What a difference a year makes. After a difficult post-pandemic opening in late 2022, UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y.
, has found its footing in its sophomore year, nearly doubling its year-over-year gross on Billboard ’s 2024 mid-year rankings and finding its stride in the busy New York Metro market. At the mid-year point in 2023, UBS Arena had posted $22 million in gross concert receipts from 39 shows. This year, the venue has posted $42 million in gross receipts from 56 shows.
That success comes from building off 2023 sellouts that included two nights of Bruce Springsteen , two nights of SUGA and shows from Blink-182 , Peso Pluma , Aerosmith and Billy Joel . In 2024, UBS has already seen sellouts from Stevie Nicks , Elevation Worship, Machel Montano , ENHYPEN , Aventura (two nights), Drake (two nights) and Zach Bryan (two nights). Delayed by pandemic-related construction issues, including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority missing a key date to connect the venue to the Long Island Rail Road, UBS Arena struggled with attendance early on.
“There was really no playbook on how to open an arena in the most competitive major market in the world during a pandemic,” says Mark Shulman , senior vp of programming at the Oak View Group-managed arena, which was built in partnership with the New York Islanders. “You can take everything that we know about how to launch a venue and you throw it all out because so many of those strategies just weren’t feasible at the time,” Shu.