M

ata Elang International Stadium (MEIS), one of the country'€™s leading venues for international concerts and events located in Ancol Dreamland, North Jakarta, is going out of business.

'€œWe have closed the venue voluntarily and will not conduct any activities there or sublease it to another party,'€ Henry Yosodiningrat, one of the shareholders of the stadium, said at a media conference at Twin Plaza Hotel, West Jakarta, on Thursday.

MEIS has been in the spotlight after the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) reprimanded the stadium management for not having a noise nuisance permit for its events and concerts.

The agency made the claim based on Bylaw No. 15/2011 on business premises permits.

MEIS management responded that the operator of the building, PT Wahana Agung Indonesia Propertindo, should have obtained the permit because the stadium was merely a tenant.

Henry said that the building operator had tried to take advantage of the situation by asking the stadium to pay Rp 250 million (US$20,851) for every event held at the venue.

He added that the company had been dragged into a tiresome dispute and was not willing to continue the argument over who was responsible for the permit.

'€œEnough is enough! Even though I do not believe we need the permit to run this place. I think we should just close down,'€ he said.

Abdee, lead guitarist of legendary local pop rock band Slank, who also attended the press conference, said he deplored the closure of the venue.

'€œThe music industry in this country needs a representative venue like this,'€ he said.

The operation director of the stadium, Linda Banowati, echoed the sentiment. She added that since the dispute started, the building operator had attempted to make everything difficult for the company.

'€œAfter the permit dispute, our two last events faced a lot of problems as the management of the building initially did not want to give us permission to hold them,'€ Linda told reporters.

Linda said that the after the closure, the stadium would be back in business as soon as possible and intended to build three more venues.

'€œWe will build one in Jakarta and two in Bali. We hope, at least, that we can start to operate one of them next year,'€ she said.

According to Henry, the building management should pay for any material losses related to the conflict.

In 2012, the stadium signed a 25-year lease on the premises.

'€œWe will demand compensation for our loss from the lease, which we already paid as well as our investment to renovate the empty space into a luxurious venue with a capacity for more than 10,000 people,'€ Henry added.

The stadium, touted as one of the biggest indoor stadiums in Southeast Asia, was located on the third floor of Ancol Beach City, a building managed by PT Wahana Agung Indonesia Propertindo for property operator PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol.

Since the venue opened in early 2012, it has held a number of events, such as the Dream Theater and the Super Junior concert in 2012 as well as Taylor Swift'€™s concert and the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which were held in June this year.

The latest event was a Shinee concert last Sunday. The concert was considered success, with thousands of Korean boy band fans flocking the venue and forking out Rp 800,000 to Rp 2.5 million for tickets. (idb)