Intrust Bank Arena ticket sales, attendance up during first quarter

So far this year, ticket sales and attendance are up at Intrust Bank Arena.

The arena brought in $4.9 million in gross tickets sales between January and March – roughly $2.7 million more than it did in the first quarter of 2014, according to a report from Assistant Sedgwick County Manager Ron Holt.

Attendance blossomed to 179,365 visitors, up more than 53,000 over last year’s first-quarter results, and the number of tickets sold saw a similar jump by just more than 47,500 to 165,058, the report shows.

“We had a very active first quarter,” Holt said. The average cost per ticket of $29.83 this quarter shows “an indication that we had a mix of family shows and concerts,” he said. During the first quarter of last year, people paid an average of $18.55 per ticket.

The top money makers through March were the March 31 concert by Fleetwood Mac, which brought in $1.3 million in gross ticket sales; Disney on Ice’s seven performances from March 12-15, which made $736,711; and the seven Cirque du Soleil: Varekai shows, which garnered $657,827 between Jan. 14-18 .

Fleetwood Mac drew 11,470 people and had an average ticket price of $115.89. The Disney shows brought in 33,050 people who paid an average of $22.30 per ticket.

Cirque du Soleil drew 12,490 people. The cost to attend those performances averaged $57.35 per ticket.

The attraction that brought in the most people was Disney on Ice, according to the report. January’s three Monster Jam monster truck shows were the second-highest attended events, drawing a total of 14,302 people.

In all, the arena played host to 37 events with 56 performances between Jan. 1 and the end of March, which is 10 fewer than was offered during the same period last year. Five were concerts, four were family shows, one was a sporting event and 10 were other types of shows. There also were 15 Wichita Thunder Hockey games and two Wichita Force indoor football games.

The net building income for the downtown arena was $491,824 through March. The arena sales tax reserves were down to about $12.59 million for the first quarter – $697,615 less was in the fund during the same time period last year.

Several big concerts are slated for later this year, including Boston on Aug. 9, the Foo Fighters on Sept. 30, pop star Ariana Grande on Oct. 6 and Def Leppard on Oct. 10.

“We have a very full schedule going through the rest of this year and into next year,” Holt said.

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 9:01 PM with the headline "Intrust Bank Arena ticket sales, attendance up during first quarter."