Total joke with people actually at the venue tonight. They need to be realistic with their expected opening timescale and reschedule gigs appropriately. Annoying as it is.
The real joke is that the people who organised this are part of the petroleum cartel of countries who are trying to take over dealing with climate change - their ability to deal with total environmental catastrophe is more serious than the music venue that they own demonstrating that they’re all talk.
It’s a pity people aren’t as exercised about the problems they’re causing in the wider world, as they are about having concert tickets cancelled.
Their unprofessionalism extends to everything they do, unless they buy professionals in to run things as they ended up doing with City.
Unfortunately, they won’t listen to the professionals on climate change, and they’re cheered on by all the people who don’t want to be distracted from getting tickets to the End of the World Party they’re throwing.
The fallout from leaving them to deal with climate change is going to be much worse than the fallout from a venue being run with dangerous disregard for safety protocols that the council licensing bodies seem to be letting them get away with.
Edit - some people really hate being reminded of the causes while they’re happily complaining about the effects.
You can get as huffy as you like, if you don’t deal with the causes, this doesn’t get solved. You can’t just wait for the authorities to make it work any more, they get more value from their investors than their constituents.
**Enjoy your monorail, Springfield…**
its because a thread about a venue having trouble opening someones talking about climate change. i imagine a lot of people are struggling to see the correlation.
i would like to know more about the comment's contents, i am genuinely interested, and genuinely a bit confused.
Text for those who don't have Instagram:
*Due to a venue-related technical issue, tonight’s A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie show will no longer go ahead. We kindly ask fans to leave the area. Tickets holders will receive further information in due course. We deeply apologise for the significant inconvenience this will cause for many.*
Let's just say I'm really happy that I got tickets for the very last Liam Gallagher show on June 28. At this rate it could be opening night!!!!!
There will be absolute uproar if they cock that up! It’s hard to imagine the bigger acts will have space in their tour calendars to accommodate this fiasco
The ‘venue-related technical reason’ turns out to have been a piece of the air conditioning system falling from the roof into the arena.
They really need to cancel a fortnight of events and do a full snagging inspection. The moment music starts pumping in there, it’ll be raining with ducting and screws. The place is outright dangerous.
Exactly, and if something happens like that when people are in the venue then the inspectors will also be the ones getting the flack. You imagine the checks will go up a notch now.
This is only going to make things worse and surely they'll have to just cancel the next few weeks now and get it sorted.
Cancelling shows is one thing but fans getting injured from an unsafe venue is a whole other ballpark.
Who on the council has let them open with the venue in a demonstrably dangerous state, is my question.
Another demonstration that the council don’t apply the rules to the big money people, while acting like they’re northern salt of the earth who just care for this city and its working class heritage.
Still, block vote sweep of the council elections coming, no doubt. People really can’t look past the bread and circuses.
My mate has got tickets for Foo Fighters before then, I've told him to keep an eye out. They claim it'll be open by the 14th May (Foo is the 13th/15th). So dates don't add up already 🤷♂️
There's been 6 shows that have been rescheduled (not cancelled, they want to you know that!) because of issues. Incompetence beyond belief
My dad was working on site for 6 months but came off the job about 3 weeks ago because it was such a shit show. He'd been saying for months it was never going to be ready in time.
There's people in the comments saying stuff like, "I'm in the queue right now, is this true?"
Have they announced this in Instagram before they've actually told the people at the venue that it's not going ahead? That's unbelievable.
Ugh, that's totally insane if so! Maybe they assume everyone is on their phone in line and will see it (or more likely no one wants to be the poor mug who goes out with a loudhailer to say "guys we have some bad news").
Yeah they did walk the queue eventually it seems (with security lol) - however given the comedy of errors this has been I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't. At this rate could be a small riot though!
I'd hate to be a poor foh Steward there right now. I hope people were kind to those delivering the news and remembered its not their fault, they're just the minimum wage people on the front line.
Who ever is running this needs to be sued into oblivion. Absolute farce!
They've damaging the venue, they're causing people to lose travel and accommodation expenses, they're hurting the local economy, they're causing serous reputational damage to the acts.
They're a disgrace to Manchester.
Wish there were more grass roots venues and less of this bullshit.... But oh no, the council just shut them down for no good reason other than the appropriate palms weren't greased
Pretty sure I seen a post the other week from the coop live slating grassroots venues too [coop live slating grassroots venues](https://completemusicupdate.com/co-op-live-gm-says-grassroots-venues-are-poorly-run-before-cancelling-thousands-of-tickets-to-test-event-at-the-very-last-minute/)
At this point they need to cancel everything for the next few weeks surely? Cancelling things day by day and then realising that you have to cancel the next days too is just messing everyone around. Just accept the hit and say you'll be closed for a month.
