Optus Stadium celebrates first anniversary
Perth’s Optus Stadium recently celebrated its first year which included over 2 million fans attending the 60,000-seat stadium.
43 major events were held in the first 12 months, as well as 420 Meetings and Special Events and 1,450 Stadium Tours. Counting the 57,776 guests who attended meetings and special events and 31,550 who went on stadium tours, the total number of people who attended the stadium was 2,068,109 up to and including the BBL match on January 17.
The highest attendance for a sports event at Optus Stadium was the AFL Preliminary Final on September 22 between West Coast Eagles and Melbourne when 59,608 fans were in attendance.
VIEW HIGHEST ATTENDANCES HERE >
Optus Stadium CEO Mike McKenna said while attendances in the first year of operation had exceeded expectations, there were a number of other milestones he was equally proud of.
“The most pleasing was the results from six State Government customer satisfaction surveys which showed overall fan satisfaction was 94% to 98%, across multiple Stadium events, demonstrating fans have really enjoyed their new home of sport and entertainment,” he said.
“We saw more than 122,000 regional, interstate and international visitors book tickets and travel to events at Optus Stadium making this venue a genuine tourism attraction.
“The Perth public embraced the public transport system with more than 1.46 million fans travelling to Optus Stadium on buses and trains.
“We have also employed 3,121 casual staff, giving many West Australians an opportunity in the workforce.”
The Stadium has collected 32 awards, including the New Tourism Business Gold Winner at the Perth Airport WA Tourism Awards and the Best New Caterer at the Savour Australia Hostplus National Awards for Excellence.
In just over one year of operations, a number of impressive statistics have emerged for the venue, that first opened its doors to the public on January 21 with an Open Day and followed up seven days later with the first event – the Australia v England One Day International.
- 43 major events;
- 122,395 regional, interstate and international visitors attended events;
- 420 Meeting and Special Events;
- 1450 Stadium Tours;
On the catering front, Optus Stadium has prided itself on the diverse range of food and beverages available to general admission and premium guests.
The Catering division has placed $21.8m in orders to food and beverage suppliers, including 68 per cent to WA based companies, many of those small businesses. Over 1 million litres of beer, 500,000 buckets of chips and 225,000 pastries were sold in its first year – see below for more.
With 2018 now done and dusted, Mr McKenna said the venue was preparing to host some of the world’s greatest sporting teams and fixtures in 2019.
“There will be a 52-day period between June and August this year when Optus Stadium hosts 11 major events including two games featuring Manchester United - the biggest sporting team on the globe - against our own Perth Glory and long-time English rivals Leeds United,” he said.
“There are two events featuring two of the great rivalries in sport – the Australian Wallabies versus the world champion All Blacks and the iconic NRL State of Origin clash between bitter rivals NSW and Queensland.
“Throw in the AFL Grand Final replay between West Coast Eagles and Collingwood and a Saturday night Western Derby clash and there is every chance we will see 500,000 fans visit Optus Stadium over that period.
“We are expecting more than 50,000 fans at the sold-out Eminem concert later next month and the possibility of more big concerts being announced in 2019.”
VIEW OPTUS STADIUM EVENTS HERE >
