Vienna’s new event arena, now under construction in the St. Marx area of the 3rd district, is expected to be completed by 2030, city officials have announced.

The project will be built and operated by the German corporation CTS Eventim, which secured the contract on its second attempt, said City Councillor Peter Hanke and Wien Holding director Kurt Gollowitzer.

The Wien Holding Arena, with a capacity of 20,000, will host major concerts, sports events and exhibitions. The venue is expected to stage around 145 events annually.

The arena is being built on a site next to the Rinderhalle (now known as Marx-Halle), which has sat unused for years. Originally part of the city’s former slaughterhouse, the area was once reserved for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) when it considered building new headquarters there. Plans to construct an event hall on this site were initially announced in 2019, with the aim of opening in 2024, though this target has since slipped.

The delay was due to a Vienna Administrative Court ruling, which nullified the initial contract award after a legal challenge.

A resolution was eventually reached in a “clarification meeting” with CTS Eventim, which was among the initially unsuccessful bidders. The agreement sees the city contributing up to €153 million, with CTS Eventim covering the rest. The project is expected to cost between €450 million and €500 million in total, according to CTS Eventim CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, whose company also operates the Austrian ticketing platform Ö-Ticket.

The arena’s architectural design is based on the winning concept from a 2020 competition. Ownership of the land itself will remain with the city.