‘The greatest arena ever built’: Inside the fiasco at Co-op Live

‘I think they’ve been kidding themselves’

By Mollie Simpson

It was just after Christmas when the people managing the construction of Europe’s largest music venue realised they had a problem. Work on Co-op Live, a vast new arena next to the Etihad Stadium, had been progressing for over a year, but after the festive break, a sense of panic set in. Suddenly workers on the site were told they were in a sprint against time. At this point, it “went from being a normal site to a 24-hour site”, says one contractor. 

The arena’s first night open to the public was scheduled for 19 April, last Saturday, and a lot was riding on it. Despite its £100m sponsorship deal with the Co-op, the real players behind the project are people who don’t like messing around: the Abu Dhabi-based owners of Manchester City and Oak View Group, a giant company that runs sports venues across America, led by a big-talking chief executive called Tim Leiweke. “Nobody needs to give me a pep talk about the UK – I’m spending £365m here,” Leiweke told the Telegraph last week, posing defiantly – arms crossed in a gilet – in front of an image of Co-op Live. 

But the army of workers constructing the big black box had harboured growing reservations about Leiweke’s ambitious timetable. “I think they [the project managers] have been kidding themselves,” says one person working on the site this week. He says most of his fellow workers knew the opening date wasn’t realistic “months ago”. “The whole team’s been saying it’s not going to be ready,” he adds. “They kept saying it’s going to be ready, and the workforce kept saying, not a chance. It’s just a bit of a joke, really.”

In the past week, Co-op Live’s problems have become public, chronicled by literally dozens of embarrassing updates on the Manchester Evening News. The Astley gig invited thousands of people into a venue that wasn’t ready for prime time and Peter Kay’s sold-out double bill has had to be rescheduled twice. On Thursday night, Co-op Live’s managing director Gary Roden resigned, having clumsily walked himself into a row about whether some smaller music venues are “poorly run”. Jessica Koravos, president of international at Oak View Group, has attempted to distance the group from Roden’s comment since, saying: “Neither Co-op Live nor Oak View Group share the sentiment expressed by former Co-op Live General Manager Gary Roden regarding the grassroots industry.”

Some whisper that a mix of Mancunian swagger and American hubris invited this fiasco in East Manchester. Others, including executives at another music arena a few miles away and a lobby of small-venue owners who have been in a war of words with Co-op Live, are just enjoying the show. 

Gary Roden and Co-op Live. Illustration by The Mill’s Jake Greenhalgh.