‘Arenas Are Becoming True Lifestyle Destinations’: Q’s With Marie Balsaqc, CEO Paris Entertainment Company

Paris Entertainment Company operates three landmark buildings within the Franch capital – Le Bataclan, adidas enviornment, and Accor Arena – comprising a complete of greater than 30,000 seats, and 400-plus occasions yearly.

It’s buildings type a circuit inside themselves, and there are numerous examples of artists who’ve carried out in every of them whereas rising their fanbase in France. Paris Entertainment Company CEO Marie Barsaqc shares one instance on this interview for Pollstar’s annual France Focus and talks about different traits shaping how her enterprise operates, such because the rise of “sportainment”.

It’s a dialog that completely encapsulates the fact confronted by many venue operators in France, together with the challenges however particularly the plethora of alternatives to satisfy the higher-than-ever viewers expectations.

Pollstar: How would you sum up the state of enterprise at Paris Entertainment Company midway by means of 2026?
Marie Barsacq: The dwell leisure market stays extraordinarily dynamic, but it surely has additionally turn into much more demanding. Demand for shared experiences continues to be very robust, and Paris is additional cementing its place as one in every of Europe’s main capitals for dwell leisure, sports activities and tradition.

At Paris Entertainment Company, this momentum is mirrored in exercise ranges which have exceeded our forecasts, with greater than 2.4 million spectators anticipated this season, over 400 occasions scheduled, and steadily bettering outcomes.

However, the numbers inform solely a part of the story. Costs are rising, viewers expectations are evolving, and competitors is intensifying. Today, it’s not sufficient to easily fill a venue. We should create a complete, coherent and sustainable expertise for artists, audiences, companions and the town itself.

We are coming into a brand new part of our growth, with the ambition of strengthening our place amongst Europe’s main leisure operators whereas remaining deeply rooted in Paris.

Is there a class of occasions that’s underperforming? Is there one which’s over-performing?
We should not at the moment seeing any class that’s genuinely underperforming. On the opposite, each musical style appears to seek out its viewers, from pop and Ok-pop to digital music, steel, rap and French-language music. We additionally recurrently see new genres and subgenres emerge, which displays the vitality of the market.

What has modified is the numerous enhance within the variety of occasions, creating larger competitors between live shows themselves. Smaller-scale tasks, significantly in lower-capacity venues, may be extra uncovered to this rising provide.

Rather than overperforming or underperforming genres, what we observe is that audiences have turn into way more selective. An occasion must have that means, ship an expertise and create real added worth. Major occasions, whether or not in music or sports activities, proceed to generate distinctive demand, as do occasions able to bringing communities collectively or providing distinctive experiences.

Going by means of Pollstar Boxoffice, it’s unimaginable what number of tickets French and French-speaking artists promote. Is it truthful to say that nationwide expertise has by no means been stronger?
There is little question that the French and French-speaking music scene is experiencing an exceptionally dynamic interval. Domestic artists are actually demonstrating their capacity to fill the biggest venues and create massively profitable dwell occasions. This displays each the richness of French creativity and audiences’ attachment to artists who communicate their language, replicate their period and create a detailed reference to their followers.

Over the previous a number of years, we’ve witnessed the rise of city music, which has turn into one of many predominant drivers of the French-language dwell market in our venues. As an instance, Accor Arena will host fifteen reveals by Orelsan subsequent December, demonstrating how these artists are actually attaining exceptional longevity and attendance ranges.

This momentum extends nicely past city music. French-language pop, in its many types, additionally continues to draw massive audiences, highlighting the range and vitality of French creation.

That stated, there is no such thing as a cause to view French and worldwide artists as opposing classes. One of Paris’s biggest strengths lies exactly in its capacity to host the world’s largest touring acts whereas additionally offering a serious platform for French-speaking artists.

