Slightly more than two years after opening, Austin’s Moody Center has rapidly become one of the world’s top arenas.
According to a list created by Billboard, Moody Center ranks as the highest-grossing arena in the world for arenas that seat 10,000-15,000 fans. This achievement is an early milestone for the cutting-edge arena, which is often packed as its hosts Texas athletics, concerts and other arena-based events.
The achievement also affirms Austin’s claim as the live music capital of the world, with top-down quality and engagement at so many of its venues.
Here are the numbers behind Moody Center’s impressive jump in popularity and what other arenas made the list.
Moody Center now one of the top music venues in the world
This year Moody Center grossed $126.4 million, which is almost $30 million more than the second-place finisher, Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena. The arena also posted an attendance of 995,000 and booked 107 shows from Sabrina Carpenter to Carlos Santana. This is the second time Moody Center has been the highest-grossing venue in its category.
While Moody Center took the top spot globally in the 10,000-15,000 size category, it also performed incredibly well overall among all arenas. Moody Center finished eighth overall, topped only by some of the world’s most iconic arenas — venues such as the Sphere in Las Vegas, Madison Square Garden in New York and the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
“Huge credit goes to the agents and promoters who book over 100 concerts a year here and of course to the fans in Austin who faithfully support Moody Center by buying a record number of tickets,” Jeff Nickler, senior vice president of Oak View Group, the company that operates Moody Center, wrote in a social media post.
This is not the first time Moody Center has received recognition, having won the Academy of Country Music Arena of the Year, having been nominated for the International Entertainment Buyers Association Venue of the Year, and having received the Sports Business Journal Facility of the Year award, among others.
What other arenas made the list?
With Moody Center taking the top spot for its size, here are the other arenas that rounded out the top five on the list:
- Moody Center, Austin: $126.4 million
- Dickies Arena, Fort Worth: $99.6 million
- OVO Hydro, Glasgow: $97.2 million
- Footprint Center, Phoenix: $94.4 million
- 3Arena, Dublin: $74.3
As Moody Center ranked eighth for all size arenas, here are the venues globally that topped it:
- Sphere, Las Vegas: $367 million
- Madison Square Garden, New York: $270 million
- Kia Forum, Inglewood: $165 million
- T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas: $149 million
- K-Arena, Yokohama, Japan: $143 million
- Barclays Center, Brooklyn, N.Y.: $142 million
- TD Garden, Boston: $130 million
- Moody Center, Austin: $123 million
- Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia: $114 million
- Prudential Center, Newark, N.J.: $112 million
Beck Andrew Salgado covers trending topics in the Austin business ecosystem for the American-Statesman. To share additional tips or insights with Salgado, email Bsalgado@gannett.com.
