Valuing event arenas and stadiums: What determines the market value of a multi-purpose arena

A multifunction arena with 15,000 seats, built in 2005, in technically flawless condition. By the standards of a commercial hall, the valuation would be straightforward. However, the price is determined not by the number of seats or the floor area, but by a completely different figure: the number of event days held per year – and the question of how many of these are actually approved.

Valuing event arenas and stadiums therefore requires capturing three elements together: a property, an event operation, and a tight framework of building regulations, assembly venue law, and emission control. For this asset class, the area merely describes the shell.

Why arenas and stadiums are not ordinary commercial properties

Three characteristics distinguish event properties from offices, retail, or logistics facilities.

First, the capital structureA significant portion of the investment sum is allocated not to the structural shell, but to technical systems – load-bearing capacities and rigging points in the roof, stage and event technology, sound systems, video walls, ice-making equipment, seating bowls, access control, ticketing, and safety technology, kitchens, and service points. A large part of this is classified as operating equipment for valuation purposes, not as part of the building.

Second, the limited alternative use potentialA spectator ring with fixed tiers, a clear hall height of 20 meters, and an egress system designed for visitor flows cannot be repurposed without economically ruinous demolition. If the operator defaults, the pool of alternative users is small – and the location is zoned and emission-controlled specifically for this single use.

Third, the contractual logicWhat is leased is not space, but the event day. The reference metric is the usage fee per event or an annual rent paid by the operator, not rent per square meter. An income approach based on spatial rent misses the market reality.

Not every venue is an arena: the property types

This classification is not a mere formality. The asset type determines the revenue structure, operator dependency, and third-party usability – and thus the choice of valuation method.

• Stadiums

  • 40,000 to over 80,000 seats, predominantly for football, sometimes with an athletics facility
  • A dominant anchor tenant; the revenue depends on its league affiliation
  • Concerts only on a few summer dates and frequently capped by noise protection regulations

• Multi-purpose arenas

  • 8,000 bis 20,000 Plätze, überdacht, ganzjährig bespielbar
  • A mix of league sports, tour business, family and corporate events
  • Highest occupancy density of the asset class – and the strongest dependence on the tour calendar

• Congress and exhibition halls

  • Primary use for trade fairs and conferences, concerts as secondary utilization
  • Usually part of a trade fair complex, rarely tradable in isolation
  • Better alternative use potential, but lower revenue per event day

• Open-air site

  • Open spaces, open-air stages and festival grounds with temporary structures
  • The value lies predominantly in the land and development rights, not in the buildings
  • Seasonality and weather risk directly impact the revenue

• Smaller venues

  • Clubs, live music venues and city halls with capacities up to a few thousand seats
  • Frequently found in existing buildings, often in mixed-use settings with residential occupancy
  • Neighbourhood complaints and noise restrictions represent the greatest value risk in this context

In practice, hybrid forms occur. The decisive factor is the actual operator and contractual model, not the designation used in the exposure.

The major event venues in Germany

The German market is more fragmented than it appears: only a few dozen venues share the business with large-scale events, and in each metropolitan region, typically two to three venues compete for the same tour dates. The map shows the largest stadiums and multifunction arenas, as well as three arena projects currently in planning.

For the valuation, the latter group is particularly relevant, as new capacity depreciates existing stock. The most significant project currently is the Munich Arena located on the northwestern edge of Munich Airport: a privately financed concert arena for up to 20,000 visitors on the municipality of Freising, for which the Freising City Council adopted the zoning plan in June 2026. Planned are an opening in 2029, an investment volume in the range of €300 to €400 million, as well as a parking garage and a hotel; an international concert promoter is designated as the operating partner. The location is unusually well-chosen: no residential development in the vicinity, thus minimal noise conflicts, plus S-Bahn access and existing parking infrastructure.

Anyone valuing an existing hall in the greater Munich area today must account for this project – not as a footnote, but as a concrete assumption regarding utilization and achievable usage fees from 2029 onwards. The same applies to Frankfurt, where a multifunctional arena with up to 15,200 seats is to be built alongside the Deutsche Bank Park, and to Würzburg.

