Jang Hyun-gi GM "Inspire to Stabilize from Next Year... Targeting 800,000 Audience"

Inspire Arena, which attracted 500,000 visitors in its opening year, has announced a goal of drawing 700,000 visitors this year.

Jang Hyun-gi, General Manager (GM) of Inspire Arena, revealed this goal at the first anniversary press conference on the 18th, stating, "Starting next year, the third year since opening, when we enter a stabilization phase, we expect 800,000 visitors annually."

Yonhap News

Inspire Arena is the country's first multipurpose indoor performance venue, with a maximum capacity of 15,000 people. It made its debut with the popular music awards ceremony 'Melon Music Awards (MMA) 2023' held in December 2023.

In its first year last year, the arena hosted a total of 36 events, attracting approximately 520,000 visitors. Major events included performances by K-pop artists such as SHINee and Day6, K-pop award ceremonies like 'MMA 2024,' and concerts by international artists such as Maroon 5 and Linkin Park.

Thanks to its geographical advantage near Incheon International Airport, foreign visitors accounted for about 310,000, roughly 60% of the total audience. Ticket sales last year were estimated at around 40 billion KRW.

Inspire Arena expects to attract 700,000 visitors through 45 events this year and record ticket sales of 60 billion KRW. This year, the arena plans to increase its annual utilization rate and host more events. In particular, it aims to expand indoor sports events such as futsal and tennis. Last year, the arena hosted sports events including the international table tennis tournament 'World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions Incheon' and the esports finals of 'Valorant Champions Seoul.'

GM Jang stated that efforts are underway to resolve the accessibility issues that have been pointed out as a problem. He said, "Currently, it takes about 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours to travel from downtown Seoul to the arena," adding, "Our goal is to reduce travel time to within 1 hour 30 minutes."