Events at the O2 Arena

The O2 Arena has hosted some of the world's best known performers, comedy acts and sports teams from around the world. Some of the events that have been held there are listed below.

Musical events

Metallica performing at The O2 Arena

Since opening in 2007, The O2 Arena has hosted hundreds of concerts from UK and international superstars. It was named the World's Best Venue by Pollstar in 2009.

Anschutz opened The O2 Arena on 23 June 2007, with a free event for all of the building's employees billed as 'The O2 Premiere' hosted by Dermot O'Leary and featuring Peter Kay, Tom Jones, Kaiser Chiefs and Basement Jaxx. Snow Patrol then played a concert to an audience made up of sponsors, local residents, local business employees and winners of an online competition. Indie band Goldspot were the first band to play to the general public at the arena on 24 June 2007. They were supporting Bon Jovi, who became the first band to headline at The O2.^[1] Keane's Under the Iron Sea Tour was the first to be filmed at the Arena for a DVD release.

Below is a list of performers (in alphabetical order) that have performed at the arena since its opening in 2007.

Sports events

Tennis

Rafael Nadal against Andy Roddick in the 2010 ATP World Tour Finals

The arena hosted the first ever Turbo Tennis Tournament on 15 September 2007 which was won by Andy Murray. From 2009 until 2018 it has been selected as the venue for the ATP World Tour Finals.^[7]

Ice hockey

The arena has also hosted two National Hockey League contests, which started the 2007–08 NHL season, on 29 and 30 September, both involving the Anschutz-owned Los Angeles Kings and their regional rivals from Southern California, the Anaheim Ducks.^[8]

Basketball

New Jersey Nets v Miami Heat NBA game

An NBA exhibition match between the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves took place at the arena on 10 October 2007. The game sold out more than three months beforehand. The arena also hosted the Miami Heat and New Jersey Nets (NBA) pre-season games before the 2008–09 season.^[9] Just like the previous NBA exhibition game, tickets for the game sold out three months beforehand.^[10]

The Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz played an exhibition match on 6 October 2009 in London as part of NBA Europe Live. The Chicago Bulls won the match 102–101 in front of a sell-out crowd.

On 4 October 2010, The Los Angeles Lakers took on the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Timberwolves won the game 111–92 in front of a crowd of 18,689.

The New Jersey Nets defeated the Toronto Raptors on 4 March 2011, by a score of 116–103.^[11] The teams met again on 5 March 2011, with a New Jersey Nets victory in 3 overtimes, 137–136.^[12] 4 March marked the first time an NBA regular season game has taken place at the O2 Arena.

The Great Britain National Basketball Team have also played several games there, with an attendance of 7,244 for the win over the Czech Republic qualification match for EuroBasket 2009. It is expected this will soon become a home arena for the National Side.

The arena hosted the knockout stage of the men's and women's basketball tournaments during the 2012 Summer Olympics.

A 2012–13 NBA season game took place at the O2 Arena between the Detroit Pistons and the New York Knicks on 17 January 2013. The Knicks won the match 102–87.^[13]

A 2014–15 NBA season game took place at the O2 Arena between the Milwaukee Bucks and the New York Knicks on 15 January 2015. The Bucks won the match 95–79.^[14]

The arena is scheduled to host the 2013 Euroleague Final 4.^[15]

Gymnastics

2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

It was used for the 2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and hosted artistic gymnastics events at the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[16]

Boxing

The first sporting event to take place was the Commonwealth Boxing Lightweight title fight featuring Amir Khan on 14 July 2007. In March 2008, the arena hosted a match between David Haye and Enzo Maccarinelli, and in November 2008 Haye fought Monte Barrett. 2008 Olympic gold medalist James Degale fought rival George Groves in May 2011^[17] and the arena hosted the much anticipated rematch between Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler in May 2013^[18]

Squash

The arena hosted the British Open 2012, one of the two most prestigious tournaments in the world.

Mixed martial arts

The arena has hosted four mixed martial arts events promoted by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, including UFC 75 in September 2007, UFC 85 in June 2008, UFC 95 in February 2009, UFC 120 in October 2010 and UFC Fight Night: Gustafsson vs. Manuwa in March 2014.

UFC 120 featuring Michael Bisping and Yoshirio Akiyama had an attendance of 17,133 breaking the European attendance and gate receipts record which was set by the MEN at UFC 105. It was also the biggest box office sporting event in O2 Arena history.

Darts

On 11 February 2010, the O2 Arena hosted the opening night of the Premier League Darts, Britain's biggest indoor sporting event. Fans travelled from all over the UK to see the likes of Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Simon Whitlock and James Wade in action. Over 8,000 fans attended the event. In 2010 and 2011, it hosted week 1 and since 2012, it has hosted the play-offs.

