following on from Diab’s post
https://www.townsvillebulletin.com....s/news-story/be1dafd7336c956605150e50d9e60520
MUSIC concerts are Townsville’s event of choice for the new North Queensland Stadium between NRL seasons.
According to the Townsville Bulletin’s State of the North survey more than 44 per cent of people want to see music performances at Townsville’s new stadium outside North Queensland Cowboys games.
About 16 per cent are still holding out hope Townsville will one day host a State of Origin game and 11 per cent back plans to have a military tattoo performance.
There was also support for rugby union and soccer matches to be held on the rectangular field.
Several survey respondents suggested other ideas such as athletics events, junior rugby league carnivals, special conventions and even baseball games.
Townsville MP Scott Stewart said the North Queensland Stadium has been designed to allow truck access to bring in various concert materials.
“The stadium can hold up to 40,000 people for a concert, that was part of the design brief that the stadium be multipurpose for different events around the NRL season,” he said.
Mr Stewart said discussions on how to ensure the Townsville facility was used year-round have already begun between the State Government, Tourism and Events Queensland, the Townsville City Council and Stadiums Queensland.
The city’s representatives will be looking to replicate the success of other regions such as Mackay, Cairns, Newcastle and Wollongong, who have hosted the likes of Elton John, Kiss, Jimmy Barnes and Cher in recent years.
“We’re working out how do we connect with concert promoters, how can we get Townsville on that tour roster, how do we provide incentives to get those big performers to come to the North,” Mr Stewart said.
“It depends on the calibre of the performer but I reckon with the major artists you could probably host two to three a year, which is what Suncorp does.
“When it comes to performers who wouldn’t quite be looking to fill the full stadium I think we could host another two to three of those events at least, it just comes down to availability, co-ordinating with performers and assurances of ticket sales.”
Mr Stewart said the stadium was also equipped to host any sport that is played on a rectangle field.
“The reason the stadium wasn’t an oval was because when you’re playing NRL on that big of a field the audience is too far away from the action,” he said.
“What we want to do with the stadium is ensure people are a part of the game and in fact the seating is slightly steeper than that of Suncorp so the crowd will feel like they’re almost sitting right over the game or concert.”
-Glad to hear the stands are going to be steep.
