The boss of Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena has revealed his wish-list to help bring the city on par with the likes of Liverpool and create a "world class" events space for decades to come. While many years off becoming reality, owing to Nottingham City Council's financial constraints and two years of "carnage" for the business amid the coronavirus pandemic, it is anticipated that, one day, the city will have its own business convention centre, a third ice rink and another car park to boot.
The arena's chief executive Martin Ingham spoke of his hopes and dreams for the future following two of the most challenging years in its history. On March 17, 2020, Mr Ingham recalled travelling over to Loxley House, the home of the Labour-led city council, where he was told the arena must close due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It was "carnage" and a "nightmare", he says, with a business which turns over in excess of £15m each year quite literally being brought to a standstill overnight. The Conservative Government's offer of its furlough scheme helped in the first few months, but, as the pandemic's severity and impact became clearer, difficult decisions had to be made.
Read more: 'Remarkable recovery' at Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena but 'significant issues' lie ahead
Rishi Sunak, who was the chancellor at the time, only revealed the furlough scheme would be extended on December 17, 2020. By this point, for the arena it was too little, too late. Mr Ingham said: "I think he made a grave mistake in delaying the announcement of the extension of that because poor businesses need time to plan.
"We had to assume the worst case scenario which was that it wasn't going to be extended and unfortunately as a result of that we had to embark on a redundancy programme."
What had been an army of more than 1,000 casual staff, on top of 165 permanent staff, soon became a posse of just 60. At one stage there were just 19 staff left running the business. The business would not have survived if not for a £7m taxpayer-funded loan from the city council.
These "dark days" however turned into what Mr Ingham described as the "busiest year of my life" following the deployment of the vaccination programme. Artist bookings have been made up to 2026, which is unheard of, he adds, and there has been a "perfect storm" for shows, with artists having released new albums while their tours were cancelled, prompting a mass influx once the world began to return to some sense of normality.
And looking ahead Mr Ingham says he wants the city to replicate what has been done in Liverpool, for example, with its multipurpose ACC Liverpool arena and conference centre. As such, he unveiled what was at the top of his wish-list to get Nottingham there in the future.
"If you look at any arena in the UK they make vast sums of money from their car parking which is adjacent to the site and the one problem we have in our business plan is that, while it is great for us in many ways for us to be a city centre site, the bit we are missing is a car park that we own; that we get the revenue from and are able to then invest into the venue."
On top of this Mr Ingham would like to see a third ice pad built, as an extension to the arena which would boost the potential of the Nottingham Panthers ice hockey team, as well as a conference centre and a snazzy hotel for artists and guests. But where exactly would such a vast development go?
"We have said for many, many years that, from an arena perspective, if there was a redevelopment nearby the obvious site would be the bus depots across the road from us," Mr Ingham added. Talks have already been held over the prospect of Nottingham City Transport (NCT) relocating from its Lower Parliament Street base, leaving it free to be redeveloped.
It's been described as a medium to long-term plan and the city council before explained there were challenges to overcome, such as securing Government funding and the bus company moving elsewhere.
Mr Ingham continued: "If you redeveloped nearby the things that would be the top of my shopping list would be a car park, a four-star hotel and, in an ideal world, if you were looking at really developing this venue into something that was world-class, you build a convention centre across the way. You would then have something which is comparable to what many other cities have which is a multi-venue space."
The city council-owned Motorpoint Arena is perhaps one of its more successful companies in its portfolio, despite a two-year hiatus. And, while it has already added more than £800m to the city's GVA [gross value added] over the past 20 years, its potential is being somewhat hindered by its location.
Mr Ingham argued the city is, however, "missing a trick" and a convention centre, along with a hotel, would supercharge the city's relatively "weak" business tourism. He emphasised its initial impact way back in the late-1990s, when Hockley and the Lace Market were "pretty deprived areas".
"The plan was always for the ice centre to be this jump development which would jump eastwards from the city centre and would backfill the developments all the way through the Lace Market and Hockley," he adds. "And that has been successful; the eastern side of the city centre now is vibrant and Hockley is probably the trendiest part of the city at the moment.
"If you then take that further and take that [idea] into Sneinton across the road then you are really seriously extending the city centre and creating huge economic development."
Such a dream however has been somewhat hindered by the past two years, as well as the city council's ongoing financial difficulties. Despite this Mr Ingham says while the council "is not in a position to even consider funding that", third-party investment, similar to what is being done at the Island Quarter, could be the way forward.
His hopes for the future were echoed by the East Midlands Chamber, which seeks to boost businesses across the region with funding and advice. Director of policy and external affairs, Chris Hobson, added: “There’s no doubt the Motorpoint Arena sits at the heart of a hugely important area of economic opportunity for Nottingham.
“Nearby, Hockley has grown into one of the UK’s ‘coolest postcodes to move to’, as it was branded by The Times earlier this year, while Sneinton Market opposite the arena has established a vibrant cultural offer.
“There is also the tantalising prospect of how the emerging Island Quarter regeneration will have a knock-on effect that boosts the eastern side of the city, with the Nottingham Economic Recovery and Renewal Plan published two years ago highlighting the huge potential for the bus depot in creating new jobs, homes and hotel accommodation.
“However, this would of course require a suitable alternative being found for Nottingham City Transport, which is a vital asset to the city’s green credentials as an operator of the world’s largest fleet of biogas double deck buses.
“Should progress be made on this front, then we would be interested to learn more about the various options that could be drawn from repurposing the site in order to attract new investment, visitors and other economic activity.”
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