€14.7m One Direction gigs help MCD to bumper year

One Direction’s sell-out gigs at Croke Park last year helped ticket sales by MCD Productions to grow by 12.5% to 1.5m in a bumper year for the promoters.

Figures released by music industry trade journal, Pollstar, show ticket sales for the Dublin-based promoters last year increased by 165,000 from 1.32m to 1.49m.

The 12.5% increase in ticket sales follows a 10% increase enjoyed by the firm in 2013.

MCD Productions MD Denis Desmond said “2014 was a good year for us and turned out better than we had expected”.

The Pollstar figures show the three sold-out One Direction gigs at Croke Park were attended by 235,008 fans and grossed €14.7m, grabbing the third highest spot in Pollstar’s international box office chart for 2014.

The gross box office is shared between the band, venue operator, and promoter.

The Pollstar figures show MCD is ranked 12th worldwide in terms of tickets sold by promoters in 2014 — the number one firm is Live Nation, which last year sold 30.77m tickets — more tickets than the next top 10 promoters combined.

Mr Desmond said the MCD Productions’ performance was achieved in spite of the firm not staging any Oxegen or Slane gigs in 2014.

He said the figures do not include the 40,000 who attended the Electric Picnic weekend which, he said, last year came under the Live Nation Gaiety banner.

He said the 2015 MCD Pollstar figures will include the Electric Picnic figures.

Mr Desmond said: “The three nights of One Direction were huge and the Marlay Park shows were all sold out, bar one, and the Longitude festival and Kilmainham gigs were also very good.”

MCD Productions is an unlimited firm and is not required to file annual accounts to the Companies Office.

However, Mr Desmond confirmed the business did record a profit last year. He said: “We are working harder for less pay. The volume is up but the gross is down. Ticket prices have dropped.”

He said: “With the size of the market in Ireland and where we are, we are very happy with the business. Irish people like their music.”

He also said the business “has made a very good start to 2015”.