MANCHESTER, UK (CelebrityAccess) — Manchester’s newest arena, Co-op Live, has officially opened its doors, with Tim Leiweke, chairman and CEO of Oak View Group (OVG), announcing that construction costs for the venue have reached nearly £450m (€523.4m) following a narrowly averted “catastrophic” incident earlier this month.
The venue took its bow on Tuesday night with a performance from the Manchester-based rock band Elbow, who performed in front of a crowd of approximately 12,000 fans, according to local media reports.
A joint venture between OVG and City Football Group, the parent company of Manchester City, Co-Op Live is part of the Etihad Campus, which also includes the Premier League club’s Etihad Stadium.
Co-op Live was initially scheduled to stage its first event in 2023, with a performance by comedian Peter Kay but the opening date was postponed to April 2024. The latest issues began last month when a rep for the arena announced it would not open as planned on April 23 due to power supply problems. This announcement followed an apology from the arena after it had to reduce capacity for a test event featuring Rick Astley at short notice.
Other postponements followed, including shows by The Black Keys, Olivia Rodrigo, and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, whose shows were relocated to nearby AO Arena.
Leiweke told the Manchester Evening News, “I think people should stop kicking and start appreciating what we have here, and the impact it’s going to create for Manchester. People who want to kick it, kick it. But we’ve shut up, we’ve spent the past three weeks getting the building ready, and now we open up… and I think we will have long-term success.
“We have 120 events in our first year, 120 events already booked. We sold 70,000 tickets last week for Billie Eilish. I don’t hear anyone talking about that, it’s like ‘wait a minute, this building is a failure?’ We just sold 70,000 tickets for Billie Eilish, Travis Scott sold out in three minutes. Most of those shows wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Co-op Live.”
Leiweke added: “Will it drive the economy here? Yes. That’s what I’m focused on. Are we frustrated, sorry and apologetic for the last three weeks? Yes, but this building is going to last 30-40 years and it’s the most expensive building ever built outside of the United States and we built it privately.”
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