They are eight more than the Roig Arena in Valencia

On September 6, the Roig Arena, the stadium of the owner of Mercadona. It is a covered venue that will be the new home of Valencia Basket and also the new reference center for events and concerts. It has 20,000 seats, which makes it the covered venue with the largest capacity in Spain. Now Madrid has proposed taking the title away from them.

Well, me more. Isabel Diaz Ayuso has presented a Self-Protection Plan with which the Movistar Arena will be able to increase its capacity, which is currently 17,543, to 20,008 spectators. The capacity of the Roig Arena is 20,000 seats, so Madrid would only overtake it by 8 seats. Until the inauguration of the Mercadona owner’s stadium, the largest covered venue in Spain was the Palau Sant Jordi with 18,500 seats.

Why it is important. Concerts have become the favorite cultural event of the Spanish. According to SGAE datathe music business grew 77% this year, compared to declines in other cultural sectors such as cinema or television. The macro concerts that saturate ticket sales platforms and the exorbitant resales They are clear symptoms of this exacerbated culture of eventism. Ayuso’s plan is a declaration of intentions: to become the city with more, better and larger venues.

TObasketball forum Ayuso’s plan also includes increasing the number of seats for sporting events from the current 13,000 seats to 15,000. During her visit to the venue, the president of the Community of Madrid stated that the change will be a boost for the celebration of Eurobasket in 2029 and that it could open the door to major sporting events, such as NBA games. However, in the case of basketball, the Movistar Arena will not be able to say that it is the venue with the largest capacity since the capacity of the Roig Arena is 15,600 seats.

A short, but intense career. Since its inauguration on September 6, the Roig Arena has already received more than 1 million spectators, as noted in Lift-EMV. Of all of them, 600,000 have attended concerts, many of them with the sign ‘sold out’. Currently, there are already events scheduled until January 2027 and among the confirmed artists are Aitana, Amaia, Rod Stewart and Hans Zimmer. It is a fact: the Roig Arena has become one of the country’s leading music venues in record time.

Madrid and the concerts. As we said, this plan underlines the importance of being the reference city for holding large concerts. A year ago Madrid believed it had its mega-concert cathedral at the Santiago Bernabeu. Pharaonic works were carried out to hide the grass and make an underground parking lot to accommodate all visitors. The problem came with sound problems, specifically poor soundproofing that has forced cancel concerts and move them to the Riyadh Air Metropolitan. While this is resolved, Madrid’s plan is to praise another of its reference venues.

Images | Roig Arena, Movistar Arena

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