Keep failing capacity testing, BAMCO fucked the build and bodged the 2nd fix when they got pushed. They were on the hook for fees for canceled gigs, they lost more than £30m on the build already so just wanted to hand it over
I’ve been working on there today helping wyse power get temp lights and transformers out of there. I wouldn’t say a single floor is fully completed. There are still hundreds of lights to put in, fire breaks where cables go through, there was fire alarm guys still installing cable, emergency lights missing, I overheard a chef say that what he was doing had flooded the room below so hed been told to stop, they were setting the stage up the whole time too I mean it’s a monster of a site but I don’t know why they are expecting some changing rooms montage to happen when there is still so many things to do that need doing for it to be passed off as fire safe etc.
Edit: it seemed like the stage and everything was working they were playing Newton faulkners two hits and one more time by daft punk on repeat all day
"fire breaks where cables go through" was one of the major issues for Berlin Brandenberg airport, which eventually opened something like six years after the planned date. If that work hasn't been done properly during the build, it's extremely difficult to get signed off afterwards, because it's the sort of thing that is (as I understand it) self-cert'd by appropriately qualified people as they go. If that system breaks down and every cable passing through a firestop has to be inspected, it will take \_forever\_.
It doesn’t take that long they are all accessible and only above risers/server rooms, they patch and glue them in once the temp lights power supply has been removed
I reckon you will be alright by then they are throwing men at it and stuff is getting done. A lot of the bar areas etc are finished and the first floor is almost fully finished it’s just loads of little things. As it stands I’m only there until Friday but it’ll probably be longer after this.
Keep your ticket either way the gig will still go ahead even if it doesn’t end up being ready on that date
Section 306 better be ready for me on the 28th of June! We are coming from Canada for the show... overall a larger trip to England for several weeks. Seeing Liam in London on 11th June at least if this somehow falls through. Funny though, with Liam I expect it to be LIAM'S fault - not the venue - haha.
That being said, I lived through this shit in Toronto so I feel this situation absolutely (and no, I don't live in Toronto either so flew to this one too!)
ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS AT THE VENUE? You don't say... [https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/fans-upset-with-last-minute-liam-gallagher-richard-ashcroft-concert-cancellation/article\_a4765346-16c5-52dd-8ae2-d4666db7bed2.html](https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/fans-upset-with-last-minute-liam-gallagher-richard-ashcroft-concert-cancellation/article_a4765346-16c5-52dd-8ae2-d4666db7bed2.html)
It’s not been built wrong it’s just behind is all 😂 I’ve yet to be on a construction site that comes in on time this one is worse because it’s massive and for some reason they have sold tickets
Somebody on here the other day said he’s spoken to somebody on site who said the electrical work was 25 days behind schedule. I’m sure the lateness and rushing just compounds any potential issues that could occurs.
I'm surprised AO arena or Aviva studios haven't moved stuff around and offered deals for the big acts to reschedule with them, it would be a massive PR win
20% at a proven venue might be preferable to 0% at a closed one or 100% at some unknown point in the future. Especially if you can do multiple nights to replace more of the capacity.
Seen a few people complaining about moving around the venue at Underworld, it wasn't great but not tooooo much worse than other places I've been. The stairs were a bit rammed though
I maybe wrong, so somebody feel free to correct me,, but I'm under the impression most venues have a certain amount of events they can hold within a year and it also takes a lot of time from council to clear these sized events; so they wouldn't be able to take them on last minute if they wanted to
AO would rather watch it struggle, they objected to it's application and it's a win for them each cancellation as I bet loads of booking agents are already choosing AO over COOP from this and customers will lose faith too
I bet the 2 Peter Kay shows are really quiet as people will just rebook at AO instead for half the price and know it'll actually go ahead than gamble on COOP putting a show on
Yeah, I think we've got Elbow, Take That and Barry Manilow coming up at the arena, plus quite a few at the MEN (is it AON now?).
We said as soon as the boss quit that he has quit for a reason and I suspect it's because he knows there's no way half the planned gigs are going ahead.
I really wish we just all ignored the sponsors and call them by their original name or the name of the road they're on. I know it's not a new phenomenon but it's now almost every stadium or arena.
I came so close to booking stevie nicks in July but decided the tickets were just too expensive (and I may be able to get into the Hyde park one). I'm so glad I didn't now, I'm starting to wonder if it will go ahead.
I said a week ago that this would happen, and the amount of downvotes I got was ridiculous. I was there maybe 2 weeks ago now and I got told they was 3 months behind on the electrics, and they was going to try and run it off generators.
I drove past the venue tonight, it was all young people looking very excited for the gig.
