Where State Farm Arena ranks for attendance. Hint, it’s near the top.
There weren’t many evenings this past year when the lights were dim at downtown Atlanta’s premier arena.
State Farm Arena, the home of the Atlanta Hawks, had one of the busiest calendars of any arena across the globe, according to a new “Year In Touring” report by Billboard. State Farm Arena’s 94 ticketed non-Hawks events ranked fifth in the country and seventh around the globe among all venues with more than 15,000 seats, excluding stadiums.
From November 2024 to this November, about 939,000 people flocked to State Farm Arena to see concerts, comedians and other nonsports events. Only Madison Square Garden in New York City had a busier event schedule during that time span, according to Billboard.
The recognition comes just months after Billboard found State Farm Arena ranked fifth globally and third nationally in revenue for similar sized arenas during the first six months of 2025.
Trey Feazell, executive vice president of arena programming, said it took “long hours, creative thinking, strong partnerships” and focus to consistently fill State Farm Arena.
“We are proud to make our arena a global destination for the biggest acts and the biggest moments,” Feazell said in a news release.
State Farm Arena is in the middle of a fast-changing downtown.
The arena is flanked on one side by titanic event venues in Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the Georgia World Congress Center. The other is a front-door view to the Centennial Yards construction site, a $5 billion redevelopment of the Gulch into entertainment venues, a gathering plaza, hotels, apartments and restaurants.
Several Hawks executives are investors in Centennial Yards, which is slated to add thousands of permanent residents in the coming years to a long-overlooked part of downtown. Steve Koonin, CEO of the Hawks and a Centennial Yards investor, said in a recent interview that downtown’s event schedule — beyond State Farm Arena — could be filled up to 330 nights a year when the project is finished, which he said “will make it more vibrant.”
For the past three years, State Farm Arena has ranked in the top 10 globally among event venues of its size. It also consistently ranks as one of the world’s biggest revenue generators among arenas, bringing in $76.2 million across 60 events between October 2024 and March, according to a midyear Billboard report.
The past year’s concert highlights include multinight shows for Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Pearl Jam and Usher. Artists such as Shakira, Lil Baby and Tate McRae also filled the arena.
Comedians Katt Williams and Nate Bargatze had multinight runs, with Bargatze setting a nonsports event attendance record with 17,103 on Nov. 15. In addition to 44 home Hawks games, the arena also hosted UFC Fight Night, a couple of WWE pay-per-view events, multiple college basketball games and a sold-out WNBA game between the Atlanta Dream and Indiana Fever.
About the Author
Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. He's been with the newspaper since 2018 and enjoys diving into complex stories that affect people's lives.