Olympics and Paralympics

During the 2012 Summer Olympics it was the venue for gymnastics, for which it had a spectator capacity of 16,500, and for basketball finals, with a capacity of 20,000. During the 2012 Summer Paralympics it was the venue for some wheelchair basketball round robin matches (when the basketball arena at Olympic Park was in use for other matches) and finals, for which it had a capacity of 18,000.^[19] Due to IOC sponsorship regulations, it was officially known as North Greenwich Arena during the games.^[20] The rest of the basketball and wheelchair basketball competitions took place at an arena in the Olympic Park.^[21] A 6,000 seat temporary venue called North Greenwich Arena 2 was to be built nearby to stage the Olympic badminton and rhythmic gymnastics events, but instead these took place at Wembley Arena.^[22]

Pro Wrestling

As WWE visits the United Kingdom bi-annually, the WWE, as a tradition, hosts their flagships show in London, and more specifically, the O2 Arena. This includes Monday Night Raw and Thursday Night Smackdown. This has been a tradition for WWE since their first United Kingdom tour. However, due to the time difference, these shows are not shown live as they are taped to be shown 3 hours later, for the citizens of the United States to watch this flagship show at the default time.

Entertainment events

Comedy

In May 2008, Chris Rock became the first comedian to play the arena, breaking a Guinness World Record for the largest audience for a comedy show,^[23] though this was never an official record and has since been broken by German comedian Mario Barth.^[24] Lee Evans, Steve Coogan and The Mighty Boosh all appeared at the arena in 2008, followed by Canadian stand-up Russell Peters in February 2009. High profile stand-ups Al Murray, Eddie Izzard and Michael Mcintyre have all performed in 2009. Russell Brand performed at the O2 Arena in April 2009; as well as performing stand up comedy, he recorded several scenes for his new movie Get Him to the Greek, using the audience for his stand-up as a live crowd for a rock concert.^[25]

On 30 March 2010, the O2 Arena hosted Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a stand-up comedy benefit show in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, in front of 14,000. With over 25 comedians appearing, organiser Channel 4 billed it as "the biggest live stand up show in United Kingdom history".^[26]

Some of the UK's most successful comedians are now performing at the O2 Arena during their stand-up tours such as Russell Howard who performed there in his 2011 tour "Right Here, Right Now". Alan Carr performed his tour "Spexy Beast" in late 2011. Louis C.K. performed there on 20 March 2013.

On 21 November 2013, the five surviving members of Monty Python announced that they will perform a one off reunion show at the arena on 1 July 2014. Another 9 dates were added after the first show sold out in 43 seconds.^[27]

Film

The arena has hosted The Hunger Games, The Simpsons Movie, High School Musical 2 and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian premières, and also an advance screening of Die Hard 4.

Theatrical and ice shows

The arena has hosted performances of Ben Hur Live and Walking with Dinosaurs The Arena Spectacular. Other such events include Viva La Diva, Strictly Come Dancing live tour.

Ice shows have included Disney On Ice and High School Musical On Ice.

In October 2010, the arena was host to the 25th Anniversary concert of the musical Les Misérables

Christmas and New Year celebrations

December 2009 saw a Christmas spectacular in association with Raymond Gubbay, introduced by Mylene Klass, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Choral Society, tenor Jon Christos and soprano's Alison Jiear and Stephanie Corley.

Wrestling

WWE Raw in April 2011

The O2 Arena has hosted multiple WWE events including live tapings of WWE Raw on 14 April 2008, 20 April 2009, 12 April 2010, 18 April 2011, 16 April 2012, 22 April 2013, 19 May 2014 and 13 April 2015. It also hosted WWE SmackDown on 18 April 2008, 24 April 2009, 16 April 2010, 22 April 2011, 20 April 2012, 26 April 2013, 23 May 2014 and 14 April 2015. The arena also hosted many live tapings of ECW, WWE Superstars, WWE Main Event and WWE NXT.

Church events

In September 2009, Hillsong Church London's 10-year anniversary church service was hosted at the O2 Arena. The venue was filled to capacity, causing over 4,000 attendees to be turned away at the doors.

In 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014, the Hillsong Conference Europe was held in the O2 Arena and will return in July 2015. Hillsong Conference Europe was not held in the O2 Arena in 2012 due to the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. Instead it was held in both The Hague and Stockholm.

In August 2010, there was a Christ Embassy Night of Bliss with Pastor Chris Service held at the O2 Arena.

In 2011, a combined event for the celebration of Pentecost was held at the O2 Arena as a joint effort between churches Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB Churches), Hillsong Church London and Jesus House. They had an attendance of over 16,000 delegates.

Other events

The O2 Arena held the Scout event Live 07 in 2007 to celebration of the centenary of the Scout movement.

The O2 Arena hosted Andrew Reynolds Entrepreneurs Bootcamp^[28] – the largest conference event held to date at the venue. Andrew Reynolds Bootcamp broke a UK record with its innovative High Definition projection screen – not only the largest ever used at the O2 Arena – but the largest indoor screen in the UK. Measuring around 34.5 metres by 12 metres, the huge screen formed the central part of a huge stage set for the Entrepreneurs event which was provided by smyle.co.uk.

References

External links

• Official website