"Temporary" Event centre

@Leesider wrote:

Murrayford were in a bit of financial trouble last year so not sure if they have the capacity for it to go ahead. It would finish of the Coal Quay nicely though and block that ugly multi-storey car park.

ugly is a mild world to use!
i often wondered why it was set back from the road so much. it certainly wasn’t to allow us to stand back and admire it! i suppose it was for access for deliveries, but i wonder if it would be possible to build something to mask the whole lot, and leave access for deliveries like the o’callaghan development allows access to paul street centre further up the quays.

Back to the events centre:
i wonder how many events a year this thing needs to host to break even/be profitable.

if you look at the o2’s website, they seem to have events every 2 days, with some extended runs of activity and some longer spells with nothing listed (eg 2-23/9/2010, 9-25/10/2010).

would events every 2-3 nights do it? ie 120-180 events per year?
the live at the marquee festival had 21 scheduled nights of concerts, followed by 15 performances of a musical over 7 weeks (including a week’s gap) this year. i assume the marquee festival is profitable even without the musical, even allowing for building the marqee freshly each year, since aiken promotions keep coming back each year

thats 36 events, which leaves 84-114 events over 45 weeks, or 2-3 per week.

i know that the centre will have to be multifunctional and exhibitions/plays/musicals will have to be targeted too.

i suppose it depends on the quality of the acts, but can cork and the south-west/munster region support that many events per year.

@Leesider wrote:

I suppose you would have to look at the NEC in Killarney to get a good idea of what the capacity is for a centre like this in Munster, Cork should be able to get more events than them and I think the Cork centre would probably take a bit of business away from them too.

the INEC have a real mix of acts and events
they have more irish acts than the O2, such as the high kings and des bishop, these acts normally go to the opera house when in cork.

the INEC would certainly be the main competition for a centre in Cork, but i’d say they can both operate. part of the benefit of the INEC to the Gleneagle Hotel is that they can increase their hotel occupancy through concerts, so it seems a good business model for them.

so perhaps it should be the opera house who have most to fear from a cork events centre. their financial position is already pretty precarious, as evidenced by the preposterous 3 month summer closure. they seem over-reliant on concerts rather than plays, and are beaten easily for quality of drama by the touring plays the everyman attracts.

Anyone know the latest on this? The tickets are already on sale, presumably it’s going ahead?

What happened with this? Anyone got any photos? Presume it is all up now as they seem to be advertising the toys for big boys show there.