Wollongong’s WIN Entertainment Centre turns 20, offers Emerald Prize

Bob Dylan opened the Wollongong’s 6,000-seat WIN Entertainment Centre with a sell-out show on September 3, 1998.

To mark its 20^th anniversary today, its operators have put together 20 special events over 20 weeks.

They are also offering an Emerald Prize worth $8,000, which provides the winner two free seats to every concert and sporting event throughout 2019.

“We’ve put on more than 1,400 events and hosted more than 3 million people across two decades,” said venue manager Marc Swan who also manages the adjacent 23,000-capacity WIN Stadium.

The Centre averages an event every five days and injects more than $20 million into Wollongong’s economy every year.

It has hosted everyone from Ed Sheeran and Pink to Cirque du Soleil; Dylan returned last month, and Cher plays there in October.

It’s also hosted local events as the Illawarra Hawks basketball games, the annual school spectacular Southern Stars which drew 4,000 patrons on the weekend, and the Illawarra Business Chamber (IBC) Awards which set a new attendance record with 1,030 seated for dinner.

Management and owner Venues NSW are about to begin work on a concept plan to be devised with the community that would allow it to draw a wider range of events in the future.

For more information about the Emerald Prize head over to the WIN Entertainment Centre website.