Live at the Marquee promoter Peter Aiken: Fifa made 'a balls' of World Cup ticketing

Concert promoter talks Katie Taylor, Zach Bryan, and future sporting events at Cork concert series

Concert promoter Peter Aiken of Aiken Promotions at the Live at The Marquee on Cork's Centre Park Road. Picture: Noel Sweeney

Event promoter Peter Aiken, has said Fifa made “a balls” of World Cup ticketing and says if GAAGo was run by Americans, “it would be 10 times the price”.

Mr Aiken was speaking as Live at the Marquee gets into full swing in Cork, an event now closing on 2m attendees since Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson opened the first ever event 21 years ago.

Mr Aiken – who last week pulled off a coup to bring Katie Taylor to Croke Park for her farewell fight - is also keeping an eye on events across the Atlantic at the World Cup, where Fifa's handling of ticketing for the global showpiece has faced scrutiny. Fifa's use of a 'variable pricing' structure - similar to dynamic pricing backfired, with nearly 180,000 tickets available on resale sites and an estimated 15,000 tickets for group-stage matches unsold. 

"They made a balls of it. They just haven't got the right people in there,” said Mr Aiken. “They don't understand that European sport is different than American sport. Look at the discussions we have about GAAGo. If the Americans were running the GAA, running GAAGo, it'd be 10 times the price.

"Sport is different. We live it and breathe it. Sport in Ireland and mostly Europe and South America is for everyone. Sport in America is for the elite and that's how it's made-up and that’s how they've made a balls of it." 

The Marquee is estimated to be worth more than €40m to the Cork economy. A 5,000 sellout event can mean a much-needed trickledown to pubs, hotels, and restaurants. This year’s Marquee is a new tent, getting its first outing in Cork after the previous tent was “decomissioned”. “It’s slightly bigger but our licence is still for 5,000,” said Mr Aiken.

"The economic value to Cork is fantastic, but with the Marquee there’s also a tremendous sense of goodwill and feelgood economics,” said Mr Aiken.

David Gray on stage at The Marquee at the weekend. Picture: Noel Sweeney

Live at the Marquee 2026 has now in full swing, after Welsh star David Gray performed the second of his two Leeside gigs on Sunday night. Before the weekend the Marquee entertained its youngest ever audiences, with two K-Pop children’s shows. This year will also see the Marquee take its first dip into sports with two nights of the Marquee Masters darts in the giant tent, with more than 8,000 darts fans will attend over two nights.

Sport is likely to take a regular place on the Marquee bill in future.

“We could be looking at boxing in the Marquee very soon,” said Mr Aiken. “I was approached about it and I think I might revisit. We were going to do a big snooker match here, but we would need the right people – Ronnie O’Sullivan would be amazing. I think there is a market for snooker for 2,500 people.

“The darts is going to be 8,500. We’re definitely going to bring the darts back.” 

Mr Aiken spent family summer holidays as a child in Barleycove, and later worked at an accountancy practice in Cork, as well as working as road crew with Rory Gallagher. He says the three gigs of Gallagher music performed by Joe Bonamassa last year hold a special place for him. “To sell 15,000 tickets, people came from everywhere. That legacy, that’s my favourite gigs of all at the Marquee.”

Across the road from the Marquee, Mr Aiken is also bringing American singer songwriter Zach Bryan to Cork for two nights at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. "He's only been to Europe once. He didn't know where Cork was, to be honest - it's such an experience coming to Cork and it's good that it's good that people see that."

Zach Bryan's music isn't too far from the guitar acts and rock 'n' roll which is to Mr Aiken's own personal taste but he admits he's not able to keep up with modern music trends. 

"I was at Forbidden Fruit there yeah I don't know one act on it," he said. "When I'm talking to artists, like Zach Bryan, I only talk to them briefly, but they know very quickly whether I know what I'm talking about. But if it was a big DJ or say, rap, I don't know anything about it.  But I know how to promote it, so we have people in the office, it's not just me. I have a team of people in the office that know all that stuff."

Katie Taylor set for a sellout

Having watched Cork and Limerick’s Munster final tussle in the Páirc he sees the promoter was pleased to bring Katie Taylor to Croke Park in Dublin for her farewell fight.

Ticket prices for Taylor’s goodbye bout started at €38 for family tickets to €1,500 for ringside, and Mr Aiken is confident the event will be an 82,000 sellout.

“It came together three weeks ago. The first thing was to get everybody on board, the second thing was to create a ticket price, and third thing was to convince people a lot of people that we could actually sell the tickets.

"It looks like we're going to sell out. It's not been the biggest event I've ever done, but I think in terms of quality, it's going to be up there with Springsteen, Gareth Brooks. The demand is going to be incredible but we priced it right. We priced it at €38 and the family ticket at €125. 40% of the tickets we're going to sell are going to be for families, or people paying €38."

This year’s Marqee sees a debut outing for the new red and blue tent, which has been leased for use by Aiken Promotions for the next three years. The former Marquee site has now been developed for housing and Mr Aiken believes it is inevitable the current site will also eventually be developed.

“You can see how fast the place next door has gone up. So if that's a success, they're going to build here, aren't they? But it is a big site here, and the Comer Brothers organisation have been brilliant to deal with.” 

Mr Aiken has backed the drive for Cork’s long-talked about event centre but is not holding his breath.

“If an event centre is built, I’ve course I’d use it. But I do think there's something special about the Marquee, a lot of the artists like it because it's so different and it could work standalone.

“Cork City Council have always made it very clear to them that they'll always do their best to get me a site.”