The actual value driver: the event calendar

For data centres, secured grid connection capacity is the bottleneck; for event properties, it is the calendar. Five factors determine it:

• Booked event days – Separated into major event days, partial use days, and setup/teardown days. Only the first group generates revenue, while the third blocks the venue.
• Anchor tenant – a club with a long-term lease agreement stabilizes the base occupancy rate. Its relegation from the top league affects attendance, hospitality revenues, and sponsorship in a single season.
• Competition in the catchment area – tours typically only book one venue per region. Each new arena within reach shifts dates, not just market shares.
• Accessibility – Rail connection, parking spaces, and the capacity of access roads often limit the practically usable capacity earlier than fire protection regulations.
• Approved event days – the strict upper limit, and the most frequently overlooked point.

Regarding the last point: For sports facilities, the Sports Facilities Noise Protection Ordinance (18th Federal Immission Control Ordinance / 18. BImSchV) permits exceedances of the emission guideline values only on rare occasions and permits it on no more than 18 calendar days per year. In contrast, concerts in a stadium do not constitute sports noise but are assessed according to the Recreational Noise Guideline of the Federal/Länder Working Group on Air Quality Control – also with a narrowly defined quota of rare events. The number of evenings a house is actually allowed to host events is therefore not determined by the business plan, but by the building permit and its ancillary provisions. These documents belong in every market value appraisal.

Which valuation method fits

The ImmoWertV does not provide for a special procedure for operator-run properties. According to § 6 ImmoWertV, the valuation method to be chosen is the one that corresponds to market behaviour.

The income side: what belongs to the property and what belongs to the business

The market value refers to the plot in accordance with § 194 BauGB, not to the company operating on it. This boundary runs right through the revenue statement for event venues.

The plot includes the remuneration that a third party would pay for the use of the structural facility: annual lease or basic usage fee of the anchor tenant, usage fees per event day, revenues from permanently leased boxes and business seats, long-term parking spaces and permanently leased advertising space.

Ticketing, catering, merchandising and naming rights, however, do not belong in the gross income without verification. They are revenues of the event operation; their contribution to the property value lies solely in the fact that an operator can generate a sustainable lease from them. The appropriate approach is therefore the derivation known from hotel and care property valuation based on the lease-paying capacity of the operating result: What is the sustainable operating result before lease, and what proportion of it can sustainably support a lease? The same approach is described in the contribution to social care property.

Naming rights deserve separate consideration: they are tied to the operation and its reach, typically span only a few years, and do not automatically transfer upon a change of operator. As a permanent component of the property's income, they are not suitable.

Remaining useful life and operating equipment

Annex 1 of the ImmoWertV sets a total useful life of 40 years for sports halls as well as community centres, hall buildings and event venues – significantly less than for office or residential buildings. Within the facility, the cycles diverge even further: The load-bearing structure reaches its full lifespan, the roof membrane, seat shells and sanitary areas are below that, while video, audio, lighting and safety technology is renewed at much shorter intervals. A blanket remaining useful life for the entire facility understates the need for reinvestment, which in large arenas regularly reaches double-digit million amounts.

Parallel to this, the tax delineation runs: operating equipment does not belong to the basic assets according to § 68 paragraph 2 sentence 1 number 2 BewG, even if they are essential components of the property. Components with dual function, on the other hand, are always to be attributed to the basic assets according to § 68 paragraph 2 sentence 2 BewG – a load-bearing roof remains part of the building, even if it carries loads from event technology. This separation determines the tax bases for purchase price allocation, depreciation, and property tax.