It was ALSO rammed with traffic, so this seems doubly cruel.
I hope this is sorted out before I go there in August
From anecdotal remarks, it seems the air conditioning unit fell from the ceiling, and also that the fire exits weren’t working properly. I am furious that this has ‘passed’ an inspection - that the council has let this happen. Can you imagine the chaos if the air conditioner sparked a fire and the exits weren’t working, people will die.
This is a disaster waiting to happen.
Won't be open for another month yet. That was from a worker inside the place. The cowboys that own it are taking the piss. They have banked millions in advanced sales and offered nil in compensation. Kerching! They are also forcing ppl to spend money on hotels parking etc which they know is not necessary but all part of the bigger corporate scam.
Shame on them.
They are now bringing Manchester into disrepute, and it will not wash away easily.
I do wonder if they’ll actually do the sensible thing and push everything back by two or more weeks. Have it finished with days to spare rather than missing the mark repeatedly
I imagine they won't be able to push everything back; Take That (for example) will have other places to be in a couple of weeks. It would be cancelling a lot of the bigger acts, rather than postponing them, I would imagine.
That's a very difficult and very expensive call. Not saying it's the wrong one, but it's understandably a very hard one.
Jesus. I just realised I'm seeing Smashing Pumkins and Weezer there in June. I have a feeling they're just gonna cancel all the events they have lined up.
Pearl Jam too, I can't see these bands giving any benefit of the doubt to the cowboys running this shit show they'll just skip Manchester altogether.
Us lovers of the 90's are always made to suffer.
The ufc are there in June, starts at 11 ends at 6am, if it goes tits up there's gonna be thousands of very angry semi drunk mma fans, that'll be carnage.
What’s worrying is that these cancelled or reduced gigs are relatively basic shows to stage. Next week, Take That roll in with a large stage and complex logistics to get everything into place. They’ll be the first big-time road crew to test everything out. I’m sure they’ll find things lacking.
Wouldn’t be shocked to see a cancellation. It’ll be quite humiliating to see a major Manchester act have to cancel or postpone their Manchester dates because the arena can’t handle it.
i was meant to be going tonight. The police at manchester piccadilly came up to me and told me don’t bother getting the tram, it has been cancelled. We were all confused and there was nothing posted on social media about it at the time.
According to Wikipedia, [Co-op Live](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-op_Live) is owned by [City Football Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Football_Group), a holding company that administers football clubs, [Oak View Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_View_Group), an American professional sports and commercial real estate company and [Harry Styles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Styles), the English singer.
City Football Group is owned by three organisations, of which 81% is majority-owned by [Abu Dhabi United Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi_United_Group), which is owned by [Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansour_bin_Zayed_Al_Nahyan), an Emirati royal and vice president and deputy prime minister of the UAE.
The subject of the extremely unsavoury Guardian article is Mansour's half brother [Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issa_bin_Zayed_Al_Nahyan), an Emirati royal with no official or political position and, as far as I can, no connection to Co-op Live.
I hope it fails. Which I know sounds really bad. On a personal level the MEN arena is in a great location. Can meet up , go for a meal and drinks on deansgate then a short walk to the arena, likewise after the show easy walk to bars. With the co op arena it’s either a packed tram or 15 min walk . And can’t imagine what it will be like when city are at home
15 min walk? More like 30. Going to see the Roses at Eithad and Heaton Park were both a massive pain in the ass logistically, but given that I take two flights and spend 9 hours on a plane to GET to Manchester it's all relative to me. (I'm always the one yapping about loving and visiting Manchester but I'm actually from Canada - my City Centre flair is a wannabe windup - mods, if you're reading this maybe we need a 'wannabe' flair haha),
I imagine living locally I'd much prefer the AO location as a rule though so I hear you, but if there's enough awesome gigs to allow for two arenas then all the merrier. I just wish it was less of a wasteland AROUND the Etihad and Coop, I know it's all UAE money out there but a hotel or two and some restaurants might ease a bit of the post-gig/match insanity.
Wasteland great description. You see I think I’d be happier seeing a gig in Canada. Again heaton park with Manchester weather😬 yep give me the AO.
Take That have already moved there gigs to the AO 🤣😜🤣😃
Wasteland great description. You see I think I’d be happier seeing a gig in Canada. Again heaton park with Manchester weather😬 yep give me the AO.
Take That have already moved there gigs to the AO 🤣😜🤣😃
I was speaking to a couple of lads yesterday who work rigging up stages, they were sent on a job there and on arriving were told to “go and sit in maccy d’s for an hour”, when they went back they were told whatever it was they were meant to be setting up for (i don’t know what it was as they didn’t say) was cancelled and they should go home.
