Bristol Arena to open in 2008? 2017? 2022? 2028!

Left: an artist's impression of YTL Arena Bristol. Other images: the Brabazon Hangars pictured in 2018 (pics. Mike Gartside)

Are the decades of waiting for an arena in Bristol finally coming to an end? Local people hope they’ll soon be able to watch major acts in their home city.

The company building the proposed new Bristol arena has said the 19,000 capacity venue will now open in 2028, a full six years later than expected and two entire decades after the city was originally promised an arena by Bristol City Council (BCC). The history of Bristol’s attempts to build a large live music venue for its 480,000 inhabitants (the largest conurbation in the UK not currently served by an arena) has more twists and turns than a bad soap opera, but residents are hoping the saga is at last in its final episode.

Last week Colin Skellett, chief executive of YTL UK, the British arm of the Malaysian family-owned multi-national YTL, gave “the best guarantee I can give you” that the arena it promised in 2018 would open in three years’ time. It will be sited at the old Filton airfield, north Bristol, on the city’s border with South Gloucestershire, in the hangars where the giant passenger aircraft Brabazon was built in the 1940s and ‘50s, followed by Concorde in the 1960s and ‘70s.

Rewind 20 years and anyone crossing the road bridge carrying the main A4 artery out of the city over the Bristol Temple Meads’ railway lines would have seen the triumphant banner, ‘Bristol Arena opening here, 2008’. The original project would have seen a 12,000 seat arena open on Temple Island, just behind the city’s main railway terminus. It was supported by local architect and politician George Ferguson, who mooted the idea in 2003 and pursued it energetically on becoming Bristol’s first mayor in 2012.

He steered the project over various planning hurdles, particularly around parking and transport, and by 2015 it seemed unstoppable. Temple Island, a former diesel depot, had been cleared for construction and a major new bridge now linked it to the nearby station. Agreements were already in place for promoter Live Nation and venue operator SMG to run the venue and architects Populous won the design competition to build it. Opening date was set for 2017.

However, like death and taxes, local politics and budgets intervened. In 2016 the independent Ferguson was voted out of office in favour of Labour’s Marvin Rees. Initially, the new mayor professed to support the existing arena project. But he baulked as he saw costs rising from £90m to £150m. Meanwhile developer YTL, already planning a new town in Filton with 6,500 new homes, three schools, sports facilities and a new rail link, staged a charm offensive. It offered to incorporate a 16,000 capacity arena into its development at no cost to the public, if the Temple Island scheme was nipped in the bud.

As I reported in Live UK, the live music business magazine, in 2018, this led to a scramble of new proposals, including one from US arena developer Oak View, backed by promoter Harvey Goldsmith and local businessman Stephen Fear, who felt a centrally located venue was the best option for the city.

However, with shovels already in the ground at Brabazon New Town, as the new development is to be called, Rees definitively scrapped the Temple Island plan in September 2018, overruling BCC’s vote in its favour, and there was nothing to stop the new YTL Arena Bristol throwing its new arena doors open in 2022.

Or was there? As Skellet told BBC Points West last week, “That thing called covid got in the way.” He explained also that the company has taken its time to explore the finer points of arena construction. “We’re trying to make sure we understand everything we need to do to build it. We’re going to build it with our own construction company so we’ve doing lots of pricing, lots of detail but we’re now ready to go.”

The development has already welcomed the first of its residents and a new station serving the arena, Brabazon, is expected to be completed in 2026, so the development certainly seems to have momentum. While many regret that the YTL Arena Bristol is not the centrally located venue they had hoped for, it’s a relatively short hop from the city centre and, barring further twists in the tail, Bristol residents will soon be able to see major music artists, comedians and shows in their home town without travelling to Cardiff, London or Birmingham.

© Mike Gartside

www.ytlarenabristol.co.uk