{"id":363894,"date":"2026-06-17T06:01:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/363894\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T06:01:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:01:28","slug":"where-are-fresno-states-shakira-level-stadium-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/363894\/","title":{"rendered":"Where are Fresno State\u2019s Shakira-level stadium events?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the year nearly half over, Fresno State is still working on efforts to bring more events that would rival the scale of the sold-out Shakira concert<\/a> last August at its under-used football stadium.<\/p>\n

During a sit-down<\/a> with The Fresno Bee in October, Fresno State President Sa\u00fal Jim\u00e9nez-Sandoval said the university was aiming to host more high-level events at Valley Children\u2019s Stadium moving forward.<\/p>\n

Jim\u00e9nez-Sandoval didn\u2019t delve into specifics, though he said the university expected to host three to four large-scale events this year.<\/p>\n

Now that the year is about halfway over, Garrett Klassy \u2014 Fresno State\u2019s athletic director \u2014 says conversations are underway but nothing has been set in stone, yet.<\/p>\n

It has been an odd year for scheduling large-scale events, Klassy said, because of the World Cup and the strain that has put on some stadium availability, \u201cbut we do have active bids and ongoing conversations for future shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klassy said the sold-out Shakira show, which earned the university about $400,000 in revenue<\/a>, highlighted how Valley Children\u2019s Stadium can become a \u201cregional premier venue\u201d for large-scale events.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil agreements are finalized, we cannot discuss specific artists or dates, but our goal remains very clear: We want to bring more high-profile events to Fresno State and the Valley,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After the Shakira concert, Klassy told The Bee that the university hosting multiple high-level events each year could be a major financial boon for Fresno State.<\/p>\n

Additionally, people attending the Shakira concert helped boost the local economy<\/a> by spending more than $2,000,000 on lodging, transportation, food, retail and recreation.<\/p>\n

Klassy also acknowledged the impact the Shakira concert<\/a> attended by around 30,000 could have on the university\u2019s efforts to renovate its aging stadium or boost potential new construction on campus.<\/p>\n

Hosting more concerts could help attract potential investors in a public-private arrangement to renovate or build a new stadium and some sort of mixed-use campus, he said. Concert revenue could help smooth the way for Fresno County tax measures, twice-rejected in the past, to pay for upgrades to university infrastructure, he said.<\/p>\n

Fresno Bee reporter Robert Kuwada contributed to this report<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Nick Fenley<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Nick Fenley is a reporter covering education, lawsuits, breaking news and more for The Fresno Bee. He\u2019s originally from the Imperial Valley and has been with The Bee since 2025.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the year nearly half over, Fresno State is still working on efforts to bring more events that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-363894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}