TEG’s Geoff Jones reveals potential for Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium as a concert venue

Geoff Jones, Chief Executive of entertainment giant TEG, has outlined how bring concert acts to Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium would work if a plan to

With Venues NSW having last week lodged a planning application with Newcastle City Council to hold five non-sporting events, including concerts, a year at the venue, Jones told the Cessnock Advertiser about the sort of concerts might be hosted if the application is approved.

With TEG, which owns Ticketek, the biggest promoter of events at the 5,000 capacity Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Jones said 35,000-person capacity at the Stadium would allow for much bigger artists.

Jones advised “to make (major acts) viable at the Stadium you'd need to get at least 12,000.”

Jones was confident the Hunter region could deliver this, suggesting that the venue was far enough from Sydney to provide a different market.

He noted “we bring dozens and dozens of things to Newcastle Entertainment Centre every year, we bring things to various wineries around the Hunter.

"We know the strength of the Newcastle market. Because it's a proven market, there's a lot of opportunity.

"To give you an example, we're bringing Kiss to Townsville's Queensland Country Bank Stadium.

"McDonald Jones is probably equal to the capacity of Townsville if not bigger and McDonald Jones has got the benefit of a much, much bigger catchment area than North Queensland."

Jones said they had "a group of artists in mind" for Newcastle who would perform at the stadium level down from the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Sydney's Accor Stadium, adding "we're talking AAMI Park in Melbourne and Suncorp in Brisbane.

"We took Queen and Adam Lambert and now Guns N' Roses to Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane and Metricon Stadium in the Gold Coast.

"So Metricon and Suncorp are closer to each other than Sydney and Newcastle. And last time I checked, the population of Sydney was bigger than Brisbane and the population of the Hunter is still bigger than the Gold Coast region, so there's no reason that a concert that is going to a stadium in Sydney wouldn't go to McDonald Jones."

Adding that it was still "a little bit early to say when" when TEG might put on concerts at the Stadium, given that the development application still being assessed, Jones added "the touring season for outdoor shows is October, November, December, January, February.

"I would think it's going to be difficult to get something in late this year or early next year, but not impossible."

Documents submitted as part of Venue NSW’s application say the existing infrastructure "is underutilised and can accommodate more frequent large events outside the sporting mode".

Images: Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium (top) and TEG's Geoff Jones (below, credit: TEG).