reversal of priority of appointments is at the very heart of the project, as will become apparent.


● The close collaboration of a tightly knit unit of specialist professionals including the client Leeds City Council and its funding partner Yorkshire Forward (YF).


● The creation of a viable and sustainable financial model capable of generating the maximum private sector investment. This was recognised long before the recession loomed.


● Finally, and closely allied to this theme, was the principle that the Operator should drive the design of the Arena. In contrast to the usual process this is almost inside out. And why not? After all the Operator is the expert ultimately responsible for driving the success of the Arena so why not give the Operator responsibility for the design of an arena that is most likely to support its business plan, and which, in turn, will generate the income to ultimately drive up the investment value.


Leeds Arena: Key Challenges


There was the almost inevitable tension between the differing aspirations of various public sector partners, the functional economic model versus the iconic landmark status building.


There were also all the usual pressures of delivering a project on time and to budget, exacerbated here by a heavily geared timetable which required the two parallel limbs of the procurement process to marry up together very precisely at a given point in time with no room for slippage.


Finally the entire project was impacted by a recession that which bit more quickly and deeply than anyone expected but this gave everyone involved the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to think quickly, to adapt resourcefully and to act decisively.


Leeds Arena: Project Overview


As part of its regeneration ambitions for the city, Leeds had undertaken numerous research projects to identify key stimuli for growth and investment in the city. Time and time again reports suggested that the missing ingredient to the city’s leisure entertainment offering (apart from the need for a successful premier league football team, probably a long term project) was a mid-sized Arena with the capacity to house a seated audience of at least 12,500, and the ability to attract major international performers to the city. Both Leeds and YF saw this as a real opportunity for Leeds to move up a league and raise its profile locally, regionally, nationally and internationally and to secure an anticipated economic boost to the city estimated as at least £25 million per annum.


And so the Arena was determined as a key priority for both the Council and YF and, subject to various approvals, an initial package of £20,000,000 of public funding was budgeted to support the Arena.


Leeds City Council (LCC) then identified a talented and committed senior officer, Martin Farrington, to take responsibility for the delivery of the project. Next, and crucially at a very early stage, Leeds appointed sports and


ASSET - Liverpool-10 Tiffany Cloynes 35


leisure expert consultants PMP (now IPW), led by Nick Russell, to advise on structures and funding and to devise a strategy to drive the process through to a successful conclusion. In turn IPW then spearheaded the recruitment of the specialist project team of Arups as Stadium/Arena engineers and acoustic specialists, surveyors DTZ led by Andrew Smith, and Cobbetts was selected as legal advisors. Then, and again crucially at a very early stage, LCC and IPW set up a clear internal reporting mechanism which allowed appropriate information to flow to the right people at the right time so crucial decisions could be made quickly.


And IPW and LCC, in consultation with the project team, then devised the dual competitive dialogue approach to deliver the Arena.


Leeds Arena: Design Features


The first thing to notice is the fan shaped theatre design. This is extremely unusual for Arenas as most follow the tried and tested US models where the seating is designed 360 degrees around and focusing on a central sports arena for ice hockey, basketball or similar. Leeds has taken a completely different approach driven fundamentally by the priorities of the Operator’s business plan. The benefit of these sports events in income terms is relatively low but the cost of providing and maintaining the required plant and facilities to support them is huge. Even more importantly though the sports events compromise the design of the Arena and prejudice the visual and acoustic experience for the audience for mainstream performance events. In a fan shape auditorium every seat will be forward facing with perfect un-obscured vision and no seat will be further than 65 metres from the stage. Generally speaking it is not unusual in Arenas for many seats to be more than 100 metres from the stage.


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