Company behind Manchester's Co-op Live plans to build "the greatest arena in the world" in London

The owners of Manchester’s Co-op Live arena have announced plans to build “the greatest arena in the world” in London.

Speaking with The Telegraph, Tim Leiweke, the CEO of Oak View Group – the company behind the Co-op Live arena - revealed plans for a new venue in the capital are in the works, though said it could be a up to a year before they are officially revealed.

Regarding a location, Leiweke teased: “If you guessed Hammersmith, it would be a good guess.”

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He continued: “We’re pretty focused on a particular site. We’re excited about the site.

“But I understand there’s a process, and we need to talk to neighbours, we need to talk to the community, we need to talk to the business leaders and to political leaders. We’re going to play by their rules, I’m not going to get ahead of them.

“No disrespect to New York or Los Angeles, but London is the best market in the world, especially for live entertainment. London deserves to have the greatest arena in the world. They don’t yet.”

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Recently, the new 23,500-capacity venue Co-op Live Arena in Manchester faced backlash after the venue was forced to postpone its opening and shows for the likes of comedian Peter Kay and band The Black Keys.

Problems with a test event headlined by Rick Astley led to more than 7,000 of the 11,000 ticketholders having their tickets cancelled just hours before the doors opened, with problems with the power on site cited as affecting fire safety and emergency service communication systems.

Since then various scheduled events have been postponed, and the general manager Gary Roden resigned following the controversy.

Manchester's Co-op Live arena will now be opened by A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie on May 1, with Olivia Rodrigo due to play on May 3 as planned.

[Via: The Telegraph]

Becky Buckle is Mixmag's Multimedia Editor, follow her on Twitter