In the desert east of Los Angeles, the new Acrisure Arena has defied critics and proved to be an oasis of entertainment in Coachella Valley.
Since opening in December, Oak View Group’s new 11,000-capacity venue in Palm Springs, Calif., has grossed $17 million in ticket sales from 10 reported shows, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, earning itself the title of North America’s third-highest-grossing arena under 15,000 seats, according to Billboard Boxscore’s 2023 midyear report. The arena actually had 17 shows during this period, and had it reported them all, its ranking on the Boxscore chart would have been even higher.
It’s an impressive launch, especially considering criticism it received that an arena of its size could not survive in the Coachella Valley, the geographic region of 370,000 residents anchored by Palm Springs in the north and Indio to the south. Not only was the valley already teeming with competitive options, from tribal casino showrooms to festivals like Coachella and Stagecoach, but Southern California was already home to three big-name arenas and an ultra-competitive concert market with little incentive for acts or tourists to make the two-hour drive down I-10 from Los Angeles for a show.
Midyear Boxscore charts are based on figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. Eligible shows played between Nov. 1, 2022 and April 30, 2023.
First is Oak View Group’s relationship with OVG partner Irving Azoff, the super-manager whose ability to bring top-tier talent to the facility netted two shows by Harry Styles, a comedy double-header featuring Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock, two shows from the Eagles and concerts by Taylor Dayne, Lizzo, Journey, Shania Twain and Jimmy Buffett. Adding American Hockey League home games from the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the Acrisure Arena has welcomed more than 430,000 people through its doors for 72 ticketed events since opening.
While Acrisure Arena is an open building that can work with any promoter, it enjoys a special relationship with Live Nation, which plans to continue to bring top contemporary tours to the venue, says GM John Bolton, who previously worked at SMG and managed the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla. In the next six months, Live Nation is bringing some of its strongest tours to Palm Springs, including Peso Pluma (on July 8), Paramore (July 15), Dierks Bentley (Aug. 19), ODEZA (Sept. 20), Sting (Oct. 5), KISS (Nov. 1), Stevie Nicks (Dec. 5) and Madonna (Jan. 11, 2024).
“Part of our success booking artists is that many artists are playing Acrisure Arena on a separate leg of their tour months apart from their L.A. dates,” says Bolton. “There certainly are times when artists will play us after stopping in Orange County or Los Angeles, but in many instances, we’re booking artists as they come across the Southwest and then head into Las Vegas or the Central Valley, making the building very routable.”
Another factor in Acrisure Arena’s success is the building’s innovative, fast-paced, high-touch design. Most seats in the building are in the arena’s lower bowl, which has wide concourses that make moving around the building simple and dramatically decrease time spent waiting in line, thanks to innovative grab-and-go food catering stations. The dozen-plus food concepts inside the arena, as well as those located in an outside common space, feature only a few popular precooked items that reduce prep and wait time.
And while the Coachella Valley population is fairly small, Palm Spring’s year-round marketing efforts attract 14 million visitors to the region each year, including 3 million annually to Palm Springs, according to the city’s conference and visitor’s bureau, accounting for $7.1 billion in spending.
Those visitors include 450,000 Canadians who spend their winters in the area, many of whom support the arena’s Seattle Kraken minor league team, the Coachella Valley Firebirds. In the team’s first season, it reached the league championships and is currently facing the Hershey Bears in the finals. With a strong year-end calendar, Acrisure Arena will almost certainly land on the Boxscore year-end list and continue to chart new routes in and out of region, changing the way artists tour through the Southwest and generate revenue in the Golden State.
