TEXAS: The Smart Financial Centre, a new, 6,400-seat venue opening this fall in Sugar Land, Texas, located 20 miles southwest of Houston, is a business departure for its developer, Ace Theatrical Group. Ace is best-known for restoring historic performance halls, like the Kings Theater in Brooklyn and the Majestic Theater in San Antonio. It renovated the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
CALIFORNIA: The Sacramento Kings NBA team is getting a new home: a city-owned arena called the Golden 1 Center set to open in October 2015 with advanced Wi-Fi and video facilities. With a capacity of 17,300 for concerts, the venue will replace the smaller, three-decade-old Sleep Train Arena. The Golden 1 Center is part of a business and entertainment district called the Downtown Commons, which will include a 250-room hotel.
NEVADA: The 18,000-seat T-Mobile Arena, opening in April in Las Vegas, is a venue in the right place at the right time. The building, a joint venture of AEG and MGM Resorts International, will host the first show of Guns N’ Roses’ reunion tour on April 8, just ahead of the band’s headlining sets at the Coachella festival in Indio, Calif., during the weekends of April 15-17 and April 22-24.
TENNESSEE: Nashville’s 6,800-capacity Ascend Amphitheater, booked by Live Nation, opened in July 2015 on the banks of the Cumberland River with views of the city skyline as a backdrop for concerts. Eric Church christened the shed on July 31, and its season closed with a Dierks Bentley charity show on Nov. 1 that raised more than $600,000 for the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
QUEBEC: In Quebec City, the 20,200-capacity Videotron Centre, run by Quebecor Sports and Entertainment and AEG Facilities, opened Sept. 16, 2015, with a show by Metallica that was filmed for a segment in Showtime’s Wall Street drama Billions. In another notable deal, the band teamed up with the venue and Canada’s Labatt Breweries to create a custom version of Budweiser to mark the Videotron Centre’s opening.