Manchester Evening News Arena
The
Manchester Evening News Arena or
M.E.N. Arena (commonly referred to as just
Manchester Arena or the
MENA to a lesser extent) is a large indoor
arena situated in
Manchester,
England. It is currently sponsored by the
Manchester Evening News and has a capacity of 19,000- 22,500.
The M.E.N. Arena has been the largest indoor
arena in Europe since opening in 1995 and has remained one of the most structurally advanced venues on the continent. The arena was built to coincide with Manchester's 1996 Olympic bid, and was heavily promoted in the campaign for the 2000 Olympic bid. When opened the arena was the first large venue in Europe to follow the traditionally American arena layout of 360 degree seating and its style has been a prototype for many other arenas in Europe such as the
Kölnarena in
Cologne, Germany. Before the MEN Arena was built, most of Europe's largest indoor venue's seated a maximum of 12,000 people, and the venue's layouts were mostly similar to London's
Wembley Arena that were more like large theatre's. Because of this, large concerts were either usually held at outdoor venues or large convention centre's such as London's
Earls Court. The MEN Arena was purposely built to look like an American arena as prototype could be set for large scale venue's to be built across Europe. The building of similar venue's across Europe depended on the success of the MEN Arena. It could be argued that because of the success of the MEN Arena since opening, venue's such as
Sazka Arena in Prague,
Color Line Arena in Hamburg,
The O2 Arena in Berlin and now
The O2 Dome in London have been built or are under construction.
The MEN Arena has attracted 15 million customers since opening its doors in 1995. In 2003 and 2004 the arena celebrated being crowned the 'Busiest Arena Venue In The World' based on concert ticket sales. [
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The seating capacity is one of Europe's most dynamic in terms of variation and it is often a venue of choice for major touring acts because the arena's size and layout makes the venue ideal for any type of performance. The venue is split into two tiers (bowls) an upper and a lower. In between the two tiers are 44 hospitality suites.
Technical Facts* Lower bowl capacity- 10,762
* Upper bowl capacity- 8,870
* Large Theatre setup, 7,600
* Small Theatre setup, 3,500
* Hockey and Gymnastics, up to 17,643
*
FINA Swimming championships 2008, 17,250
* Basketball up to 20,500
* Boxing up to 22,500 maximum (fully seated)
* Side stage up to 10,600 (fully seated)
* Conventional end stage concerts, 13,500-15,800 (fully seated)
* Conventional end stage concerts, up to 19,350 (floor standing)
* In the round concerts, up to 20,400 (fully seated)
* In the round concerts, up to 21,600 (floor standing)
* 32 hospitality business suites
* 8 VVIP suites
* 4 party suites
The arena was named "International Venue Of The Year" in 2001 by concert Industry insiders 'Pollstar' and was nominated in the same category from 2002-2004. Winning the title of 'International Venue Of The Year' at the Pollstar Awards makes the MEN Arena one of the most important and successful venues in the world. In 2003 & 2004 the arena was also named "Busiest Arena Venue In The World" based on ticket sales per year across the globe beating all of the world's major concert venues such as New York's
Madison Square Garden and London's
Wembley Arena. Since opening in 1995 the arena sees over 155 events annually and over 1.2 million people pass through the arena doors each year for concerts alone, giving the arena the nickname 'Europe's busiest concert venue' in contrary to this the arena is now competing on a world stage with venues such as New York's
Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles'
Staples Center such the success of the venue. The arena's popularity is gaining each year as the last 3 years have seen a record of 180 events per year with 1.8 million visitors attending concerts, family shows, conventions and sporting events. The MEN Arena is considered to be the most major of the UK's indoor venues outside of London because of its size, popularity and prestige as a high calibre of stars have appeared at the venue such as
Kylie Minogue,
Madonna,
Bruce Springsteen,
Eric Clapton,
Janet Jackson,
Celine Dion,
The Rolling Stones,
Elton John, hometown boy
Ian Brown,
Mariah Carey and
Paul McCartney as well as most of today's major touring artists.
It was opened in
1995 and initially known as the
Nynex Arena as it was first sponsored by
Nynex.
Today, it plays host to many worldwide performing artists and shows including comedy acts, live music and tours, sporting events and occasionally musicals.
