Fresno State said it'd host more Shakira-level events at stadium. Are there prospects?
With the year nearly half over, Fresno State is still working on efforts to bring more events that would rival the scale of the sold-out Shakira concert last August at its under-used football stadium.
During a sit-down with The Fresno Bee in October, Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval said the university was aiming to host more high-level events at Valley Children’s Stadium moving forward.
Jiménez-Sandoval didn’t delve into specifics, though he said the university expected to host three to four large-scale events this year.
Now that the year is about halfway over, Garrett Klassy — Fresno State’s athletic director — says conversations are underway but nothing has been set in stone, yet.
It has been an odd year for scheduling large-scale events, Klassy said, because of the World Cup and the strain that has put on some stadium availability, “but we do have active bids and ongoing conversations for future shows.”
Klassy said the sold-out Shakira show, which earned the university about $400,000 in revenue, highlighted how Valley Children’s Stadium can become a “regional premier venue” for large-scale events.
“Until agreements are finalized, we cannot discuss specific artists or dates, but our goal remains very clear: We want to bring more high-profile events to Fresno State and the Valley,” he said.
After the Shakira concert, Klassy told The Bee that the university hosting multiple high-level events each year could be a major financial boon for Fresno State.
Additionally, people attending the Shakira concert helped boost the local economy by spending more than $2,000,000 on lodging, transportation, food, retail and recreation.
Klassy also acknowledged the impact the Shakira concert attended by around 30,000 could have on the university’s efforts to renovate its aging stadium or boost potential new construction on campus.
Hosting more concerts could help attract potential investors in a public-private arrangement to renovate or build a new stadium and some sort of mixed-use campus, he said. Concert revenue could help smooth the way for Fresno County tax measures, twice-rejected in the past, to pay for upgrades to university infrastructure, he said.
Fresno Bee reporter Robert Kuwada contributed to this report
