New Opening Date For £365million Co-op Live Indoor Arena Announced
A new opening date for Co-op Live, the £365m indoor arena being built by Manchester City's Etihad Stadium, has been announced. The megastructure will now open its doors for the first time in April next year. The project was originally expected to have been completed by December this year but now test events are planned to be staged in April with an exact date for the first act open to the paying public due to be announced in the coming months.
The 23,500-capacity arena is being built by BAM Construct UK and is being led by a joint venture between City Football Group and Los Angeles-based Oak View Group, with several other investors also involved.
A Co-op Live spokesman said: “Co-op Live will be opening our doors to fans in April 2024. It's huge kudos to BAM, and the dozens of local subcontractors working on the project, that we are well within our original timeframe and on-budget given the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, supply chain shortages, and an energy crisis. We're proud to be on the home stretch to delivering Co-op Live and we can’t wait to invite fans in to experience the biggest and most sustainable arena in the UK.”
It had also previously been expected that Co-op Live would start announcing the first shows in September 2022, with tickets going on sale a few months later. When complete Co-op Live will feature a 'smart bowl' which took inspiration from conversations with Bruce Springsteen and Harry Styles. The bowl will feature no corporate branding and will be lined by suites at the edges of level two which will include soundproof black curtains to maximise the impact of shows' sound and lighting.
The arena will also include the largest floor space of any indoor venue, a “significantly lower” ceiling, and tiered seating, with the venue comprising 32 bars, restaurants and lounges, including a locally sourced and sustainable food and drink.
Co-op Live has a target to be net carbon neutral by 2038, be a 100% electric building, have almost 9,000 sqm of solar panels and produce no food waste. It also aims to have no single use plastic on site, send no waste to landfill and use all the rainwater it collects. The impact on the environment is a major plus point of the whole project and one that bosses will be hoping will help entice the largest acts from across the world to choose Co-op Live over other rival venues. They will be hoping that most environmentally-conscious acts such as Coldplay will pick Co-op Live because of its green credentials instead of looking at other venues in the city.
In order to meet its net-zero carbon ambitions, bosses hired a sustainability consultancy used by Glastonbury Festival and Coldplay. When it opens, Manchester will get its second indoor arena but the marketplace is already a crowded one as gigs can be staged at the likes of Emirates Old Trafford and Manchester United's Old Trafford Stadium. But the biggest competitor is sure to be the AO Arena which will be around 30 years old by the time Co-op Live opens its doors.
In an attempt to respond to its new competition, the arena announced a £50m revamp from last summer that will see the venue undergo a complete 're-imagination'. Bosses have previously said the venue will generate £1.5bn for the local economy, create 3,500 construction jobs during the build and a further 1,000 jobs and apprenticeships when it opens. About 80% of the events will be music but bosses have previously hinted that bids could be submitted to host NBA, tennis or boxing matches as well as a range of family-friendly acts.