The arena has been the home of three sports teams, the
Manchester Storm and
Manchester Phoenix ice hockey teams and the
Manchester Giants basketball team. However, the arena is not currently the home of any sports teams despite this still retains the title of UK's busiest arena.
Boxers such as
Ricky Hatton,
Joe Calzaghe,
Mike Tyson,
Jeff Lacy, and
Kostya Tszyu have all fought in this arena along with many other world champions, Hatton becoming a regular and favourite of the Manchester Evening News Arena until his split with
Frank Warren who has exclusive rights to the arena for boxing shows. Other ring events include
WWE No Mercy 1999. On
October 26th 2002 it hosted the
WWE SmackDown UK-only pay-per-view Rebellion. Also on
October 11th 2004 it hosted the first ever
WWE RAW that was filmed in Europe. The Event had a sold out 22,463 people in attendance, and was followed the next day by a taping of
WWE SmackDown!. RAW and SmackDown! are set to return to the M.E.N. Arena on
November 13th and
November 14th 2006.
The arena was also used by
Manchester United when they won the
Champions League in
1999. The arena was the final destination of their bus tour which saw United parading the trophy to fans across Manchester.
Notable stars to appear at the arena include
Guns N' Roses,
Muse,
System of a Down,
Depeche Mode,
Pearl Jam,
Rammstein,
Ian Brown,
En Vogue,
Oasis,
Morrissey,
Madonna,
Paul McCartney,
R.E.M.,
The Rolling Stones,
Kylie Minogue,
Whitney Houston,
Luciano Pavarotti,
Elton John,
Stereophonics,
Foo Fighters,
Red Hot Chili Peppers,
U2,
Kanye West,
Tina Turner,
The Pogues,
Diana Ross,
Cher,
Britney Spears,
The Fugees,
Destiny's Child,
P Diddy,
Mary J Blige,
Christina Aguilera,
Eminem,
Tom Jones,
Shirley Bassey,
Rod Stuart,
David Bowie,
Dionne Warwick,
Jennifer Lopez,
P!nk,
Coldplay.
Technical Facts* The Arena has it's own 1,500 capacity car park
* The Arena is the European flagship venue of SMG
* Like
Madison Square Garden in New York and
TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, The MEN Arena is situated beside/above a main railway station. This makes that the 11.4 million people who live within an hours drive of the arena can get a train to the venue instead.
* It is claimed by the MEN Arena that it has the worlds largest indoor video scoreboard.
*29/07/06 -
Manchester Tattoo*30/07/06 -
North West Masters Football*21/09/06 -
Jay-Z*05/10/06 -
Andrea Bocelli*13/10/06 -
Tom Jones*05/11/06 -
P!nk*10/11/06 -
Muse*11/11/06 -
Muse*13/11/06 -
WWE Raw*14/11/06 -
WWE SmackDown!*24/11/06 -
Tool*25,26/11/06 -
Cliff Richard*14/12/06 -
Iron MaidenManchester was the winning city to host the
FINA World short course swimming championships to be held at the MEN Arena in 2008. A temporary 25 metre swimming pool (as well as 2 warm-up pools) will be erected onto the arena floor for the event. Over 100 nations will compete in the event including The USA, Australia, Great Britain, Russia, China, Canada and Brazil amongst others. For the event the arena will have a full spectator capacity of 17,250.
Popular Manchester based band
James played their final show with lead singer
Tim Booth at the arena.
In 1996 British boyband
Take That played 10 consecutive nights at the venue with 142,000 tickets being sold. This created the biggest movement of Britain's population since the end of the second world war.
Australian pop singer
Kylie Minogue is the female who has played the venue the most times. She played 6 shows as part of her
Fever Tour in 2002 (of which one was filmed for DVD release), She played the venue again for 5 consecutive nights as part of her
Showgirl Tour in 2005.Kylie Minogue has also performed at both TOTP award shows in 2001 and 2002, and performed alongside
Robbie Williams as his special guest in 2000 to sing their duet
Kids.
Mike Tyson's UK debut back in January 2000 caused a frenzy, both in terms of media and in the 'fight' to secure a ticket for this historical event. Tickets, priced from £30 up to a staggering £1,000 were quickly sold out. A massive 100 million television viewers, in 73 countries, and a sell-out 21,000 crowd in the Arena witnessed the fight.
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Manchester Evening News Arena website*
MEN Arena Photos
