| Manchester Arena | |
|---|---|
| Former names | NYNEX Arena (1995–1998) M.E.N. Arena (1998–2011) Manchester Arena (2012-) |
| Location | Manchester city centre, Manchester, Greater Manchester, England |
| Opened | 15 July 1995 |
| Owner | Capital & Regional and GE Real Estate UK |
| Surface | Various |
| Construction cost | £52 million (£74.5 million in 2012 pounds[1]) |
| Capacity | up to 21,000 |
| Website | men-arena.com |
The Manchester Arena is an indoor arena situated in Manchester, England. The arena is adjacent to Manchester Victoria station near Corporation Street. From 1998 to 2011, it was sponsored by the Manchester Evening News.[2]
The Manchester arena is the largest indoor arena in Europe with a capacity of 21,000, larger than the 20,000 O2 Arena in London and is one of the world's busiest indoor arenas hosting music and sporting events such as boxing and swimming.[3] It is Manchester's primary, all-year round concert venue ahead of Manchester Central.
Opening in 1995, the arena was central to Manchester's bids to host the Olympic Games in 1996 and 2000 (which were won by Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000) and was used for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The arena has been used for a variety of sports but has been mostly used for live concerts some of which were recorded.
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The structure was designed by DLA Ellerbe Beckett, Ove Arup & Partners, and Austin-Smith:Lord and described as " a huge soulless sports and entertainment complex, grafted onto the back of Victoria Station" by Clare Hartwell. A large truss measuring 105 metres spans the roof. Reinforced concrete is used to increase sound insulation. The upper parts of the building are clad in purple-grey with green glass.[4] The arena was opened on 15 July 1995.[5]
The arena was one of the first indoor venues in Europe to be built following the traditional American sports arena layout of 360 degree seating,[6] and is the only arena in the UK to have this feature (London's O2 Arena also has 360 degrees seating, but only on its lower tier, whereas the Manchester Arena features it on both tiers). Other European indoor venues built to the same concept include the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Arena Zagreb in Zagreb, Spaladium Arena in Split, Belgrade Arena in Belgrade, O2 Arena in Prague, and O2 World Hamburg in Hamburg.
The Manchester Arena was constructed as part of the city's unsuccessful bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics.[7] Construction cost £52 million of which £35.5m was provided by government grants and £2.5m from the European Regional Development Fund. Although built as an American style sports arena it has been more successful hosting large music events.[8]
On the opening night, 15,000 spectators watched Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean perform; the crowd was a record for an ice event.[9] Attendance records were set in 1997 when 17,425 people watched Manchester Storm play Sheffield Steelers, a record for an ice hockey match in Europe. When 14,151 people watched Manchester Giants play London Leopards, it set a British record for attendance at a basketball match.[9]
The arena opened in 1995 sponsored by NYNEX CableComms as the NYNEX Arena and was renamed in 1998.
| Venue | 2007 Ticket sales for concerts/shows |
|---|---|
| Manchester Arena, Manchester, UK | 1,245,196 |
| Madison Square Garden, New York City, USA | 1,230,433 |
| O2 Arena, London, UK | 1,209,376 |
| Wembley Arena, London, UK | 901,778 |
| Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada | 670,255 |
| HP Pavilion, San Jose, California, USA | 666,587 |
| Bell Centre, Montréal, Québec, Canada | 620,403 |
| Philips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia, USA | 564,258 |
| American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas, USA | 539,030 |
| Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte, NC, USA | 527,694 |
The venue attracts over a million customers each year for concerts and family shows, making it one of the world's busiest indoor arenas, and was named "International Venue Of The Year" in 2002 in the 'Pollstar' awards, and was nominated in the same category in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. The arena was named "Busiest Arena Venue In The World", based on ticket sales for concerts in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 ahead of other indoor arenas including the Madison Square Garden and Wembley Arena. The arena was the 'World's Busiest Arena' from 2001 until 2007 based on ticket sales for concerts, attracting five and a half million customers. It was voted 'Europe's Favourite Arena' at the TIP Awards in 2008 by the touring companies that bring the shows to the venue.
In 2008, the arena was world's third busiest arena behind London's O2 Arena and New York's Madison Square Garden. In 2009, it was the world's second busiest arena behind London's O2 Arena and ahead of Antwerp's Sportpaleis and Madison Square Garden. Although second to London's O2 Arena the Manchester Arena had its busiest year with over 1,500,000 people attending concerts and family shows. The arena hosts over 250 events annually including comedy, live music and tours, sporting events, and occasionally musicals.
