge sharing to create a better experience for those using and working within its event spaces.

For the full press release click here.

The Arena Resilience Alliance Publishes Findings on European Test Events
Published on 13 July 2021

The Arena Resilience Alliance (ARA) – a special purpose initiative, created by the European Arenas Association (EAA) has published a report with the findings from a series of test events that have taken place over the past few weeks with the aim of providing a framework for the return to live events in Europe.

Arenas across Europe have been staging test events in close collaboration with regional health authorities and national government guidance. Events numbering 20 in total at 12 venues have varied from one hundred capacity events to much larger scale shows, such as the Eurovision Song Contest with up to 3.500 attendees, and the concerts in Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona and AccorHotels Arena, Paris with up to 5.000 attendees.

Event protocols covered a range of differing approaches involving heightened safety and preventative measures, customer service delivery and infrastructure adaptations.

To date, there are no recorded clusters of infection from those who attended the test events and there is no published evidence that these events caused any spread of the virus. The findings appear to show that with the correct implementation of safety measures, in particular pre-event Covid testing and the use of the EU Digital Certificate, it is possible to host safe indoor live events.

The Arena Resilience Alliance and its supporters will continue their dialogue with scientific experts and the study of developments in relation to the virus to ensure visitor safety.

Olivier Toth, CEO, Rockhal in Luxembourg, EAA Board Member and co-founder of the ARA said: “These events are an important step forward in testing the efficacy of safety measures we can employ. We are very happy to share our experience and insights and hope that they provide a framework of safety protocols that can support back to business strategies and enable us to get back to hosting fan-attended events.”

For the full press release click here.

Vision for the future – EAA prospectus
Published on 1 June 2021

Click here to read the EAA prospectus 2021.

Arena Resilience Alliance Manifesto for the Safe Return of Live Music and Sport Launched
Published on 18 February 2021

The Arena Resilience Alliance (ARA) – a special purpose initiative, created by members of the European Arenas Association (EAA) has launched its manifesto, outlining the next steps required for the safe return of live events across Europe. ARA unveiled its four-point action plan at the end of its second virtual conference, #AGameofTwoHalves: The Return Leg on Thursday 18 February.

The manifesto entitled ‘Rationale for a Resilient Return’ centres on four core concepts:

1. Creation of an advisory body
2. A hub for return and for change
3. Adapting for the future of live events
4. A safe and sustainable post-COVID 19 Ecosystem

Read the ARA manifesto here.

For the full story, click here.

OPERATION RESTART: HOW EAA MEMBERS PLAN TO REOPEN
Published by Gordon Masson on 17 February 2021

O2 Arena Prague is a member of the EAA
image © Bestsport as

As the European Arenas Association marks its 30th anniversary, Gordon Masson finds out how its members plan to get back up and running.

When the European Arenas Association (EAA) celebrated its 20th birthday back in 2011, the live entertainment industry was in the infancy of a record-breaking run, as live music, in particular, grew in popularity, and venues throughout the continent enjoyed the challenges of ever bigger visiting productions, attracting more and more eager fans.

A year ago, many of the EAA’s 33 member venues were predicting 2020 would deliver yet another record year, but the Covid-19 pandemic soon obliterated such optimism and ten months on from the beginning of lockdown measures, there is still no clear indication about when Europe’s arenas will be able to resume operations.

As a result, the EAA finds itself as the central hub for discussions about strategies for getting back to business, with members in constant contact to help plan how they can safely welcome artists and audiences back into their buildings while also protecting their staff and production crews.

“Our EAA conversations over the past year have highlighted that although we are all in a different situation, country by country and city by city, we’re all actually in the same situation when it comes to the use of the venues,” reports current EAA president John Langford.

“But having conversations facilitated by EAA membership between venue managers in Germany, France and the UK, for instance, alerts you to how people are responding differently and gives us the opportunity to learn from others.”

For full article click here.