$375M Moody Center levels up Austin’s music, sports scenes

The long-anticipated opening of the Moody Center is finally here. In the coming weeks, the 15,000-seat, $375 million arena will host concerts by the likes of Willie Nelson, George Strait, John Mayer, Bon Jovi and Justin Bieber. The April 20 Mayer show is the first public event, while April 29-30 performances by Nelson and Strait are being celebrated as the arena’s grand opening. While the UT men’s and women’s basketball teams will play their upcoming seasons in the arena, the Austin Gamblers — part of a professional elite bull riding league — are slated to hold the first sporting event Aug. 26-27.

Los Angeles-based Oak View Group — which handles the center’s operations and took on the financial risk of development, but will turn over ownership to UT after opening — was bullish on the market. It has already sold 170,000 tickets, representing more than $23 million, and almost all of their announced concerts are sold out. All premium seating and suite licenses are sold out: there are 44 suites, 40 four-person boxes and 2,000 club seats in the lower bowl, with premium seat licenses ranging from $2,000 to more than $350,000.

At least 100 companies had a hand in building the arena, along with roughly 850 construction workers. About 70 full-time employees will staff the arena, in addition to 1,000 part-time employees from ticket takers to concessions workers to police officers and paramedics.

Through the deal, UT gets to play in what has been billed as the nation’s most expensive college arena. During basketball games, mesh acoustic panels can be lowered to cover the uppermost seats, lowering the capacity to around 10,000. For comparison, the Erwin Center has a capacity of more than 16,000.

Drew Martin, UT’s executive senior associate athletics director for external affairs, said the deal created an “opportunity to have world class companies involved in this, from Oak View Group to Live Nation and C3 Presents.

Martin said that when UT examined the best college basketball arenas in the country, it found “tighter, more intimate environments that move fans closer to the action and create this incredible energy in the building.”

“You’ve seen trends in basketball of what I would call right-sizing venues to really generate that excitement and enthusiasm that helps teams and which frankly can account for several points on the scoreboard at the end of the game,” he said.

The goal is have to a diverse calendar of programming. In addition to music, Moody Center officials are interested in sporting events like mixed martial arts and wrestling. They’ll have community and family events, like Cirque du Soleil and the Harlem Globetrotters. Plus, they’re working with tourism and sports groups to attract conventions as well as other events that don’t fit into those categories, such as comedy shows, awards shows and esports events.

Nickler said they’re expected to have robust corporate business, hosting conventions and meetings in the arena bowl. There are premium and hospitality spaces, with views of the Austin skyline and Texas State Capitol. He said the fact that all the premium seating sold out was proof of a huge appetite from local companies for such spaces.

“The local Austin corporations, companies and individuals really stepped up to purchase the licenses from the building,” he said.

Ultimately, Nickler said the project is a “game-changer for Austin” — and he’s excited to finally share it.

“This is just another one of those success stories when looking at the prolific growth of Austin over the past decade,” Nickler said.

Courtesy of the Austin Business Journal. See the full article here.