Consortium selected to develop and operate new indoor arena in Osaka

A consortium consisting of the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) along with the Mitsubishi Corporation Urban Development and Kanden Realty & Development has been selected to develop and operate a new 18,000 capacity arena in the Japanese city of Osaka.

Hirofumi Yoshimura, the Governor of Osaka Prefecture, announced this week that  the consortium will develop what will be Japan’s second largest indoor arena within the city’s central Osaka Expo Memorial Park.

Once opened, the new venue is expected to host 165 events and attract approximately 1.8 million visitors every year.

The Daily Sports website reported that Governor Yoshimura confirmed that the new arena will have 5G and other cutting-edge technologies to ensure that the fans will be safe and healthy, and cited the World Figure Skating Championships, WTA Premier tennis tournament, and NBA games as some of the international sporting events that could be hosted at the new arena.

Governor Yoshimura was reported as saying “this will be a huge project for Osaka and the fans will finally be able to see world-class sports and live entertainment events that rarely came to western Japan.

“Our initial aim was to have it completed for the 2025 Osaka Expo but obviously the impact COVID-19 brought to the nation meant that the project had to be delayed.”

Osaka Prefecture commenced its search for the project’s private developer and operator in 2019 with the new arena positioned as the centrepiece for a multi-purpose complex that will include a hotel and residential blocks.

Japan’s biggest indoor venue is the 37,000-capacity Saitama Super Arena near Tokyo.

The construction phase for the new venue is scheduled to commence in 2023 and the prefecture hopes the arena will be completed by autumn 2027.

Images: Concepts for the new Osaka indoor arena. Credit: MANICA Architecture.