How McDonald Jones Stadium transforms from footy field to rock stage

Within hours of the full-time whistle being blown on Saturday night at the sold-out Rugby League World Cup semi-final, the attention of McDonald Jones Stadium's staff turned to the Foo Fighters.

In fact, the team of 11 full-time staff have been planning the US rock band's first Newcastle gig since it was announced in February.

The rugby league goal posts were removed, electrical cabling was changed and parts of the concert stage were bumped in to the southern end of the Broadmeadow stadium.

By 9am on Sunday, the mammoth stage that will host Dave Grohl and company on Thursday, followed by British pop superstar Robbie Williams next Tuesday, was taking shape.

McDonald Jones Stadium venue manager Dean Mantle described the swift transition from sports to live music venue as a "jigsaw puzzle".

"We try and make sure that it's all ready to roll before they get here so that it's just super streamlined and there's no delays and we haven't got guys standing around waiting," Mr Mantle said.

Ensuring all the pieces of the jigsaw fit has never been of greater importance at Turton Road.

The Hunter's largest entertainment venue is in the middle of its busiest and most varied period.

Over the past six weeks, McDonald Jones Stadium has hosted an NRL grand final watch party (October 4), a post-decider Knights fan day (October 5), two Jets A-League Men games (October 24 and October 31) and New Zealand and Tonga's World Cup semi-final (November 7) for a collective crowd of more than 70,000.

About 30,000 people are expected to attend Thursday's Foo Fighters show. While tickets are still available for the Robbie Williams and Guns N' Roses (December 8) concerts and the AUSX Supercross grand final (November 28), the three events should attract at least another 80,000 punters.

The Guns N' Roses show will close McDonald Jones Stadium's biggest ever year at 40 events.

"We're used to having a full year," Mr Mantle said.

"No longer do we really have an off-season anymore. It used to be that you'd play the NRL, then you'd have a little break and then go into the A-League, and that was kind of all we did.

"Now that we're doing all these other events, anything from international football and motocross, all these different events are coming in, and it kind of then eats up that off-season.

"This is probably going to be the biggest year that we've had for a very long time, and the intensity of this five-week period is probably something that we won't really see again.

"I guess all the stars have aligned to allow us to land three concerts. It's probably a rarity that we'll get three in one year."

While the stadium is unlikely to land another trifecta of big concerts next year, Mr Mantle said negotiations were under way.

"At the moment we've got some pencilled dates for November and December next year, 2027," he said.

"We're a little way off. Those discussions are continuing on, and hopefully I'd suggest at this point in time, probably in the new year, we'll have a little bit more detail on that.

"There's a lot of other content that we're chasing as well that'll sort of fit in and around the rugby league season through the NRL.

"We've got a really exciting period of time next year for October for the Rugby World Cup. So that'll be a massive focus for us to try and sort of prepare for that."