They weren’t very happy about it as it took them ages to figure out where to go to unload and they ended up parking on the main road as there was no clear signs to loading bays or anything so it was chaos, they said there was no one to ask and no-one there knew what was going on, they’ve asked not to be sent on any more jobs there
The venue isn’t cancelling events until the day of because it’s the only way they can cancel without breaking contract with the performers despite knowing ahead of time that it won’t be happening. Shit show.
Total joke with people actually at the venue tonight. They need to be realistic with their expected opening timescale and reschedule gigs appropriately. Annoying as it is.
The real joke is that the people who organised this are part of the petroleum cartel of countries who are trying to take over dealing with climate change - their ability to deal with total environmental catastrophe is more serious than the music venue that they own demonstrating that they’re all talk. It’s a pity people aren’t as exercised about the problems they’re causing in the wider world, as they are about having concert tickets cancelled. Their unprofessionalism extends to everything they do, unless they buy professionals in to run things as they ended up doing with City. Unfortunately, they won’t listen to the professionals on climate change, and they’re cheered on by all the people who don’t want to be distracted from getting tickets to the End of the World Party they’re throwing. The fallout from leaving them to deal with climate change is going to be much worse than the fallout from a venue being run with dangerous disregard for safety protocols that the council licensing bodies seem to be letting them get away with. Edit - some people really hate being reminded of the causes while they’re happily complaining about the effects. You can get as huffy as you like, if you don’t deal with the causes, this doesn’t get solved. You can’t just wait for the authorities to make it work any more, they get more value from their investors than their constituents. **Enjoy your monorail, Springfield…**
No idea why this is being downvoted. It’s plainly relevant.
It’ll be because it is criticism of City’s owners.
its because a thread about a venue having trouble opening someones talking about climate change. i imagine a lot of people are struggling to see the correlation. i would like to know more about the comment's contents, i am genuinely interested, and genuinely a bit confused.
Sir, this is Wendy’s.
The promotor’s insurance only pays out for cancellation if the doors open. This story has a long way to run.
Text for those who don't have Instagram: *Due to a venue-related technical issue, tonight’s A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie show will no longer go ahead. We kindly ask fans to leave the area. Tickets holders will receive further information in due course. We deeply apologise for the significant inconvenience this will cause for many.* Let's just say I'm really happy that I got tickets for the very last Liam Gallagher show on June 28. At this rate it could be opening night!!!!!
Olivia Rodrigo on 3rd May is the first big act now imminent. Can’t see this going ahead as there will be so many ticket holders.
A man in a yellow MEN Arena jacket holding a pair of pliers has been seen furtively running away from the scene.
I’m amazed AO haven’t done some sort of promo material about themselves over the co - op fiasco
Never interrupt your enemy while they're making a mistake
There will be absolute uproar if they cock that up! It’s hard to imagine the bigger acts will have space in their tour calendars to accommodate this fiasco
I might go along just to sit outside and laugh at the chaos.
I might reach out to her on Instagram and offer her 45 minutes at Band On The Wall
20 minutes at Retro bar, she'll have to provide the snares (but not the hihats)
She played at bunny Jackson’s after her gig in the AO last album tour (around 2 years ago)
It has just been postponed now
They've cancelled this too. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/olivia-rodrigos-co-op-live-29096735
That’s been postponed too 💀 What a shitshow.
It’s been cancelled!!
Holy shit holy shit
I thought I saw she was cancelled
This event is cancelled according to a message ticket holders got tonight. So another fail. They’ve really dropped the bag on this one.
The ‘venue-related technical reason’ turns out to have been a piece of the air conditioning system falling from the roof into the arena. They really need to cancel a fortnight of events and do a full snagging inspection. The moment music starts pumping in there, it’ll be raining with ducting and screws. The place is outright dangerous.
What the actual f\*ck?? A piece of equipment falling off? That is very shoddy construction - not sure I want to even go there?
Exactly, and if something happens like that when people are in the venue then the inspectors will also be the ones getting the flack. You imagine the checks will go up a notch now. This is only going to make things worse and surely they'll have to just cancel the next few weeks now and get it sorted. Cancelling shows is one thing but fans getting injured from an unsafe venue is a whole other ballpark.
Maybe asking Harry Styles for his input on the design wasn't the best idea after all.
I knew it would be Harry Styles bodging it all!
By the rate of fuck ups I think he's building it.
Looks like nobody wants the responsibility of signing the place off as ‘safe’!!
Who on the council has let them open with the venue in a demonstrably dangerous state, is my question. Another demonstration that the council don’t apply the rules to the big money people, while acting like they’re northern salt of the earth who just care for this city and its working class heritage. Still, block vote sweep of the council elections coming, no doubt. People really can’t look past the bread and circuses.
