The venue has 32 bars, restaurants and lounges and has the largest floor space of any indoor venue in the city.[5]Oak View Group is developing the scheme in partnership with City Football Group.[6]
History
In 2020, the Co-operative Group announced it would be a significant investor in the arena, which would be named after it, and that Co-operative members will receive exclusive benefits regarding use of the arena.[7]
Construction, undertaken by BAM Construct UK,[8] started in 2021.[9] As of 2022, the estimated cost of the scheme was £365million.[5] In July 2024, Royal BAM reported its UK construction business had suffered a £19.5m loss due to problems at the arena, and would be cutting jobs.[10]
Opening events and delays
The arena was officially due to open on 23 April with a headline act by comedian Peter Kay; however, due to power supply issues at a test event featuring Rick Astley on 20 April, which resulted in 4,000 tickets being cancelled, the venue announced that Kay's performance was to be postponed until 29 and 30 April. The Black Keys were scheduled to perform on 27 April, but this was later rescheduled to 15 May.[11][12] On-going technical issues saw Kay's performances rescheduled for a second time to 23 and 24 May, along with the resignation of the general manager Gary Roden on 25 April.[9][13] The venue was due to be opened on 1 May with A Boogie wit da Hoodie, but this was also postponed, as well as Olivia Rodrigo and Keane who were scheduled for the following weekend.[9][14][15] In the wake of the delayed opening and cancellations, Take That opted to move their five concert dates from Co-op Live to rival venue the AO Arena.[16] It finally opened on 14 May 2024, with the band Elbow being the opening act.[17]
On 25 May a performance by Nicki Minaj was cancelled, after most attendees had been admitted into the venue, after an arrest for drug possession at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol;[26] the concert, which was part of the Pink Friday 2 World Tour, was eventually rescheduled to 3 June.[27]
Another perspective on the construction site (August 2023)
The arena is planning to host live music, sports, comedy acts, and family entertainment events. It will have an all-seated maximum capacity of 20,500 (for a centre-stage concert, extending the retractable seating in the lower tier); but with an enhanced maximum capacity of 23,500, of whom 7,500 would be standing, when lower tier seating is retracted.[31][32][33]
The audience bowl will be approximately square with retractable seating on level 0 and level 1, premium seating on level 2, upper tier seating on level 3, and hospitality lounges overlooking the stage at level 4 from the North and South sides; while the configuration of the auditorium is intended to be optimised for larger-scale touring music performances with a relatively low ceiling (to enhance the acoustic experience), an extensive potential flat floor area at Level 0 for standing, and minimised distances from the upper tiers to the stage. Compared to a more conventional arena bowl of equivalent size, the tiered seats on the Western side of the Co-op Arena are claimed to be around 20 metres (70ft) closer to the performance stage. The promoters state that the interior of the bowl "has been designed to feel like the UK's largest nightclub".[34]
The arena is planned to host around 120 events per year, 100 of which are planned music events. The design of the arena is primarily focused on hosting live music with Tim Leiweke, the CEO of the Oak View Group, stating that the design "made it about music and started there" as other arena projects had been "compromised by trying to please everyone".[5]
In addition to live music and entertainment, the developers propose basketball, netball, tennis, esports and gymnastics as sports that could be hosted within the dimensions of the arena floor, and for which there was not, at the time, an appropriate larger venue in Manchester capable of hosting championship events. With lower-tier seating retracted, the floor would accommodate a standard ice hockey rink. For events configured with a centre stage or using the arena floor, there will be additional upper-tier seating on the East side; above and behind the normal end-stage position.[32]
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Etihad Campus 
