Global Stadium Report 2025: The stadium era

“Hello Wembley” will be roared by more singers to more audience members than ever before this summer as Wembley Stadium (capacity 90,000) welcomes over 2m people to concerts by Coldplay (ten nights), Oasis (seven nights), Dua Lipa (two nights), Lana Del Rey, Guns N’ Roses, and Linkin Park. Most stadiums around the world are seeing a phenomenal boom in the number of shows they can put on due to the complex and serendipitous alignment of different factors: more artists touring, more new headliners coming through, improved audience experiences, social media-powered bragging rights exacerbating FOMO, and city-based mega-shows being seen by many as preferable to, and more affordable than, weekend festivals.

“[There is] potentially a post-Covid thirst for big experiences, [where] international acts can play fewer shows but to larger audiences while on global tours,” says Jan Chadwick, head of event programming at the 62,500-cap London Stadium, which has shows this year from Sam Fender and Iron Maiden.

“The demand for dates in a stadium like ours is growing, so we expect to see an increase in stadium concerts in the next few years,” adds Hidde Salverda, director of operations at the 68,000-cap Johan Cruijff ArenA. “Before Covid, there were some years where we had only one or two concerts. For us, the market is getting better.”

Putting the boom here in context, Darren Burden, executive director of the just-opened Kai Tak Sports Park in Hong Kong, says the venue hosted 15 large-scale concerts between the start of March and the end of May and will have 50 music shows by the end of the year. “The globalisation of music trends allows artists to attract diverse audiences around the world, while the influence of social media increases intercultural exposure,” he says. “These allow artists to cultivate fanbases that can fill stadiums.”

“The financial opportunities from ticket and merchandise sales make these events appealing for artists and promoters”

This is resulting in something akin to a gold rush in the stadium sector. “The financial opportunities from ticket and merchandise sales make these events appealing for artists and promoters,” Burden says. It is also proving to be a catalyst for what we might term “stadium tourists,” where big shows pull in audiences from multiple countries, seen most obviously in Taylor Swift’s six-night residency at the National Stadium in Singapore last March, her only shows in Southeast Asia.

“One of the key demographic facts that we have seen at Kai Tak Sports Park is the increasing number of people travelling from mainland China, especially the Greater Bay Area, to Hong Kong to attend the shows, which not only enhances ticket sales but also contributes to a more vibrant cultural exchange and experience,” notes Burden.
While there is clearly tremendous demand for concerts (and they are greatly desired by cities due to the boost they provide to local economies), scheduling remains a conundrum due to load-in/load-out times and working around sports fixtures, which provide, of course, the main business for stadiums.

Anna Sjölund is programming director for Europe at ASM Global and looks after the 55,000-cap Strawberry Arena, which, despite its misleading name, is Sweden’s national stadium, and the 40,000-cap 3Arena, both in Stockholm. “They are two football stadiums with retractable roofs,” she says. “One big achievement for us is getting all these music shows in there, considering 3Arena has two home teams playing in the highest division of football in Sweden, and Strawberry has one home team – so all three Stockholm teams are playing in our venues as their home venues.”

While most stadiums can juggle both music and sporting commitments, occasionally wider factors make this impossible. Canada is one of the host nations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and Chris May, general manager of the BC Place in Vancouver, says upgrading the venue ahead of the event means they can only host a handful of shows (notably AC/DC and The Weeknd) this year.

“This will be the biggest renovation we’ve done around hospitality and guest experience,” he says. “We’re a 55,000- seat stadium, and we literally have three elevators. That’s it.” As such, he says that 2025 needs to be treated as an anomaly. “Last year, we had a gangbusters year,” he notes, including hosting the closing dates of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. “Our holds for concerts for 2026 are huge. It’s looking like, post-FIFA, when the touring starts, that it’ll be pretty rammed through the end of the year. We’re getting 2027 holds already. [2025] looks like a light year in the calendar but that was really of our own doing as we needed to get infrastructure [upgraded].”