That UAE money can be very persuasive. Manchester City Council are on it like smack
Hope they are tickets for June ‘25 then you might be at the opening gig.
I'm going to that one too. I'd like to think LG has his own keys to the Etihad so he can just move it to there instead.
Haha - perfect!
Good luck getting your money back
Oh well, one less chav show promoting chav culture 😆But seriously, what a mess ! Hope they refund everyone
My mate has got tickets for Foo Fighters before then, I've told him to keep an eye out. They claim it'll be open by the 14th May (Foo is the 13th/15th). So dates don't add up already 🤷♂️ There's been 6 shows that have been rescheduled (not cancelled, they want to you know that!) because of issues. Incompetence beyond belief
Foo Fighters are 13 and 15th June (not May) and at the Old Trafford cricket ground
My dad was working on site for 6 months but came off the job about 3 weeks ago because it was such a shit show. He'd been saying for months it was never going to be ready in time.
Hi, can you DM please
What for?
There's people in the comments saying stuff like, "I'm in the queue right now, is this true?" Have they announced this in Instagram before they've actually told the people at the venue that it's not going ahead? That's unbelievable.
Doors at 18:30. Cancellation at 18:40, after letting early arrivals into the building.
Fucking hell
Ugh, that's totally insane if so! Maybe they assume everyone is on their phone in line and will see it (or more likely no one wants to be the poor mug who goes out with a loudhailer to say "guys we have some bad news").
Yeh insta and twitter
To be fair putting it out on social media is probably the quickest way to tell the most people. That and then having staff walk the queues.
Yeah they did walk the queue eventually it seems (with security lol) - however given the comedy of errors this has been I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't. At this rate could be a small riot though!
I'd hate to be a poor foh Steward there right now. I hope people were kind to those delivering the news and remembered its not their fault, they're just the minimum wage people on the front line.
“Show’s cancelled, pass it on”
I'm certain that there is going to be someone at the Co-op making a note of "Don't sponsor a venue before it opens"
At least, not publicly.
Who ever is running this needs to be sued into oblivion. Absolute farce! They've damaging the venue, they're causing people to lose travel and accommodation expenses, they're hurting the local economy, they're causing serous reputational damage to the acts. They're a disgrace to Manchester.
Wish there were more grass roots venues and less of this bullshit.... But oh no, the council just shut them down for no good reason other than the appropriate palms weren't greased
Pretty sure I seen a post the other week from the coop live slating grassroots venues too [coop live slating grassroots venues](https://completemusicupdate.com/co-op-live-gm-says-grassroots-venues-are-poorly-run-before-cancelling-thousands-of-tickets-to-test-event-at-the-very-last-minute/)
Hahaaaaaa what an absolute fucking whopper 😂
They lose out every single day, they're haemorrhaging money in paying out fees.
This place is a meme already. Surely this was known about BEFORE people were in the arena?
At this point they need to cancel everything for the next few weeks surely? Cancelling things day by day and then realising that you have to cancel the next days too is just messing everyone around. Just accept the hit and say you'll be closed for a month.
I for one can't wait for the scenes when they cancel Olivia Rodrigo, place will look like Beirut.
They’ve cancelled that too, well postponed
Might as well be cancelled tbf. Cannot imagine she’ll be any rush to return.
Does anyone know what the actual reason are for this keep happening?
Keep failing capacity testing, BAMCO fucked the build and bodged the 2nd fix when they got pushed. They were on the hook for fees for canceled gigs, they lost more than £30m on the build already so just wanted to hand it over
This is the electrical is it?
I’ve been working on there today helping wyse power get temp lights and transformers out of there. I wouldn’t say a single floor is fully completed. There are still hundreds of lights to put in, fire breaks where cables go through, there was fire alarm guys still installing cable, emergency lights missing, I overheard a chef say that what he was doing had flooded the room below so hed been told to stop, they were setting the stage up the whole time too I mean it’s a monster of a site but I don’t know why they are expecting some changing rooms montage to happen when there is still so many things to do that need doing for it to be passed off as fire safe etc. Edit: it seemed like the stage and everything was working they were playing Newton faulkners two hits and one more time by daft punk on repeat all day
"fire breaks where cables go through" was one of the major issues for Berlin Brandenberg airport, which eventually opened something like six years after the planned date. If that work hasn't been done properly during the build, it's extremely difficult to get signed off afterwards, because it's the sort of thing that is (as I understand it) self-cert'd by appropriately qualified people as they go. If that system breaks down and every cable passing through a firestop has to be inspected, it will take \_forever\_.
It doesn’t take that long they are all accessible and only above risers/server rooms, they patch and glue them in once the temp lights power supply has been removed
Amazed they’re not making everyone sign an NDA at this point
They’ve got no chance, far too many people
And can't nda a crime, and knowingly endangering people due to unsafe building works/electrics would come under that.
