Original story by Greg Garrison for AL.com
The Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center Authority drew 212,000 and set attendance records for the best March ever, BJCC Executive Director and CEO Tad Snider announced today.
That included 61 events over the month, highlighted by back-to-back sold-out concerts by country singer Zach Bryan at Legacy Arena and monster truck shows at Protective Stadium.
“March broke records by every standard,” Snider said. “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.”
So far, 2024 is on pace to pass the record-setting 2023, when attendance at BJCC facilities hit a total of 1.241 million.
Bryan, the Grammy Award-winning singer, had the largest impact ever by a single artist at the Arena. Both shows sold out in hours and set records for revenue for a single artist.
Protective Stadium took a turn as a venue for monster trucks and motorcycle racing, hosting the Monster Jam and the AMA Supercross Championship. The only events to draw more fans to Protective since it opened in 2021 were the Garth Brooks concert in 2022 and the 2021 Birmingham Bowl featuring Auburn against Houston.
Events during March also included an eight-day run of the musical Hadestown, concerts by Cody Johnson and Brandon Lake, the Alabama High School Athletic Association basketball tournament and G League basketball.
“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 said his staff put 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.”