Coca-Cola Arena's first public-facing event since the regional war began is a shopping sale.
From April 1 to 5, the Dubai venue will host The Big Clearance Sale, a free-entry retail event featuring discounted stock across fashion, footwear, accessories, home items and lifestyle products.
While the sale comes amid a disrupted events calendar, general manager Mark Jan Kar said it also reflects a broader need to keep the venue active during a period of uncertainty.
“You just cannot let a venue go dormant,” he told The National. “The venue still has live systems, critical systems and regulatory requirements that remain in place whether or not events are scheduled.
“Air conditioning must continue to run. Temperatures must be maintained. Technical and safety standards still have to be met. The costs do not disappear because the stage is empty.”
While concerts are what most people associate with Coca-Cola Arena, including sold-out shows by Teddy Swims, Enrique Iglesias, Maroon 5 and Alicia Keys since opening in 2019, it also hosts sport, corporate bookings and other commercial events throughout the year.
“We have got traditionally three types of activities in the building,” he says. “A shopping event is also part of that mix.”
Jan Kar said the decision to stage the sale came after a number of unannounced post-Eid shows were pushed to later in the year. Management then returned to contingency planning first used during Covid, with staff moving to a four-day working week and taking additional leave. Some freelance services have also paused.
“We have always got an incredible team. We need to keep them engaged, motivated and their morale up,” Jan Kar says. “Right now, it’s not about losing 100, it’s about treating the 90 as momentum and showing the market is still active.”
While management is trying to bring in smaller activities and restore as much of the main calendar as possible, Jan Kar says it would be irresponsible not to prepare for further measures if needed, including deeper cost controls.
That thinking also sits behind the clearance sale, which the venue first staged in 2022 as the live events sector emerged from pandemic closures.
“The difference here is that we, as a public venue, have experience of Covid as a blueprint for how to activate events and get safety measures in place,” Jan Kar said. “From the personnel, emergency and building perspectives, we know our ultimate deadline to execute certain events.
“So perhaps, at this stage, we are partly activating a similar plan, but we are doing it faster because we know what works and what does not work.”
The arena’s programming team is applying a similar approach in discussions with promoters, artist teams and booking agencies. Jan Kar says concerts by Wu-Tang Clan and Josh Groban, scheduled for March 22 and March 27 respectively, proved too difficult to keep on the calendar because of international logistics, while others, particularly one-off or regional dates, have been moved to later months.
For now, the arena floor, usually filled with concertgoers, will instead be taken over by discount rails, merchandise aisles, food outlets and shoppers. Jan Kar hopes the move can inspire other venue operators of all sizes facing similar disruption problems.
“Do whatever it takes,” he said. “Become a shopping event for two weeks, become a graduation hall, or screen films for a year … whatever it is, we need to be active and keep the city moving.”