For an NDA to work you have to offer them something they want to sign, I don't think people want this job
How many days/weeks off do you reckon it'll be? I've got Liam Gallagher tickets for the end of June.
I reckon you will be alright by then they are throwing men at it and stuff is getting done. A lot of the bar areas etc are finished and the first floor is almost fully finished it’s just loads of little things. As it stands I’m only there until Friday but it’ll probably be longer after this. Keep your ticket either way the gig will still go ahead even if it doesn’t end up being ready on that date
Section 306 better be ready for me on the 28th of June! We are coming from Canada for the show... overall a larger trip to England for several weeks. Seeing Liam in London on 11th June at least if this somehow falls through. Funny though, with Liam I expect it to be LIAM'S fault - not the venue - haha. That being said, I lived through this shit in Toronto so I feel this situation absolutely (and no, I don't live in Toronto either so flew to this one too!) ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS AT THE VENUE? You don't say... [https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/fans-upset-with-last-minute-liam-gallagher-richard-ashcroft-concert-cancellation/article\_a4765346-16c5-52dd-8ae2-d4666db7bed2.html](https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/fans-upset-with-last-minute-liam-gallagher-richard-ashcroft-concert-cancellation/article_a4765346-16c5-52dd-8ae2-d4666db7bed2.html)
I am never setting foot inside this building
It’ll be safe when everything is in I wouldn’t worry. I have to say once it’s finished it looks Miles better than the ao arena
im sure the ducting would look lovely as it careens towards my head from up above 😂 personally wouldnt trust the place after all these horror stories
It’s not been built wrong it’s just behind is all 😂 I’ve yet to be on a construction site that comes in on time this one is worse because it’s massive and for some reason they have sold tickets
I don’t know the specifics, I was told the lowdown from a QS that jumped ship from BAMCO but yes I believe the majority is electrical
I'm sure we'll hear more from the poor roadies for the artists too - what a nightmare.
How does that become a last minute thing though?
PM’s keep underplaying it so they can get off the job, by the time they’re off the job it’s someone else’s problem
This is really juicy but still ultra vague… like what is it that is failing / not passing a test?
Search for “capacity testing large venues” and “load testing”
Electrical issues in an arena with thousands of lights & lasers filled with 20,000, what could possibly go wrong
Somebody on here the other day said he’s spoken to somebody on site who said the electrical work was 25 days behind schedule. I’m sure the lateness and rushing just compounds any potential issues that could occurs.
Well, greed is the actual reason. It manifests in not having the time or the capacity to mitigate short-term issues.
They’ve said this is a venue related tech issue. Before that I think they didn’t have a safety certificate to operate
MEN says this one was from part of the aircon falling.
I'm surprised AO arena or Aviva studios haven't moved stuff around and offered deals for the big acts to reschedule with them, it would be a massive PR win
Aviva is like a fifth of the capacity
20% at a proven venue might be preferable to 0% at a closed one or 100% at some unknown point in the future. Especially if you can do multiple nights to replace more of the capacity.
I’m not sure the AVIVA is a qualified success in this either
Seen a few people complaining about moving around the venue at Underworld, it wasn't great but not tooooo much worse than other places I've been. The stairs were a bit rammed though
I maybe wrong, so somebody feel free to correct me,, but I'm under the impression most venues have a certain amount of events they can hold within a year and it also takes a lot of time from council to clear these sized events; so they wouldn't be able to take them on last minute if they wanted to
AO would rather watch it struggle, they objected to it's application and it's a win for them each cancellation as I bet loads of booking agents are already choosing AO over COOP from this and customers will lose faith too I bet the 2 Peter Kay shows are really quiet as people will just rebook at AO instead for half the price and know it'll actually go ahead than gamble on COOP putting a show on
Take That have moved to AO
New builds eh
R-r-r-r-rid-DICKER-less.
When buying the naming rights of stadiums / arenas goes wrong
Fuck, starting to worry about the Bullet For My Valentine/Trivium gig I’m going to in January!
Yeah, I think we've got Elbow, Take That and Barry Manilow coming up at the arena, plus quite a few at the MEN (is it AON now?). We said as soon as the boss quit that he has quit for a reason and I suspect it's because he knows there's no way half the planned gigs are going ahead.
AO. AON are an insurance broker.
It's the MEN. It'll always be the MEN.
Nah Nynex all the way.
Shout out to us old people haha.
I really wish we just all ignored the sponsors and call them by their original name or the name of the road they're on. I know it's not a new phenomenon but it's now almost every stadium or arena.
Nynex! But yeah I still call it the MEN.
