Sell-out crowds for Harry Styles and Westlife concerts at the Aviva Stadium last year contributed to operating profits of €7.97 million for the company that operates the venue.
New Stadium Ltd recorded the surge in operating profits as the stadium had a full programme of concerts last year following a Covid-19 shutdown across much of 2020 and 2021.
New accounts filed by New Stadium Ltd – jointly owned by the IRFU and the FAI – show that it generated revenues of €7.1 million from its two shareholders in 2022.
Some of the major sporting fixtures to take place at the Aviva included the men’s Irish rugby team’s autumn internationals against South Africa and Australia and the Irish men’s soccer team’s friendly match against Belgium.
The operating profit was a 62.6 per cent increase on the €4.9 million figure recorded in 2021.
Underlining the stadium’s comeback to the lucrative international circuit for touring rock and pop-stars, figures separately provided by trade industry journal Pollstar show that gigs at the Aviva Stadium last year generated $18.05 million in box office receipts from the sale of 185,539 tickets.
Two MCD-promoted Westlife gigs at the Aviva clocked up $6.79 million at the box office after selling 87,367 tickets while the sold out Harry Styles gig at the stadium in June 2022 generated $5.09 million after selling 50,422 tickets.
A sizeable chunk of the company’s revenues would come from naming rights for the stadium.
In 2010, Aviva bought the naming rights for a reported €40 million over 10 years – or €4 million a year – and extended the deal in 2018 to 2025.
The stadium company recorded a pretax loss of €1.29m which was down 69pc on the pretax loss of €4.2m for 2021. The loss last year takes account of hefty non-cash depreciation costs of €9.25 million.
The company pays the IRFU €750,000 each year for the rent of the stadium land.
Numbers employed by the stadium firm remained at 17 while staff costs increased from €1.5 million to €1.7 million.
Shareholder funds stood at €146.7 million while its cash pile increased from €3.37 million to €4.45 million.
The company’s fixed assets had a book value of €291.45 million at year end.
