Latam’s largest multipurpose arena opens

The largest multipurpose arena in Latin America opened earlier this month in Colombia’s capital city, Bogotá.

The 24,000-capacity Coliseo Live (Colosseum Live) was inaugurated on 12 August with a concert by salsa superstar Marc Anthony.

Other artists slated to perform at the arena in 2022 include Arctic Monkeys, Imagine Dragons, Daddy Yankee, Ana Gabriel and Ricardo Arjona.

Alongside concerts, the venue (formerly Arena Bogotá) will also host corporate, sports, gastronomic, family events and 360 events.

The previous incarnation of the arena was acquired in 2019 by Henry Cárdenas, president and executive director of US-based promoter Cárdenas Marketing Network (CNM).

Cárdenas also leads Cárdenas Entertainment and Marketing Group (CEMG), founded in 2018 to manage the Arena Bogotá/Coliseo Live project.

“I have dreamed of a scenario that would have nothing to envy of the great arenas that exist in first-world countries”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Colombia-born Cárdenas says he made a “multimillion-dollar investment” in the arena.

“For many years I have dreamed of a scenario that would have nothing to envy of the great arenas that exist in first-world countries, and that is what we bet on,” says Cárdenas.

“I am proud to say that Coliseo Live will surprise all its visitors, placing within their reach, among other things, more than 750 square meters of LED and circumferential screens used in games such as the NBA, a unique and safer ticketing system, suites and boxes of luxury with personalised food and beverage service, air handling units that reduce the probability of contagion of infectious diseases, among other innovations never seen before in Colombia.”

Located in the municipality of Cota, to the west of the capital city, Colieso Live occupies a million-square-foot (93,000m²) site on Calle 80 (80th Street).

The new arena is less than 15 kilometres from Colombia’s first-ever arena, the Movistar Arena (cap. 15,000), which hosts around 90 shows per year.

Read more about Bogotá, and Colombia’s burgeoning live music industry, in IQ Magazine‘s recent feature on Latin America.

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