3Arena venue set to return to profitability this year     

Dublin venue set to stage Robbie Williams, Bob Dylan, Sigrid, and Kendrick Lamar in the coming weeks as part of a packed 2022 schedule

Actor James Nesbitt addresses the Ireland's Future event at 3Arena last weekend.

The Live Nation firm that operates the 3Arena concert venue expects to return to profit this year after the two years of Covid that decimated its box office revenues.

The Dublin venue, which hosted the Ireland's Future political event last weekend, is set to stage Robbie Williams, Bob Dylan, Sigrid, and Kendrick Lamar in the coming weeks as part of a packed 2022 schedule.

However, the venue was closed from March 2020 to October of last year due to Covid-19 restrictions. 

New accounts filed by Amphitheatre Theatre Ltd show the company posted a pre-tax loss of €655,156 last year, as revenues tumbled to €4.8m.

The losses would have been much higher but for the firm receiving funding of €528,920 through the Government’s Live Performance Support Scheme.

The directors said in the accounts it hosted 14 events last year, down from 26 events at the arena in 2020. Customer numbers also fell sharply to 87,408 from 236,137 in 2020.

However, sounding a more upbeat note, the directors said following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, “forecasts project the company will return to profitability in 2022”. 

In 2019, before Covid, the firm posted revenues of €30.7m when 956,242 fans attended events at the docklands venue.