KEY POINTS:
Since the doors opened at Vector Arena in March 2007, the indoor arena has drawn some of the biggest acts in the world and huge crowds.
In December alone, Kylie Minogue, Billy Joel, John Mellencamp, Sheryl Crowe, Alicia Keys and Kanye West appeared at the waterfront stadium with its distinctive curved and tipped roof.
Add earlier performances by the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stevie Wonder and Split Enz and there is no doubt Aucklanders have never had it so good for live rock, pop and heavy metal.
The multi-purpose venue has also hosted the Dalai Lama, been turned into an ice rink for Disney's High School Musical - The Ice Tour, and held a World Wrestling Entertainment show and international netball matches between the Silver Ferns and Australia.
Arena chief executive Guy Ngata says Vector Arena has definitely cemented its growing reputation as a venue capable of hosting the world's biggest stars. This coincided with a buoyant time for live touring and a lot of older artists re-forming and getting back on the road. New Zealand had always been kind to those people, he said.
The Herald's entertainment editor, Russell Baillie, said Vector Arena had opened up live music to a mainstream audience.
"It's doing what it's meant to do. Bringing all those acts that need a roof to an arena. There are not that many acts in this day and age that play outdoors," he said.
Brent Eccles, who has brought the likes of Kylie Minogue, Alicia Keys and Billy Joel to Auckland as a local promoter for Australasia's Frontier Touring Company, said Vector had put Auckland, and New Zealand, on the map of major touring artists.
It meant Aucklanders got to see the likes of Alicia Keys when she was hot rather than on the way down, which was often the case in the past.
Eccles said Vector's advantages were that it could hold up to 10,000 people, was not weather dependent and it stacked up financially to become part of the Australian circuit.
Baillie said one reason for the arena's success was the location and hassle-free experience - ease of access, no queues for food and drink, that sort of thing.
His only gripe was the lack of New Zealand beer. Australian beer rules.
That may have something to do with the the operator - Quay Park Arena Management - being an Australian company with a 40-year lease to run the arena.
Ngata has a small team of 18 fulltime staff running Vector, but up to 250 more casual staff are used on event days from security to merchandising, food and beverage.
"We can't control the performance of the artists, but we can control those things that we have an input into."
