This building is a failure? We just sold 70,000 tickets for Billie Eilish

BULLISH ARENA BOSS SAYS HE WANTS TO LOOK TO THE POSITIVES AFTER WEEKS OF DELAYS

- DIANNE BOURNE

AFTER three weeks of delays and a moment of near catastrophe, Manchester's Co-op Live Arena finally opened to the public last night with Elbow playing a homecoming show.

And for the boss of the vast £400million (and rising) building, it's time to finally show the world, and Manchester, what it is about to offer.

Defiant Oak View Group chief executive Tim Leiweke says it's now time to 'stop the kicking and start appreciating' what the huge new entertainment venue will bring to the city.

The venue has faced a barrage of criticism over delays to its opening, rescheduling of shows and chaos when part of the air conditioning unit fell from the roof ahead of the May 1 gig with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie.

But Mr Leiweke is now hoping to silence the critics. He hailed the 120 gigs and events already booked in at the venue across its opening year, and says the benefits for the entire Manchester economy from the arena opening will be "huge." 

He told the M.E.N.: "I think people should stop kicking and start appreciating what we have here, and the impact it's going to create for Manchester.

"People who want to kick it, kick it. But we've shut up, we've spent the past three weeks getting the building ready, and now we open up tonight and I think we will have long-term success.

"We have 120 events in our first year, 120 events already booked. We sold 70,000 tickets last week for Billie Eilish, I don't hear anyone talking about that, it's like 'wait a minute, this building is a failure?' We just sold 70,000 tickets for Billie Eilish, Travis Scott sold out in three minutes. Most of those shows wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Co-op Live."