“Particularly in Latin America, one of the major challenges is that most football stadiums were not originally designed to accommodate large-scale concerts”

Even in normal years, working around sports fixtures is a logistical challenge for stadiums. The Johan Cruijff ArenA is home to Ajax, the biggest football team in the Netherlands, which takes priority. “The football calendar is leading in this stadium,” says Salverda. “We have to deliver the best pitch possible. In that combination, it’s quite difficult to find spots in the agenda [for concerts] during the football season. We [haven’t found] the golden key to successfully do that often during the football season.”

As such, newly designed or renovated stadiums have to prioritise multifunctionality to be able to juggle sporting events with the desire for acts (and their promoters and agents) to play more stadium shows.

Marcelo Frazão is EVP of WTorre Entretenimento, who look after the 55,000-cap Allianz Parque in São Paulo, Brazil. “Particularly in Latin America, one of the major challenges is that most football stadiums were not originally designed to accommodate large-scale concerts,” he says. “Retrofitting them for live entertainment often presents significant operational and production hurdles. At Allianz Parque, we benefit from being a purpose-built, multi-use venue from day one. Still, we continuously invest in upgrades, not only to enhance the fan experience but also to improve production capabilities for promoters and artists. A key innovation has been the implementation of synthetic turf, which allows for greater operational flexibility.”

It is a similar story for the Johan Cruijff ArenA. “From the beginning, we have been a multifunctional stadium,” says Salverda. “When we designed this building, we took care of certain facilities that would make build-up and tear-down as easy as possible. We have a platform at the north end of our stadium, so that saves time for preparing the stage. We have entrances on four sides, which trucks can use to get on the pitch. That is a big improvement.”

While the focus on stadiums has traditionally been about increasing capacity so acts can play to the biggest audiences possible (and make more in ticket sales), there is the emerging possibility of smaller stadiums in secondary or tertiary cities stepping forward and offering a bridging solution between arenas and stadiums.

Michelle Rysdale, concert and large-events manager at Plymouth Argyle Football Club in England, says that ten years ago, it hosted no concerts, but this year, it has acts including Kaiser Chiefs, Jake Bugg, and S Club. “With a capacity of 25,000, we sit in that middle ground that some acts overlook,” she explains. “We’re too small for global megastars and too big for up-and-comers. Finding mid-tier acts that will draw in Plymouth specifically is an ongoing balance.”

“While younger fans are fuelling demand and consuming new content and artists, legacy acts continue to draw multigenerational crowds”

It is, she argues, a rolling process, but it is starting to deliver results, opening up new options for touring acts to go beyond the dominant cities. “Attracting major promoters to mid-sized stadiums like ours remains tough, especially when acts can play three nights at the Manchester Arena and sell out every one. That said, we’re building a reputation for delivering high-quality, crowd-friendly events, and that’s starting to turn heads.”

As stadium-level acts include a multitude of heritage acts, as well as an increasing number of breakthrough acts, the audience spread is becoming wider, hence increasing the number of shows each summer that are deemed viable at this level.

“The audience has become more diverse, both in terms of age and profile,” says Frazão. “While younger fans are fuelling demand and consuming new content and artists, legacy acts continue to draw multigenerational crowds.” He adds, “The challenge is to keep the arena’s event curation diverse enough to engage different demographics while also meeting the expectations of sponsors and suite holders.”

LeFevour, at the 63,500-cap Soldier Field in Chicago, says younger audiences are increasingly drawn to stadium shows due to their scale and spectacle. “The younger generation is seeking out more immersive experiences than ever before, and live entertainment is a large beneficiary of this generation,” he suggests.

Expanding the addressable audiences is, however, not just a case of booking acts who appeal to younger fans. In certain markets, there are age restrictions on who can attend such shows. “We’re working closely with the authorities to try to challenge the 13-year-old age limit that we have on the majority of concerts here because of sound levels,” says Sjölund of the situation in Sweden. “We want people to be able to go with their kids. I think it’s super important to have young audiences and for them to start going to shows and appreciating shows at a young age.”

