Arena And City Hall - Possible Closure

[burghley]

A friend just sent me a link with an article regarding Sheffield Arena and City Hall being at high risk of being closed permanently after staff were written to by bosses with potential redundancies.

This would be a devastating blow to Sheffield arts and entertainment, and sports too.
Had a few events booked at both of these venues and were the only events planned for this year too.

Anyone know of any further information?
 

[bungleboy69]

Lets hope that the planned government injection of cash announced today may help keep these type of venues open for all of our benefit. 

[darylslinn]

Look at it this way, the City Hall is worth keeping alive for the history and diversity in acts that they pull in there.... the Arena is now outdated and if it was in the USA would probably have been replaced.
They've thrown millions at the Arena and the class of acts has gone down hill..... the food which was supposed to be improved hasn't changed and is overpriced rubbish and as for the seating since the renovation you don't have room to move since they shoved extra seats on the rows by narrowing them.

Knock it down and cut their losses.

 

[jake]

3 hours ago, darylslinn said:

They've thrown millions at the Arena and the class of acts has gone down hill.....

 

Fair point .. From recall - since the Arena has opened the MEN (though Gmex was open previously), Leeds Arena and Nottingham Arena have all opened reasonably near. For a whole host of reasons, Sheffield tends to be a secondary city for promoters. When the Arena opened - not every city had an arena which meant promoters would use Sheffield arena. Now every big city has an arena - so not that many gigs come through.

[darylslinn]

40 minutes ago, jake said:

Fair point .. From recall - since the Arena has opened the MEN (though Gmex was open previously), Leeds Arena and Nottingham Arena have all opened reasonably near. For a whole host of reasons, Sheffield tends to be a secondary city for promoters. When the Arena opened - not every city had an arena which meant promoters would use Sheffield arena. Now every big city has an arena - so not that many gigs come through.

The problem is SIV did away with using a promoter such as Live Nation, stating  if I recall that they shouldn't have to pay someone to bring in the acts  when they could do it themselves.

The other questions are, how long for the mothballing, will it reopen and what happens to the Sheffield Steelers ?

[Brooker11]

I think the article was a bit misleading, its obviously a very difficult time for places like these but the letter that has been sent to employees is more like a notice that they may have to make redundancies not close altogether, it is a factor that Leeds Arena has stole its thunder as Leeds has far more to offer touring acts and attendee's.

[jake]

1 hour ago, darylslinn said:

The problem is SIV did away with using a promoter such as Live Nation, stating  if I recall that they shouldn't have to pay someone to bring in the acts  when they could do it themselves.

It'd be very unusual for an arena to do in house bookings.  Generally when an act gets to arena level - they'll be using the same promoter for the whole tour. Regardless of size of venues - outside promotions are just a safer bet for the venue - you get the hire cash and concesssion cash without the hassle of worrying about tickets sales.

 

[bluecanary]

SIV have announced that it is to mothball some of its venues, with staff at risk of redundancy.

 

https://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/business/company-runs-scarborough-spa-and-whitby-pavilion-consult-staff-redundancies-scarborough-council-talks-about-easing-their-pressures-2906085

 

This article is from the Scarborough News website (SIV run the Scarborough Spa and Whitby Pavilion) but the implications seem to be that venues in Sheffield will also be at risk. FlyDSA arena and Sheffield City Hall were certainly mentioned on social media yesterday. It's not clear if the risk extends to the more sports-based facilities, but if they remain closed for much longer then it's certainly possible.

[Guest]

Yep, also on the BBC website https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-53312068

[iamwoody]

Isnt this just SIV getting out of paying its staff because of furlough payments due to be coming to end ? No doubt concerts aren't starting any time soon but they will return and by " mothballing " the venues they will be ready when they do  but SIV will not be having to pay staff in the meantime ?????