How Oakland Arena became the Bay Area's unofficial home for K-pop

( KRON ) — The Oakland Raiders just had their 2018 season opener on Monday night Sept. 10 at the Coliseum against the Los Angeles Rams. A group of fans were seen lining up outside the stadium, but neither were Raiders nor Rams fans.

It was fans of BTS camping two days before the K-pop boy band sensation’s first concert in the Bay Area. BTS was the first K-pop act to headline Oakland Arena, and six years later, the venue has become the Bay Area’s unofficial home for K-pop.

Since 2018, Oakland Arena has hosted 17 K-pop concerts with 10 of them happening in 2024 alone — the most recent a sold-out IU show . The venue understands the dedication of K-pop fans and the lengths they’ll go to watch their favorite artist in concert.

K-pop concerts’ impact on local economy

Korean singer-songwriter IU performed for the first time in California on Tuesday, July 30. Despite more than 15 years in the spotlight, this year, she finally made her way to tour North America.

IU’s fans, “Uaena,” traveled from not only outside the Bay Area but also out of the state. Before the concert, KRON4 spoke with fans outside the arena — some coming all the way from Seattle, Texas and Southern California.

These kinds of concerts bring many visitors to the city. According to Oakland Arena GM Nicole Strange, the events have had a huge impact on Oakland’s and Alameda County’s local economy by visitors eating out at local restaurants or booking hotel rooms.

“It’s huge,” Strange said. ” We book some of these K-pop shows and that they sell out so quickly that people are buying their plane tickets and flying to Oakland, so it’s had a huge impact.”

Oakland Arena is a proven destination to host K-pop concerts

From TWICE to BTS to Enhypen to ITZY, Oakland Arena has been the host venue for many of the biggest names in the genre. The venue has gained a positive reputation for the artists, which leads to Oakland Arena being the venue choice for many artists’ Bay Area stop.

“People are reaching out to us, interested in the arena for holding concerts, and then we’re providing them with evidence and reasons why they should bring the show here, especially with K-Pop shows, ” said Oakland Arena VP of Booking Gretchen Claffey. “We’ve really just proven ourselves that we’re a great destination for it.”

“We really are now known internationally to be the premiere K-Pop venue. We don’t take it for granted. And we definitely work hard to make sure each show goes really well, and hopefully, they keep taking us.”

Part of what makes Oakland Arena an ideal destination is its atypically open space and large parking lot.

In K-pop, buying tour merchandise is a big part of the concert experience, and the extra real estate is great for that. A large mobile truck is parked right outside the venue, and fans — standing in typically long lines — can gather and wait to get their hands on concert memorabilia.

Live events fill void left by pro sports teams’ departure from Coliseum complex

K-pop concerts have helped the arena fill a void when the Golden State Warriors left in 2019. Along with a variety of other music genres, concerts have been Oakland Arena’s bread and butter with K-pop leading the way.

“When the Warriors were here, they had a huge run, five years of Finals. When they left, it freed up about 55 to 60 dates of availability,” Strange said. “So, it allowed us to fill those and book those with concerts. So I think that was huge, a huge impact for the arena, the property, the city, everything.”

Well over 150,000 people have walked through the Oakland Arena doors to watch a K-pop concert in a six-year span, according to Claffey.

“It is a very competitive landscape around here, but it’s really about keeping a positive reputation and making sure fans and promoters and artists have a good experience here, which we’ve done,” Claffey said. “People want to keep coming back, so we’re happy about that.”

Both Strange and Claffey agreed that the biggest and most excitement around a K-pop concert at the venue is still BTS in 2018.

Despite the Warriors, Raiders and soon-to-be A’s leaving the Coliseum complex, live shows and concerts have filled the void pro sports have left. In the last five months of 2024, Oakland Arena is hosting more than 25 live events to finish off the year.

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