Harry Styles backs Manchester’s new sustainable £365m super arena
| 1st July 2022
Manchester’s new super arena, backed by Harry Styles, has revealed more details of the epic venue that promises to bring the best bands, shows and performances to the heart of the city centre.
It’s set to put Manchester centre stage as home to the UK’s largest arena, rivalling New York’s Madison Square Garden, The Forum in LA and The O2 in London and will be based on the city’s Etihad Campus.
Opening in 2023, Co-op Live will have a 23,500-capacity and is costing £365m (Harry is investing – thanks Harry) and promises to bring over a hundred of the best global acts to the city every year and deliver a transformative live entertainment experience for artists and fans alike.
It’s electric
Harry Styles backs Manchester’s new sustainable £365m super arena
It will be the UK’s first all-electric arena and the most sustainable venue in Europe, with Co-op Live achieving net zero carbon by 2038.
It’s called Co-op Live following a naming rights partnership with the Co-op, which will see Co-op members get exclusive benefits including pre-sale tickets, so get involved to get more bang for your buck and who doesn’t need that now?
What’s more, the partnership with the Co-op underpins the venue’s commitment to giving back, through the generation of £1m annually for good causes, delivering thousands of jobs, supporting local suppliers, and generating a £1.5bn additional economic boost for Manchester.
The venue will be announcing its first acts for events in 2023 in September this year and VIVA can’t wait.
Thank you Harry Styles
It’s backed by investors, Oak View Group, City Football Group and of course international superstar Harry Styles (did we mention that?).
Co-op Live told VIVA: “We’re really excited to open our doors in Manchester. We have designed the venue to transform the live music experience for both artists and fans. Co-op Live will cement Manchester as one of the world’s largest live entertainment markets, bringing an additional 120 events and 1.3 million visitors annually into the city’s already thriving calendar.”
Boasting a flexible layout, the venue will host everything from superstar concerts to sports events and award shows, meeting the needs of local and global fans.
While Co-op Live will be the UK’s largest arena, it’s uniquely designed to make artists and fans experience performances feel like an intimate nightclub. The purpose-built music venue will have a ‘black box’ bowl design that brings fans closer to the stage than ever before and a low ceiling height to improve acoustics and create intimacy. The black box design also offers a unique black canvas for artists and its large standing space will be able to house up to 7,500 fans.
Sustainability is at the core of Co-op Live’s design and its future operations. The building will be fully powered by electricity, with a solar powered roof, rainwater harvesting, heat source technologies, and LED lighting. Construction materials are also locally sourced where possible and the venue is committed to zero waste to landfill and reduced packaging. When it opens, Co-op Live will be the most sustainable entertainment venue in Europe.
The team behind the venue is currently working in partnership with Coldplay’s sustainability consultants, Hope Solutions, to ensure its on track to deliver its net zero carbon goals.
The team behind it
Harry Styles backs Manchester’s new sustainable £365m super arena
Spear-headed by Oak View Group (OVG), a global sports and entertainment company founded by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff in 2015, the new super arena is their lasted project. OVG is focused on being a positive disruption to business as usual in the sports and live entertainment industry and currently has eight divisions across global offices (Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Philadelphia, and London).
A range of world-leading brands, led by Co-op as naming rights partner, have joined the project as official partners and sponsors. These include official drinks supplier Diageo and official motor retailer Bristol Street Motors, as well as Britvic, Elavon, Unilever, and Schneider Electric. Co-op Live is pioneering gigs that give back with a commitment that over £1m will be donated to local and national good causes each year, and all partners have agreed to make annual donations.
The construction project, the single-largest in the city, is generating a significant boost to the regional economy and over the next 20 years will create an additional impact of £1.5bn in the local area. The construction phase is supporting thousands of jobs, including apprenticeships for local people, and the venue will support a further 1,000 roles once open.
Oak View Group has joined forces with City Football Group (CFG), Harry Styles, and Co-op to create Co-op Live, the biggest and best arena in the UK and the project is injecting £350m of private investment into the North West.
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