A paltry crowd of between 10,000 and 11,000 spectators attended the inaugural concert at Macao’s new outdoor performance venue over the weekend, according to media reports.
The venue, located near the Lisboeta in Cotai, is designed to hold 50,000 people and was built at a cost of more than 80 million patacas (US$9.97 million).
Casino industry publication Asia Gaming Brief noted that “large segments of the grandstands” were vacant, and said that questions had been raised about the necessity of the venue, given that the nearby Galaxy and Venetian arenas respectively had capacities of 12,000 and 15,000.
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The inaugural show, held on Saturday night, was seen as a test run for the new venue and featured Korean pop group Lightsum, as well as a host of Cantopop stars such as Hins Cheung, Julian Cheung and Janice M. Vidal.
Prior to the show, Macao’s new Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai hailed the facility as “an important step” in the evolution of entertainment in the city.
The decision to develop the venue was kickstarted by the controversy surrounding a concert by Seventeen at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium at the beginning of the year. The K-pop group’s show led to complaints about noise and traffic congestion, and caused extensive damage to the stadium’s pitch.
Correction appended, 31 December: The original verison of this article misstated the cost of the venue. This has been corrected.