“There seems to be no shortage of stadium-level artists with the fanbase to support the live experience”

A few years ago, the existential crisis whispered about in the arena and stadium worlds was that the business was becoming too reliant on heritage acts and, when they all retired, there would not be enough new acts to have come through at this level.

Such concerns appear to have dissipated, but stadiums themselves admit they have to become more fluid and flexible.

“Judging by the number of acts that are playing multiple arenas, there seems to be no shortage of stadium-level artists with the fanbase to support the live experience,” says Chadwick. “One thing to note is that stadiums can vary dramatically in terms of capacity – between 45,000 and 90,000. This gives acts the bragging rights of playing a stadium but with reduced risk at the lower-end capacities.”

LeFevour suggests a changing media environment is helping propel acts to the stadium level in ways that were not possible even half a decade ago. “We are certainly seeing artists that can command a stadium tour that previously may have played arenas,” he says. “Various reasons for this include artists’ increased popularity on social media and even in movies and television series. Those continuing to provide engaging content will stay relevant.”

May cites acts like Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and Benson Boone as examples of acts, currently at arena level, who appear ready to make the leap to stadiums. “[Boone is] a stadium act [in waiting], he can translate across,” he says. “We’ve all seen artists that can translate across that stadium, and those that kind of fall a little flat. I don’t think we’ve seen it much in the last couple of years.”

“Some of these acts that would really never be pure stadium acts are teaming up to create almost one-day festivals”

For Frazão, the right combination of venues and agents/promoters can be the spur for turning arena acts into stadium acts. “Allianz Parque has become the go-to venue for acts making that leap,” he says. “With the right combination of fan engagement, pricing, and production support, we’ve helped several artists successfully scale up from arenas to sold-out stadium shows. We’re confident this trend will continue in the coming years.”

We will also see a growing number of headliners coming from markets outside of the West. South Korea has already achieved that with the phenomenal export success of K-pop, but an increasing number of Latin artists, Afrobeats acts, J-pop groups, and Canto-pop stars all appear poised for phenomenal global success.

“Talent can come from many different areas, especially when London can attract an international and multicultural audience,” says Chadwick. “There is the potential for big acts from Asia to fill a London stadium with both international and UK-based multicultural audiences.”

May says Vancouver – “the fourth most diverse city on Planet Earth by foreign-born residents” – should be at the vanguard of such shows, playing to not just diaspora audiences but also crossover ones. “We have an opportunity here for K-pop, for Canto-pop, for a lot of different things,” he says. “There are not a lot of Persian superstars that are playing stadiums, but there are quite a few who go through the arena. That, to me, is what’s going to start happening and what we’re looking at.”

Increasingly, the way to turn not-quite-stadium acts into stadium-filling acts is to amalgamate them with a number of other not-quite-stadium acts and, in aggregate, see them pull stadium-level crowds. “We look at how the stadium industry is changing and that some of these acts that would really never be pure stadium acts are teaming up to create almost one-day festivals. Look at Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Poison, and Joan Jett, who did a quad bill three summers ago in North America.”

“The trend we’re seeing is, compared to ten years ago, that more acts are playing multiple dates”

For acts who over-index in terms of audience draw, of course, the stadium residency is becoming more common, where they settle into a venue for multiple nights and reduce their travel and lost days building or dismantling huge sets. This is perhaps the most financially lucrative run of shows any act can have at this level.

Sjölund references the six nights the reformed Kent played at 3Arena earlier this year as a local example of that, but the biggest international acts are increasingly doing residencies as standard. “The trend we’re seeing is, compared to ten years ago, that more acts are playing multiple dates,” she says. “We’ve certainly seen a big rise of multiples here. We had three Taylor Swift shows last year.”