The arena has hosted music concerts since opening in 1995 and is the arena's primary source of visitors.
Janet Jackson was scheduled to perform her All for You Tour on 5 December 2001, but the show was cancelled. Kylie Minogue performed a webcast of her KylieFever2002 tour on MSN for fans around the world.
The venue was used to record Westlife's Greatest Hits Tour DVD on 14 April 2003. Pink's performance, during her Try This Tour on 26 March 2004, was filmed and released on DVD as Pink: Live in Europe. McFly's Wonderland Tour was recorded there in 2005. Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad Tour was filmed on 6 December 2007 and released as the Good Girl Gone Bad Live DVD. The Spice Girls performed three shows during the Return of the Spice Girls Tour on 23/24/26 January 2008, the three last European shows of the tour. On 13–14 June 2008, Boyzone filmed their reunion tour, Back Again ... No Matter What DVD here.
The record for the fastest sell-out is held by Madonna when she performed her Sticky & Sweet Tour on July 7, 2009. All 13,457 tickets sold out in under a minute. Madonna was to perform two back-to-back shows but the July 8 show was cancelled.
On 15 July 2010, the arena celebrated its 15th birthday with a multi-artist gig, presented by Real Radio (North West).[11] An audience of nearly 10,000 was entertained by Scouting for Girls, Pixie Lott, The Script, Alexandra Burke, The Hoosiers, The Saturdays, Gabriella Cilmi, Taio Cruz, Craig David, Beverley Knight, Olly Murs, Amy McDonald, The Baseballs and Fyfe Dangerfield. Former steward, Peter Kay was a surprise guest which was hosted by Real Radio breakfast presenters Ditchy and Salty.
In November 2011, the arena hosted Children in Need Rocks Manchester as part of Children in Need 2011 and metal pioneers Deep Purple in The Songs That Built Rock Tour of the band.
In December 2011, The Saturdays performed here as a headlining act for the first ever time, as part of their All Fired Up Tour. The Manchester date was chosen to be filmed for a future DVD release.
The Manchester Arena has been the home of three sports teams: the Manchester Storm and Manchester Phoenix ice hockey teams, and the Manchester Giants basketball team with limited success, as it is no longer used by sports teams but is used for one-off sporting events such as boxing and football masters.
Many boxers have had bouts in the arena, such as Amir Khan, Jermaine Johnson, Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, Mike Tyson, and David Haye. Hatton, from Manchester, became a regular and favourite at the arena.
WWE has hosted multiple events at the arena. It first hosted WWF Mayhem in Manchester in 1998 attracting over 19,600 spectators (a European record for an indoor WWF/WWE event). The arena hosted No Mercy in 1999. On 26 October 2002 it hosted the SmackDown! UK-only pay-per-view WWE Rebellion, as it did in 2001. Also on 11 October 2004, it hosted a RAW taping, and was followed the next day by a taping of WWE SmackDown!. RAW and SmackDown! returned to the Manchester Arena on 13 and 14 November 2006 and returned for live tapings of RAW and Smackdown on 10 and 11 November 2008 respectively. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), made its first appearance at the arena in January 2009 and again in January 2010.
The Manchester Arena hosted mixed martial arts events. UFC 70 on 21 April 2007, and UFC 105 on 14 November 2009 for which it set the European record attendance for the largest UFC event outside the USA with 16,000 spectators. The World Taekwondo Qualification Event for the Beijing Olympic Games was held at there on 28–30 September 2007 when 103 countries competed for 24 places at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. In April 2008, the arena hosted the FINA Short Course World Swimming Championships, the first time the event has been held in the UK. The arena was transformed with two 25 m swimming pools constructed in 18 days and seating provided for 17,250 spectators.[12]
The arena was used by Manchester United when the club won the Champions League Final in 1999. The 2008 UEFA Champions League Final was shown on a big screen in front of 7000 spectators.
Monster truck racing events have been staged but the floor space has to be extended and the front section of seating in the lower tier removed.[13]
A meeting of Premier League Darts from the PDC Professional Darts Corporation takes place once a year and has done since 2008.
In May 2011, the arena hosted a basketball contest between the Atlanta Dream (WNBA) and the Great Britain Women's Basketball team, billed as "WNBA Live", the first time a WNBA team had played in Europe.
In July 2012 the Manchester Arena will host international basketball when Great Britain play USA in the build up to the Olympics.
The arena adjoins Manchester Victoria railway station where there is also a Metrolink tram stop. It has a large car park nearby and smaller car parks are located around the city centre.
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