You run a number of venues of various sizes. What in regards to the membership and grassroots sector?
A wholesome music ecosystem relies on its complete worth chain, from small venues to main arenas. Grassroots venues play a necessary function in artist growth and cultural range. The Bataclan, with its intermediate capability of 1,600 seats, occupies a singular place inside this ecosystem and holds a particular place within the hearts of Parisians.

We are additionally lucky to accompany sure artists all through their progress. Don Toliver, for instance, will quickly carry out at Accor Arena after having performed successively in all three of our venues over current years. This completely illustrates the significance of getting a complementary ecosystem of venues that permits artists to develop and evolve.

More broadly, it’s important {that a} metropolis like Paris continues to supply a various vary of venues and codecs that allow artists to develop progressively all through their careers.

Which traits are shaping your enterprise?
Several. The first is the rising significance of the general expertise. Audiences not come merely to attend a live performance or a sporting occasion; they wish to take pleasure in the whole expertise earlier than, throughout and after the occasion.

The second is hospitality, which has turn into each an expertise driver and a value-creation software.

The third is the rise of “sportainment.” Sport is not consumed solely as a contest; it’s more and more a part of a broader expertise that mixes music, content material, hospitality and leisure.

Finally, arenas have gotten true way of life locations. The adidas enviornment and the opening of Central Chapelle illustrate this evolution towards venues which are extra open, extra hybrid and extra deeply linked to their surrounding communities.

What’s the most important problem you’re at the moment going through, and what’s the most important alternative you see?
Our predominant problem is continuous to satisfy more and more excessive expectations whereas preserving accessibility and sustaining a detailed relationship with our audiences.
Visitors now evaluate their expertise not solely with different venues, but in addition with resorts, eating places and digital platforms. Expectations have turn into international.

Our biggest alternative lies within the capacity of venues to turn into real cultural and concrete locations. Our venues mustn’t come alive solely on occasion nights; they need to exist on daily basis, join with their neighborhoods and provide new makes use of and experiences.

Anything else that perhaps shocked you in current instances?
The Paris Sumo Tournament at Accor Arena might be one of many occasions that has impressed me essentially the most lately.
Seeing such a various viewers come collectively round a self-discipline that’s each distinctive and deeply rooted in custom – discovering its rituals, tradition and historical past whereas filling a serious Paris enviornment – completely illustrates how our business is evolving.

It reminds us that, past main live shows and conventional sporting occasions, audiences in the present day are very open to new cultural experiences, supplied they’re genuine, significant and offered below the suitable circumstances.

This can be what makes our business so thrilling: the flexibility to create sudden connections between disciplines, artists, sports activities and audiences.

Any works, upgrades or different plans to your venues you may discuss?
We are at the moment creating two main tasks that illustrate our imaginative and prescient for the way forward for our venues. The first is Central Chapelle, which lately opened adjoining to the adidas enviornment. It is a brand new 3,500-square-meter hybrid vacation spot combining music, meals, tradition and social areas. It contains a number of meals ideas, terraces, a live performance and membership venue, inventive areas and gathering locations designed for use all through the day and all year long.

More than an extension of the adidas enviornment, Central Chapelle displays our perception that leisure venues ought to not function solely on occasion nights. They ought to turn into locations folks go to recurrently—whether or not to attend a live performance, have lunch, take part in a cultural occasion or just spend time there.

The second challenge issues the environment of Accor Arena, the place we’re making vital investments within the public areas across the venue. This contains the restoration of Canyoneaustrate, Gérard Singer’s monumental art work situated in Bercy Park, in addition to the redevelopment of surrounding public areas to enhance circulation, create new pathways and higher reconnect the world with its city surroundings.

These tasks embrace renovated public areas, new landscaping, redesigned lighting and extra welcoming out of doors areas across the venue.

Although very completely different in nature, each tasks share the identical goal: to make our venues energetic contributors to metropolis life on daily basis, not solely when an occasion is happening.
We imagine the way forward for arenas shall be formed not solely by what occurs contained in the buildings, but in addition by the connection they keep with their neighborhoods, public areas and communities.

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