Niall Horan (left), Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson of One Direction attend the 2014 iHeart Radio Music Festival on Sept. 20 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Credit: Courtesy of TNS

Niall Horan (left), Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson of One Direction attend the 2014 iHeart Radio Music Festival on Sept. 20 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Credit: Courtesy of TNS

British boy band One Direction is set to perform at Ohio Stadium next year after new dates for its “On the Road Again” tour were announced Thursday.

The pop group is set to perform in Columbus on Aug. 18, making it the second concert announced at the venue for next summer.

“We knew they were planning a stadium tour, and we just went for it,” said Gary O’Brien, OSU spokesman for business advancement.

The pop group, which formed out of the embers of its members’ failed solo acts on “The X Factor,” also did a sell-out stadium tour in 2014. Ending Oct. 5, it grossed more than $290 million from about 3.4 million attendees.

Ohio Stadium is the only current college-exclusive stadium booked on One Direction’s 2015 tour. Despite its capacity of nearly 105,000 people, Ohio Stadium is only set to host 62,000 for the concert, O’Brien said, adding that areas behind the stage will not be ticketed.

The ‘Shoe is also set to host Buckeye Country Superfest on June 20-21, headlined by Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts and Kenny Chesney.

Ohio Stadium has not hosted a concert since 2003, when the venue hosted Metallica, Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit.

Athletic director and vice president Gene Smith said he has been working to make the venue more active since coming to the university in 2005. “We cannot have an asset of this magnitude and of this level of importance to our community and our state sit idle,” he said Oct. 7.

Smith said Buckeye Country Superfest is expected to bring in $30 million to the Columbus area. The economic impact of the One Direction concert has not been calculated, O’Brien said, though it is not expected to be as lucrative as the two-day country festival.

The tickets for the One Direction show are set to go on presale Friday, before going on general sale Nov. 1. With fees, tickets prices range from $57.85 to $123.25.

An earlier version of this story misnamed Buckeye Country Superfest and said the last concert at Ohio Stadium was in 2013. It was, in fact, in 2003.