BIRMINGHAM, AL | April 17, 2024 – The Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center Authority broke all previous records for attendance in March, thanks to a wide-ranging lineup that included concerts, monster trucks, motorcycles, a Broadway show and high school hoops. A total of 61 events over the month, with many events spanning multiple days, drew more than 212,000 people to BJCC facilities, generating major impact for the BJCC and for the City of Birmingham as a whole.
“March broke records by every standard,” said Tad Snider, executive director and CEO of the BJCC. “Every part of our complex was highly utilized, from meeting rooms to Legacy Arena and Protective Stadium. Many days, we had multiple events taking place, and they obviously had enormous appeal for our community and state.” While the Arena and Stadium paced the month, the Concert Hall, Theater, Exhibit Halls and Meeting Rooms were all utilized extensively.
“Currently, 2024 is on pace to eclipse the record-setting year of 2023,” Snider said. “It’s moving strong in terms of number of events, number of tickets sold to public events and utilization of BJCC facilities for convention, meeting and private events.”
Some of the highlights for March include:
- Back-to-back concert evenings from Grammy-winning singer Zach Bryan represented the largest impact ever generated by a single artist at the BJCC. Both shows sold out in a matter of hours and set records for revenue associated with a single artist engagement.
- Monster Jam and the AMA Supercross Championship were, respectively, the third- and fourth-biggest events ever hosted at Protective Stadium. The only events with larger attendance were Garth Brooks in 2022, which holds the No. 1 spot, and the 2021 Auburn-Houston Birmingham Bowl, which is No. 2.
- The diversity in the schedule included an eight-day run of the award-winning musical Hadestown, concerts by Cody Johnson and Brandon Lake, the Alabama High School Athletic Association basketball tournament, plus G League basketball, volleyball, and spring shopping at Cottontails.
“Whether you like Christian, country or rock or you’re into theater, comedy or dance, we literally had something for everyone,” Snider said. “These were events that appealed to our Birmingham residents, but also attracted a tremendous number of people from outside our community who stayed in our hotels, ate in our restaurants, and shopped in our stores. The economic impact of that is significant.”
Snider praised his team for successfully hosting almost a quarter of a million people and putting together an average of two events a day for a month. “They sometimes make it look easy, but it’s not,” Snider said. “I couldn’t be more proud of our team for putting this schedule together, keeping all of these plates in the air, and achieving such a historic month for the BJCC.”
About BJCC
The Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC) is Alabama’s premier sports, convention and entertainment center. It is home to two exhibition halls offering 220,000 square feet for trade shows and exhibitions, as well as sports and entertainment venues, including a concert hall, stadium, and the state’s largest arena. The BJCC campus also includes the Uptown Entertainment District, The Westin Birmingham Hotel and Alabama’s largest hotel, the 757-room Sheraton Birmingham. The BJCC will soon welcome a new 9,380-seat amphitheater, set to open in summer of 2025.
