Sydney will get its ‘EntCent' back with huge naming rights shake-up for a popular city venue
The ICC Sydney Theatre, which replaced the demolished Sydney Entertainment Centre in 2016, is reclaiming the name of one of the city's historic institutions.
The arena in the Darling Harbour entertainment precinct has been hugely popular with promoters and fans since its opening nine years ago, hosting concerts by superstars including Cher, Elton John, Bob Dylan and Kylie Minogue and celebrity chats with former US President Barack Obama, Jane Fonda and Drew Barrymore.
It has also hosted sports tournaments from indoor tennis to professional bull riding contests.
But it has suffered from a bit of an identity crisis since its opening, cycling through different names. And it's less of a theatre in the traditional sense, with an arena-sized capacity for 9000 people.
Now its operators at ASM Global are courting brands for a new naming rights partnership, worth millions of dollars, as they relaunch the venue as the Entertainment Centre.
Patrons will likely adopt the shorthand of 'EntCent', which was the fond nickname for the old venue in Haymarket.
ASM Global group director of arena operations Meg Walker said the wild diversity of events hosted at the venue inspired the change.
'I was up there two months ago for the Les Mis arena spectacular and this weekend, we had the professional bull riding in there, and that's why it deserves top be known as an entertainment centre,' Ms Walker said.
'Comedy is so big in there right now, podcasts are big, we've had tennis, netball, basketball in there, whatever you can imagine as a promoter, you can do it in there.'
Stadium and arena naming rights partnerships between brands and venue operators can be worth tens of millions of dollars.
Venues NSW did a six-year, $36 million deal with insurance giant Allianz in 2022 to name the redeveloped Sydney Football Stadium as the Allianz Stadium.
Disney struck an eight-year deal with the Victorian government in 2018 to name the Marvel Stadium in Docklands.
And the Queensland Government has left the door open to potential corporate sponsorship of its Brisbane Stadium being built for the 2032 Olympics.
The brand to win the bid for the Entertainment Centre rights would have about 25 million pairs of eyeballs on its name each year, thanks to the foot traffic in the booming restaurant and tourism precinct around Darling Harbour and Chinatown.
The venue hosts more than 120 events a year and has sold 497,000 tickets in the last 12 months for shows by Nick Cave, James Blunt and Missy Higgins. Guy Sebastian has been one of the biggest box office hits there with 25,000 tickets sold for his T.R.U.T.H. tour in 2022.
Elton John graced the new venue in 2019 during his epic Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, after playing the closing gig at the old 'EntCent' on December 19, 2015.
'A world-class city like Sydney deserves a great CBD entertainment venue and the ICC not only has such a wonderful music, indoor sports and major event venue in its Entertainment Centre, but it has also created a rare and powerful naming rights opportunity for a brand (to) access an annual reach of 25 million potential customers,' ASM chairman and CEO Harvey Lister said.
'Since opening in 2016 the venue has experienced phenomenal growth that now mirrors the success of the original and iconic Sydney Entertainment Centre, which it replaced – so it's a 'Back to the Future' moment for Sydney.'
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