The homegrown band will hit six stadiums on their 2022 jaunt – the most amount of NZ stadiums visited during one tour
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Ed Sheeran to break New Zealand stadium record
Around 48k tickets have been sold for the singer's show at Wellington's Sky Stadium – topping the previous record set by Eminem in 2019
By James Hanley on 01 Feb 2023
Ed Sheeran is set to break the attendance record at New Zealand’s Sky Stadium this week, with 48,000 fans expected at the singer’s sold-out concert.
The 31-year-old brings his +–=÷× Tour (AKA the Mathematics Tour) to the Wellington venue tomorrow (2 February) ahead of two shows at Auckland’s Eden Park next week.
Stuff reports the Sky Stadium concert is on track to top the venue’s current record set by Eminem, who attracted 46,474 fans to his March 2019 date. A Guns ‘N Roses performance at the stadium drew more than 25,000 in December 2022.
“This is the first show of Ed’s Australia and New Zealand tour, and the single largest day event the stadium has ever held”
“This is the first show of Ed’s Australia and New Zealand tour, and the single largest day event the stadium has ever held,” says Sky Stadium chief executive Shane Harmon.
The Frontier Touring-presented gig is scheduled to go ahead despite the recent flash floods and landslides that hit the north island. The “biblical” weather saw a number of major concerts and festivals in New Zealand cancelled, including Laneway Festival and stadium shows by Elton John after Auckland declared a state of emergency.
According to Newshub, bosses at Auckland’s 50,000-cap Eden Park say they are “100% focused” on making sure the venue is “fit for purpose” for Sheeran’s 10-11 February dates after the cricket ground was submerged by heavy rain.
The tour, Sheeran’s first visit to the region since 2018, switches to Australia next month for stops at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium (17-19 February), Sydney’s Accor Stadium (24-25 February), Melbourne Cricket Ground (2-3 March), Adelaide Oval (7 March) and Perth’s Optus Stadium (12 March), before heading to the US in May. Sheeran is represented by Wasserman Music’s Marty Diamond in North America and One Fiinix Live’s Jon Ollier for the rest of the world.
Click here to read IQ‘s in-depth feature on The Mathematics Tour.
Sheeran’s previous 255 show ÷ (Divide) run from 2017-19 surpassed U2’s 360° as the highest-grossing tour ever, with a gross of US$776.2 million. It also set a new record for total attendance, at 8,796,567, according to Pollstar data.
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