Sell-out crowds for Harry Styles and Westlife concerts at the Aviva Stadium last summer contributed to operating profits of €7.97m for the stadium firm.
New Stadium DAC recorded the surge in operating profits as the stadium had a full programme of concerts last summer following a Covid shutdown of the stadium across much of 2020 and 2021.
New accounts filed by New Stadium DAC - jointly owned by the IRFU and the FAI - show that it generated revenues of €7.1 million from its two shareholders in 2022.
Some of the major sporting fixtures to take place at the Aviva last year include the men's Irish rugby team’s Autumn Internationals against South Africa and Australia, Six Nations games against Wales and Scotland and the Irish soccer men’s team's friendly match against a star-studded Belgium team and a UEFA Nations League game against Scotland.
The operating profit of €7.97m is a 62.6% increase on the operating profits of €4.9m recorded in 2021.
Underlining the stadium's comeback to the lucrative international circuit for touring rock and pop-stars, figures separately provided by trade industry journal Pollstar show that gigs at the Aviva Stadium last year generated $18.05m in box office receipts from selling 185,539 tickets.
Two MCD promoted Westlife gigs at the Aviva Stadium clocked up $6.79m at the box office after selling 87,367 tickets while the sold out Harry Styles gig at the Aviva Stadium in June 2022 generated $5.09m after selling 50,422 tickets.
A sizeable chunk of the company’s revenues would come from naming rights for the stadium.
In 2010, Aviva bought the naming rights for a reported €40 million over 10 years - or €4m a year - and extended the deal in 2018 to 2025.
The deal agreed in 2018 came into effect in 2020 and a note attached to the New Stadium accounts states that the company’s share of its naming rights income is released to the profit and loss account each year.
Last year, New Stadium Ltd paid out no dividend to its shareholders.
The stadium company recorded a pre-tax loss of €1.29m which was down 69% on the pre-tax loss of €4.2m for 2021.
The pre-tax loss last year takes account of hefty non-cash depreciation costs of €9.25m.
The company pays the IRFU €750,000 each year for the rent of the stadium land.
The number of employees employed by the stadium firm remained at 17 while staff costs increased from €1.5m to €1.7m.
The accounts were signed off by the ceo of the IRFU, Kevin Potts and President of the FAI, Gerry McAnaney on May 22nd.
The firm’s shareholder funds stood at €146.7m made up of a share premium of €58.1m, capital contribution of €134.37m and accumulated losses of €45.7m.
The firm’s cash pile increased from €3.37m to €4.45m. The company’s fixed assets had a book value of €291.45m at year end.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
