Arena Market: Mexico

Mariachi and tequila both originated in Guadalajara, the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and home to around 5.3m people. When a place has music and booze and a five million-strong population, its thoughts eventually turn to indoor arenas, and accordingly, Guadalajara’s first will be opened, all being well, later this year.

The 20,000-capacity Arena Guadalajara, delayed by Covid and now scheduled for September, is the latest property of Grupo Avalanz and its live subsidiary Zignia Live, proprietor of the country’s two busiest arenas: the 22,300-cap Arena CDMX in Mexico City and the 17,599-capacity Arena Monterrey. And such an investment in western Mexico represents a much- needed boost to the regional touring infrastructure of a huge nation that is inevitably dominated by its vast capital city.

“Mexico City is a huge, huge, huge market, so Guadalajara, Monterrey, even though they’re big cities, become secondary markets,” Memo Parra, director of international events at Mexico’s leading promoter OCESA told IQ in April. “As it is, we continue with a trend that has been happening for the last 20 years, which is that Mexico City sells four or five tickets for one ticket in Guadalajara or Monterrey. So that gap hasn’t closed. Hopefully, it closes pretty soon.”

Arena Guadalajara will be doing its best, touted by its developers as “a dynamic, comfortable, versatile, and avant-garde venue… inspired by Guadalajara’s colourful landscape and local materials, such as the Huentitán Golden Quarry and the Tequilero Blue Agave… whose construction confirms hope in Mexico and its future.”

“Mexico City is a huge, huge, huge market, so Guadalajara, Monterrey, even though they’re big cities, become secondary markets”

Guadalajara already has an arena, OCESA’s Arena VFG, opened in 2009 and named after the late Mexican singer and Guadalajara local – Vicente Fernández, with a maximum capacity of up to 15,000. It has a roll call of previous visitors that includes Muse, Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, Roger Waters, Jonas Brothers, and Depeche Mode, with Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Kim Loaiza, Grupo Frontera, and Kenia Os on the calendar this year.

While Arena VFG is well out of the city, nearly 30km south of the centre, the new Arena Guadalajara is more central, rising alongside Guadalajara’s northern ring road, according to a design by San Francisco-based KMD Architects, which also created the Arena CDMX.

Overall, Mexico has seldom missed a beat in the years since a spring-loaded Covid rebound, and its arenas are more than pulling their weight this year. The stadium shows on which Mexico City gorged itself in 2023 – when Taylor Swift, Depeche Mode, Paul McCartney, Muse, Blackpink, Lana Del Rey, The Weeknd, Grupo Frontera, and numerous others played OCESA’s 65,000-capacity Foro Sol – have taken a pause as Foro Sol gets a refurb and the touring fraternity gets its breath back.

A true game-changer on its arrival in Mexico City’s northern district of Azcapotzalco in 2012, Arena CDMX has been rocking all year long, with Bryan Adams, Pepe Aguilar, Laura Pausini, Megadeth, Carlos Rivera, and Jonas Brothers, and five nights from grupera legends Los Temerarios all on the 2024 schedule.

Arena CDMX remains an iconic venue, with 124 luxury suites, more than a thousand screens, 5,000 parking spaces, two heliports, and more than 300 security cameras. And as of last year, it also has an Ephesus LumaVision LED system, which offers sharper detail on the big screens indoors while bringing a 75% energy saving, cutting the arena’s usage from 229,000 watts down to 57,560 watts.

“No matter what you buy, the platform understands what your tastes are, what type of events you like the most, what section you like to sit in”

After Arena CDMX, the Arena Monterrey is the country’s second-busiest arena, picking up many of the same tours this year as its sister venue. Zignia Live, together with its Superboletos ticketing division, in April announced its new Superfan app, a transactional ticketing platform with anti-touting and security features and personalised offers. “No matter what you buy, the platform understands what your tastes are, what type of events you like the most, what section you like to sit in,” Zignia Live marketing and innovation director Rodrigo Islas told Mexico’s Posta news site. “And when new events come, you know they are coming, and you buy from [the app]… or if there is a meet and greet, then we may invite you to meet your favourite artist.”

CIE/OCESA’s copper-domed Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City is now 56, having been built for the 1968 Olympic Games, but it remains thoroughly in the mix for major international and regional tours. Madonna’s The Celebration Tour stopped for five shows earlier this year, and blink-182 knocked out four dates, with NCT Dream, The National & The War on Drugs, Yuridia, and Niall Horan among those due at the marquee later this year. The venue runs at a capacity of between 15,000 and 21,000.

Other OCESA venues in Mexico City include the 7,000-cap Pepsi Center and the 10,000-cap Auditorio Nacional. Also on the Live Nation company’s books is the new outdoor, 10,000-capacity Arena GNP Seguros in Acapulco, where Carín León, Luis Miguel, and Gloria Trevi can all be seen as the year progresses. The venue opened in 2022 and is the home venue of the Mexican Open tennis tournament.