Public-law framework: the approved capacity counts

• Assembly venue law – the assembly venue regulations of the states apply to assembly venues with more than 200 seats and to sports stadiums with more than 5,000 seats. Width of escape routes, seating and escape route plans, and fire protection determine the permitted occupancy. The approved, not the theoretically possible, number of seats is always decisive.
• Building and zoning law – Large event venues are generally only permissible in a special zone according to § 11 BauNVO. Regulations regarding type of use, number of events, and parking spaces have a direct impact on revenue.
• Pollution control – Noise quotas, access regulations, and requirements for arrival and departure; for existing properties in mixed-use areas, the greatest risk factor.
• heritage protection – for buildings such as the Frankfurt Festhalle or the structures of the Munich Olympic Park, it limits technical retrofitting and thus competitiveness against new buildings.
• Parking spaces and infrastructure – Parking space fees, development contracts, and traffic concepts are often contractually linked to the municipality and belong in the rights review.

Municipal ownership, leasehold rights, and state aid law

A large part of German stadiums and halls is owned by the public sector and operated by a state-owned company, an association, or a private operator. This gives rise to two points of review that do not exist for purely private asset classes.

Firstly, the question of the market standard of the remuneration. A politically set rent must not be capitalized without review – it must first be benchmarked against a market-conforming rent, and the difference must be disclosed. Conversely, European state aid law requires the same: Pursuant to Article 55 of the General Block Exemption Regulation, aid for sports infrastructure and multifunctional leisure infrastructure is only exempt from the notification requirement if the facility is open to multiple users on transparent and non-discriminatory terms and professional clubs use it at market-conforming rents. Proving this market conformity is, in practice, a distinct valuation occasion.

Second, the Legal form of the property. Many facilities are built on ground leases (Erbbaurecht) owned by the municipality. Ground rent, remaining term, adjustment clauses, reversion rules, and compensation upon expiry must be valued separately in accordance with §§ 48 ff. ImmoWertV. A remaining term shorter than the next major technical cycle changes the operator's willingness to invest – and thus the value.

Typical valuation occasions

• Transaction and Due Diligence – Price formation, review of usage agreements, permitting status, and maintenance backlog.
• Financing – in the mortgage lending value report Under the Mortgage Lending Value Ordinance (BelWertV), the restricted third-party usability is reflected directly; the values must be significantly more conservative than in the market value appraisal.
• Financial Reporting – Fair value according to IFRS 13 with disclosure of unobservable input factors; details in the article on real estate valuation for financial statements.
• Municipal Valuation Occasions – Contribution to a wholly-owned subsidiary, sale, lease adjustment, and the state aid law-compliant proof of market-conform remuneration.
• Taxation – Purchase price allocation, depreciation, and property tax based on a clear separation between building and operating equipment.
• Project development – Feasibility study and project cost calculation, as long as the location and approval feasibility remain open.

What a robust appraisal report must contain

• the approved visitor capacity with reference in the seating and emergency evacuation plan,
• the permitted number of events after building permit and emission control regulations, separated into sports and leisure noise,
• the derivation of the sustainable usage fees from contractual and operational data, distinguished from the revenues of the event operations,
• separate useful lives and reinvestment cycles for structural components, finishes, and event technology,
• a statement on the alternative use potential and how it is reflected in the risk assumptions,
• the Legal relationships on the property including hereditary building rights, reversion, and municipal contracts,
• a sensitivity analysis for event days, occupancy rates, fees per event, and discount rate.

Conclusion

Valuing event arenas and stadiums means jointly depicting a structural facility, an event operation, and the approval status. The seating capacity is the least informative metric: it describes what theoretically fits, not what is approved and what the calendar provides.

Methodologically, the framework of the ImmoWertV applies, provided the income side is structured on an event-related basis, the property income is separated from the business income, the technology is depreciated independently, and the public-law usage limit is depicted as a hard restriction rather than a rent surcharge. And whoever values a hall in a region today where a new arena has been approved must incorporate this competition into the cash flow – not into a footnote.

How strongly the value depends on the operation and the technical equipment is also evident in other special properties – such as data centres or industrial properties. Which version of the law an appraisal report must apply depends on the valuation date.

How to value an operator-run property whose income depends entirely on its operational business is shown in the contribution to Hotel Properties. Für die Stellplatzanlagen rund um eine Arena ist der Beitrag zu Parking garages and district garages relevant.