PRESS: MTS to create regional chain of concert halls

MOSCOW, Apr 22 (PRIME) -- Major Russian mobile operator MTS will create a chain of small concert halls in the country’s cities and is holding negotiation on acquisition or lease of up to 10 halls for 2,000–4,000 visitors in the nearest years, business daily Kommersant reported on Thursday.

MTS will invest in a chain of concert halls in large cities, Mikhail Minin, head of MTS Entertainment, which manages ticket selling services Ponominalu and Ticketland, told the daily. The company is in talks with sites in some cities and plans to organize first events there by the end of the year.

A market source said the first sites may appear in the cities of Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Kazan, and Sochi.

Minin said MTS plans to open eight to 10 halls soon and in the long-term such venues will appear in all cities with the population above 1 million.

According to news agency InterMedia, the country’s market of events, like concerts and performances, rose steadily in 2014–2019 and reached 212 billion rubles in 2019. But in the 2020 pandemic year, revenue of the market participants plunged to 142.3 billion rubles.

(76.8198 rubles – U.S. $1)

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