Burden outlines the multitude of reasons why residencies are appealing to mega-acts, and not all of them are purely financial. “This trend allows performers to establish a consistent presence in certain markets, building loyalty over time,” he says. “However, not every artist can do this, nor can fans always have the capacity to pay for the experience. For certain artists, residencies are perfect and can alleviate the stress of touring. Ultimately, we are in the live business, and it’s crucial that we all play our part in creating the best version of these experiences, whatever that may look like. If more artists embrace this model in the coming years, we should expect to see a transformation in how events are marketed and experienced.”

Stadium shows are also increasingly seen as preferable to festival shows, and there may be a degree of cannibalisation here, with acts looking to take their shows to stadiums rather than headlining a festival. Finances, of course, play a
part – but not exclusively.

“Stadium shows offer artists complete control over production, staging, and fan engagement,” says Frazão. “Unlike festivals, where artists share the spotlight, stadium shows are built entirely around them. Their audience, their message, their brand. It’s the most powerful format for delivering an unforgettable, fully immersive experience at scale.”

“We’ve managed to make the stadium season longer and accommodate more shows”

Burden adds, “Stadium shows not only provide artists with the opportunity to connect personally with their audience and directly engage with their fans, but they also provide greater control over production elements, including staging, lighting, and sound, allowing acts to fully implement their creative vision and unique experiences for their target audiences. This level of control not only enhances the overall performance but also strengthens the branding and status of the artists, reinforcing the image they wish to present to the public.”

There are only so many stadiums in a country, and they only have so much availability for concerts, but this is now being addressed through the creation of temporary outdoor venues.

Last August, Adele played ten nights at a 73,000-capacity pop-up stadium in Munich, with the venue designed and built specifically for her show. Live Nation reported that it broke attendance records for any concert residency outside of Las Vegas. Live Nation has also built the new open-air, seasonal Rogers Stadium in Toronto, with a capacity for 50,000 people per night. Acts including Stray Kids, Coldplay, Oasis, Blackpink, and Chris Brown are playing there this summer, creating a whole new opportunity for mega-acts.

On top of adding new venues to the stadium touring route, there are options opening up (or rather closing over) to extend the stadium touring seasons, initially in Stockholm. Kent’s six-night run in 3Arena took place in late March when the average temperature in the Swedish capital is 3°C during the day and -3°C at night.

“The stadium season up here was normally mid-June to mid-August but is now starting in May,” says Sjölund. “Because we have a roof, we are not dictated to by the weather and the cold in May. It’s something I’m really excited about – that we’ve managed to make the stadium season longer and accommodate more shows.”

“As demand continues to grow, the key will be accessibility, affordability, and experience”

Currently, there appear to be more shows than there are available venues or even available dates in those venues.
Those in the stadium business are clearly delighted at then boom in the sector, but they do express caution about not over-charging customers, focusing on short-term profits that can cause long-term damage by driving away fans.

“Ticket prices have gone up, and artists are keeping more of the money,” says May. “They’re getting smarter with resales and the algorithms are allowing them to price their tickets much more to the market. I think that stadium touring is becoming more lucrative. The baseline is that I see the industry continuing to grow.”

Sjölund says, however, that no one should become complacent here. “Promoters, agents, and artists are being more creative and having the guts to play big venues, giving the audience a choice of ticket prices and really working with the experience,” she says. “I think it’s going to continue to evolve.”

Rysdale feels there is scope to go into more cities, beyond the ones that normally constitute touring’s centre of gravity. “As demand continues to grow, the key will be accessibility, affordability, and experience,” she says. “Stadiums must stay flexible, invest in infrastructure, and build stronger relationships with major promoters. There’s huge potential to grow the regional live music market in places like Plymouth [UK) – and it’s happening.”

For Salverda, the boom will only continue if the shows being booked into stadiums are the best, marking a step up in quality every year – from the acts playing to the scale of the shows they put on. “People can become picky,” he says. “They only want to be at the best shows. That’s the challenge for us as an industry. We should over-perform and then the people, I’m convinced, will come to this kind of live entertainment for decades.”

This article was originally published in IQ’s Global Stadium Report 2025. View a preview below, or subscribe now to read the full publication.