Twenty-two venues owned, operated or affiliated with AEG Facilities were included in the list of the Top 100 arenas worldwide in Pollstar Magazine's '12 mid-year rankings. The list reflects tickets sold for concerts and other shows from Jan. 1 through June 30. The report also indicated that AEG Facilities' venues accounted for four of the top 10 venues wordwide, with 44% of total ticket sales in the top 10 arenas and 38% of those from the top 20. London's The O2 tops the list at No. 1, with more than 694,000 tickets sold in the first half of '12 (AEG Facilities).
HORSE TRACK: In London, Will Hayler reported that Leicester racecourse's recent run of "rain-related misfortune" shows no sign of coming to an end. No racing has taken place at the track since the start of last month and with Wednesday's fixture now gone, Manager David Maykels admitted that the "recent abandonments were beginning to become depressing, not to mention an unwelcome financial burden." Maykels said, "We had 32 meetings in the book for this year and in a normal year we'd expect to lose three or four, but we've already had eight abandoned" (GUARDIAN, 7/17).