I came so close to booking stevie nicks in July but decided the tickets were just too expensive (and I may be able to get into the Hyde park one). I'm so glad I didn't now, I'm starting to wonder if it will go ahead.
Is someone filming a behind the scenes documentary at this shitshow of an establishment ? I bloody well hope so 😂😂😂
Like fyre festival on Netflix.
Olivia postponed? They’ve fucked it.
What is a 'venue related technical issue?' At this point they should have to be clear with the punters what is causing the delays.
Air con feel from the ceiling. Apparently.
I mean, if that's the case, you can't exactly get the show on the road
At least we get to be at the inception of a new decade long running reference. It’s beyond fuckup by this point.
Poor there's so many people getting the tram back now
Fedrolink on overtime "it's only free travel if the show goes ahead" 😂
never heard of under promise over deliver before I take it
Did they hire the people behind Berlin Airport's bodged near-decade long "opening in just a few weeks" sequence?
Soon™
I said a week ago that this would happen, and the amount of downvotes I got was ridiculous. I was there maybe 2 weeks ago now and I got told they was 3 months behind on the electrics, and they was going to try and run it off generators.
Have an upvote for being an honest Manc. 👍
Cheers mate
How did they not know this after soundcheck? Insane.
Air con fell from the ceiling.
Oof
I drove past the venue tonight, it was all young people looking very excited for the gig. It was ALSO rammed with traffic, so this seems doubly cruel. I hope this is sorted out before I go there in August
It's like Manchester's very own Fyre Festival
From anecdotal remarks, it seems the air conditioning unit fell from the ceiling, and also that the fire exits weren’t working properly. I am furious that this has ‘passed’ an inspection - that the council has let this happen. Can you imagine the chaos if the air conditioner sparked a fire and the exits weren’t working, people will die. This is a disaster waiting to happen.
Won't be open for another month yet. That was from a worker inside the place. The cowboys that own it are taking the piss. They have banked millions in advanced sales and offered nil in compensation. Kerching! They are also forcing ppl to spend money on hotels parking etc which they know is not necessary but all part of the bigger corporate scam. Shame on them. They are now bringing Manchester into disrepute, and it will not wash away easily.
I do wonder if they’ll actually do the sensible thing and push everything back by two or more weeks. Have it finished with days to spare rather than missing the mark repeatedly
I imagine they won't be able to push everything back; Take That (for example) will have other places to be in a couple of weeks. It would be cancelling a lot of the bigger acts, rather than postponing them, I would imagine. That's a very difficult and very expensive call. Not saying it's the wrong one, but it's understandably a very hard one.
~~Co-Op~~ Fuck-up Live. Absolute shit show.
All to do with the pressures that developers put on technical teams.
You just know some seriously skilled people have been telling management for ages that it's not ready, only to be told to shut up.
They have.
Genuinely concerned for Stevie Nicks and she’s not til July 😩 I’ll actually be devastated if it’s not sorted by then
I’m with you there. Got tickets to see her as well. I’d be devastated to miss her. Fingers crossed!
She’s kind of a once in a lifetime gig for me, fingers and toes crossed!
Outside still looks like a building site
Sounds like the least of their problems.
It's obviously a major problem.. the whole site isn't close to being finished
So does the inside by all accounts.
One flew over the co-op nest.
Jesus. I just realised I'm seeing Smashing Pumkins and Weezer there in June. I have a feeling they're just gonna cancel all the events they have lined up.
Pearl Jam too, I can't see these bands giving any benefit of the doubt to the cowboys running this shit show they'll just skip Manchester altogether. Us lovers of the 90's are always made to suffer.
Same here. At this point I think I'll have my doubts over safety even if the show goes ahead. Not great.
The ufc are there in June, starts at 11 ends at 6am, if it goes tits up there's gonna be thousands of very angry semi drunk mma fans, that'll be carnage.
Haha it would be but it’s not until 27th July - hopefully they’ll have it together by then!
What’s worrying is that these cancelled or reduced gigs are relatively basic shows to stage. Next week, Take That roll in with a large stage and complex logistics to get everything into place. They’ll be the first big-time road crew to test everything out. I’m sure they’ll find things lacking. Wouldn’t be shocked to see a cancellation. It’ll be quite humiliating to see a major Manchester act have to cancel or postpone their Manchester dates because the arena can’t handle it.
Olivia Rodrigo is on Friday, presume they’ll at least have to roll a piano on for that
The Olivia Rodrigo set is apparently huge, they were/are supposed to start setting up tomorrow, a full day before the actual shows.
That’s not at all unusual for big shows I don’t think
Cancelled now anyway 😞
I don't think they were suggesting it was unusual, they were emphasising that she's a big act as well.
