New Seattle concert venue to open across from T-Mobile Park

Live Nation is planning a major new concert venue across the street from T-Mobile Park, teaming up with owners of the Seattle Mariners.

The 5,500-capacity venue will be located in the Boxyard complex at the site of the old Pyramid Brewery, which the team redeveloped in 2021, on First Avenue South. Live Nation and First Avenue Entertainment, the limited partnership which owns the controlling stake in the Mariners and holds a long-term lease on the property, announced the deal Thursday.

"We'd been thinking about it for years, to have something in this part of town, said Jeff Trisler, Live Nation's Pacific Northwest regional president. "It's such a natural gathering place. We've had such great success with the shows that we've done at T-Mobile Park and Lumen Field - and at WAMU Theater, for that matter - that we felt like there was an opportunity to do something more here."

Slated to open in 2029, the new venue will be adjoined to the existing Victory Hall space, where Live Nation EDM subsidiary Insomniac Events has thrown several dance music shows. While the new venue is still a few years away, Insomniac is already ramping up its Victory Hall bookings with a new block party series this summer. The current Victory Hall space will eventually become the lobby and entry point for the newly constructed venue, which will be able to host both seated and general admission shows. While many design specifics are still being worked out, Trisler described it as a "multilayered" venue aimed at improving sightlines.

Besides Victory Hall, First Avenue Entertainment operates the Hatback Bar & Grille and Steelhead Alley at the Boxyard site. Despite their shared ownership, FAE's restaurant and venue properties at the Boxyard operate independently from the Mariners.

The idea first hit Trisler after a series of company calls discussing Boston's MGM Music Hall, which Live Nation opened outside of Fenway Park in 2022.

"I was literally walking from the Mariners' parking garage to my office - which WAMU Theater is right behind me - and went, 'Wow, why don't we put an MGM Music Hall at the Boxyard.' This is not the MGM Music Hall, but it's a very similar design."

The in-the-works venue will be jointly designed by Live Nation's in-house team and Seattle-based LMN Architects, which designed Benaroya Hall, among other high-profile local projects. The venue will be "tailored to the needs of modern touring productions," according to a news release. As Trisler put it, artists will be able to "bring in their full sound and lights and not have to leave stuff on the truck."

While the name of the new venue has not been announced, the website SodoBallroom.com has details about the plans and figures touting the potential economic impact, including the creation of more than 700 jobs.

Given its size, the venue will cater to artists who have outgrown theaters like the Paramount Theatre (roughly half the size) but aren't quite ready to step up to arenas. Aside from comparably sized outdoor amphitheaters like Marymoor Park, Chateau Ste. Michelle and Remlinger Farms, it's a sometimes awkward class of indoor venues that often finds artists playing acoustically challenged halls that weren't necessarily designed for live music.

"It's all about better connecting fans and artists," Trisler said. "That's what we're here to do. Try to create a better experience for both the artist and the fan to enjoy the night a lot more than maybe they are currently."

The Live Nation venue looks to be in direct competition with WAMU Theater, the Lumen Field-adjacent event space right around the corner. While WAMU Theater can accommodate larger crowds, depending on the configuration, its "pipe and drape" setup - using large curtains and backdrops to cordon off sections of the cavernous hall - is not preferred by some artists. The Live Nation venue could also compete for acts capable of headlining a night or two at the Paramount Theatre, operated by the nonprofit Seattle Theatre Group.

"There's more and more venues of this size and with this type of capabilities around the country," Trisler said. We're hoping by having one more like this in Seattle that we'll see more shows … that maybe aren't coming now."

Following a high-profile lawsuit brought by dozens of states, including Washington, a New York jury found last month that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had a monopoly over large venues. The live entertainment powers merged in 2010.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 4:55 PM.