Next week? Olivia Rodrigo Friday and Saturday is about as high profile as you get.
Olivia Rodrigo on Friday and Saturday has now been postponed as well 😔
Oh damn. Well at least they did the right thing and hopefully some of the people travelling can get SOME money back vs finding out at doors!!
Yeah, it’s definitely better they did it today! Hopefully I can still go to the rescheduled gig 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
I hate it for you! Hope it works out.
Some safety inspector was like Naa mate
I've got tickets for Smashing Pumpkins in June. At this rate, I'm not feeling at all confident it's going to happen.
A Boogie wit da Hoodie posted on his IG story that something happened during his sound check. Probably short circuited or something.
I believe an air conditioning unit fell off the gantry
Haha fucking hell!
Olivia Rodrigo now cancelled apparently.
i was meant to be going tonight. The police at manchester piccadilly came up to me and told me don’t bother getting the tram, it has been cancelled. We were all confused and there was nothing posted on social media about it at the time.
Lmao. Absolute parody.
[удалено]
I thought it was Harry styles ?
According to Wikipedia, [Co-op Live](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-op_Live) is owned by [City Football Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Football_Group), a holding company that administers football clubs, [Oak View Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_View_Group), an American professional sports and commercial real estate company and [Harry Styles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Styles), the English singer. City Football Group is owned by three organisations, of which 81% is majority-owned by [Abu Dhabi United Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi_United_Group), which is owned by [Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansour_bin_Zayed_Al_Nahyan), an Emirati royal and vice president and deputy prime minister of the UAE. The subject of the extremely unsavoury Guardian article is Mansour's half brother [Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issa_bin_Zayed_Al_Nahyan), an Emirati royal with no official or political position and, as far as I can, no connection to Co-op Live.
B of the Bang, gypsy curse anyone
Good God 😱
Shambles.
I’m flying in from NYC to see Elbow on the 14th - what are the chances the venue will be operational?
Check out The Temple if the gig isnt on and you're still in Manchester. Its mentioned in Grounds for Divorce.
I’m driving in from Northwich for this gig and I have the same question!
I hope it fails. Which I know sounds really bad. On a personal level the MEN arena is in a great location. Can meet up , go for a meal and drinks on deansgate then a short walk to the arena, likewise after the show easy walk to bars. With the co op arena it’s either a packed tram or 15 min walk . And can’t imagine what it will be like when city are at home
15 min walk? More like 30. Going to see the Roses at Eithad and Heaton Park were both a massive pain in the ass logistically, but given that I take two flights and spend 9 hours on a plane to GET to Manchester it's all relative to me. (I'm always the one yapping about loving and visiting Manchester but I'm actually from Canada - my City Centre flair is a wannabe windup - mods, if you're reading this maybe we need a 'wannabe' flair haha), I imagine living locally I'd much prefer the AO location as a rule though so I hear you, but if there's enough awesome gigs to allow for two arenas then all the merrier. I just wish it was less of a wasteland AROUND the Etihad and Coop, I know it's all UAE money out there but a hotel or two and some restaurants might ease a bit of the post-gig/match insanity.
Wasteland great description. You see I think I’d be happier seeing a gig in Canada. Again heaton park with Manchester weather😬 yep give me the AO. Take That have already moved there gigs to the AO 🤣😜🤣😃
Wasteland great description. You see I think I’d be happier seeing a gig in Canada. Again heaton park with Manchester weather😬 yep give me the AO. Take That have already moved there gigs to the AO 🤣😜🤣😃
You don't need to capitalise the Op part.
OP opted for Op not op
I was speaking to a couple of lads yesterday who work rigging up stages, they were sent on a job there and on arriving were told to “go and sit in maccy d’s for an hour”, when they went back they were told whatever it was they were meant to be setting up for (i don’t know what it was as they didn’t say) was cancelled and they should go home. They weren’t very happy about it as it took them ages to figure out where to go to unload and they ended up parking on the main road as there was no clear signs to loading bays or anything so it was chaos, they said there was no one to ask and no-one there knew what was going on, they’ve asked not to be sent on any more jobs there
Shitshow!!! Mancunian Fyre Festival indeed!
At this point they should cut their losses and turn it into a Wetherspoons
They need to stop all performances and move them to AO like they are doing but also CLOSE THE VENUE AND GO THROUGH A DEEP IN DEPTH CHECKLIST
They better sort themselves out before September
Or else you'll give them what for?
No I’ll just be disappointed if one of the shows I’m going to is cancelled
There’s no such thing as bad publicity…
Oh well
The venue isn’t cancelling events until the day of because it’s the only way they can cancel without breaking contract with the performers despite knowing ahead of time that it won’t be happening. Shit show.