Expert view on viability of a new state-of-the-art arena in Blackpool
PLUS: Homeless charity warns of higher demand and funding ‘cliff edge’
Hello and welcome to the final edition of The Blackpool Lead for 2024.
We hope you had a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas however you were spending the day.
2025 will bring a number of new projects to Blackpool and we will look to explore those in detail in the first issues of the year. These include issues around poor quality housing, rising sea levels and the Multiversity project, all of which have been key topics for us as we approach one year of publishing The Blackpool Lead.
Today’s newsletter focuses on two stories on the opposite ends of the spectrum for Blackpool. While discussions take place about the idea of an arena in Blackpool, a homeless charity has warned of an upcoming funding cliff-edge.
Both of these issues are things we intend to continue reporting on extensively in 2025.
You can support The Blackpool Lead’s independent reporting on your town by taking a paid subscription. This gives you access to any paid-only reporting we do, as well as our weekly recommendations for things-to-do around Blackpool, but also ensures we can keep doing what we’re doing and keep our most impactful exclusive news free for all.
Opportunity to do something special with state-of-the-art Blackpool arena - but any plan will have serious challenges to overcome
By Fergal Kinney
Does Lancashire need a big, live music arena? Blackpool South’s Labour MP Chris Webb certainly thinks so.
In October 2024, Nikal Ltd - the company set to deliver a £300m regeneration project for Blackpool - filed for administration, leaving behind only a multi-storey car park and dashed hopes as evidence of what should have been the biggest investment into the town for a century.
In the days after the announcement, however, Webb had other plans, asking a question at Parliament’s Business Questions and speaking to the media about plans for a “state-of-the-art arena built in Blackpool.”
Is he right? Whilst Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Yorkshire all have arenas - that is, large and versatile indoor venues used predominantly but not at all exclusively for live music - Lancashire does not.
Today, live music in the UK is a tale of two industries. At one end, for Britain’s small venue circuit, things have never been more precarious, hammered by inflationary rising costs, changing habits and - in the infamous but not atypical case of Manchester’s Night and Day Café - noise complaints from local residents. In Lancashire, more complex factors like demographic shifts and the decline of town centres have proved fatal for some small venues in Blackburn and Preston.
Arena entertainment, meanwhile, has never been bigger, providing the kind of economic activity that generates much needed bumps for GDP figures, and where party political figures compete to have events on their turf. In 2023, London’s o2 Arena sold the most tickets of its seventeen year lifespan, while the economic effect of mega-grossing tours like Taylor Swift’s $1bn-earning Eras tour of the forthcoming Oasis behemoth can be transformative for hospitality, during a nightmare period for that sector, lucky enough to be in the vicinity.
That Manchester now has the newly built Co-Op live competing with the established AO Arena, which in turn has met that challenge with a £50m investment package, is a measure of how seriously cities are taking this. But Manchester is a large and increasingly powerful city. Could one of Lancashire’s large towns or cities seriously compete?
Webb says that his intervention has already started a debate and began to unify potential investors in the project. “Developers have reached out to me,” the MP tells The Blackpool Lead, “there are people who invest in properties and businesses who are speaking to me about potential. People want to invest in Blackpool, they get the potential, they know the footfall, it has that appeal.”
For Webb, the argument for Blackpool is about future-proofing the resort’s offer. “We know seaside resorts are struggling,” says Webb, “and because of the issues we have got with sewage in the sea we know there has been an impact. Where an arena is open in those cold months of January, February and March, it will bring in those visitors.”
Is that, though, the same thing as a viable plan for a Lancashire venue, one that credibly understands a sector with unique risks and challenges?
Lancashire already has venues, which tend to be early 20th century halls that are now operated by local authorities - like Burnley’s Mechanics Theatre or Blackburn’s King George’s Hall. In the 1970s and 80s these were frequently part of the touring circuit by leading artists, something which had dried up by the turn of the millennium. This is part of a trend, with Music Venue Trust research in 2024 showing that many towns and smaller cities have seen a drastic reduction in live music since the 1990s. Artists are more minded to concentrate their touring efforts on a few big cities, and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has warned that ‘too many parts of the country have become cultural deserts’.
It is not just Blackpool that has been thinking about reversing this. In the early millennial years, Preston Guild Hall’s striking 1970s modernist design did little to save it from the fate of its increasingly unloved Lancashire hall venue siblings. In 2014, Preston City Council sold the 2000 capacity venue to local businessman Simon Rigby, and the venue went into administration in 2019. During that time, the two-room venue 53 Degrees also shut for good. Things got worse: shortly before being scheduled to reopen in 2024, dangerous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) was found in the building.
The city has been in limbo, but ideas have circulated about alternatives for the city’s future entertainment offer. “If you look around Preston you’ll see evidence of a lot of public sector investment we’re doing at the moment, such as the Harris Museum,” says Anna Hindle, Preston City Council’s cabinet member for Culture and Arts, “and we’re thinking that an arena could be the next piece in the jigsaw, the next big project.” Preston’s next Guild - the historic, once in a generation celebration of the city that has taken place every twenty years since 1542 - is on the horizon in 2032. “We’re getting to the stage where we’re thinking, what will we be providing?” says Hindle, “we’re wondering whether this could be our next big project, having an arena.”
Hindle points to the successful - if wet - Radio 2 In The Park event in September 2024 as evidence of a market for paying audiences in the city. “We’re super ambitious,” says Hindle, “but it would have to stack up, be viable, and have serious investment.”
Where does Preston have the edge over Blackpool? Catchment area. As a coastal town, Blackpool’s catchment area for an arena audience is lessened by having the sea forming a large part of the circle around the town. Preston would, the argument goes, be able to mop up audiences from its north east to its south west, with excellent and proven transport links from Lancaster, Chorley, Blackburn and even reaching towards Merseyside. Is this enough, though, to compete with big and established arenas in Manchester and Liverpool?
“You’re splitting your audience,” warns Darren Jones, senior programmer at Blackburn King George’s Hall and Burnley Mechanics Theatre, “your big promoters already don’t tend to programme both Manchester and Liverpool, so they wouldn’t programme Manchester and Lancashire.”
Few know the challenges of booking for Preston better than Joff Hall, the onetime booker at 53 Degrees and today an established promoter for nationwide company Senbla Live Events. “In a head to head competition between Liverpool or Manchester,” says Hall, “I don’t think Preston would win.” Hall points to the example of the M1 corridor with an unusually high concentration of arenas. “If you were to ask the arenas in Sheffield, Leeds and Nottingham do they think they would have more shows and sell more tickets if one of those didn’t exist, I’m sure they would all say less.”
For Hall, any prospective arena plan would need to be clear headed about the audience that exists today in Lancashire and will exist into the future. Less live music, more family entertainment and weddings. “Arenas are expensive to fill and expensive to run,” says the promoter, “you’re going to need a volume of events beyond concerts to keep the diary full and the bills paid. What we have seen in Preston is venues in the past and none of those are there anymore, at the level they were they do not exist. That’s for a number of reasons, but if their diaries were busy with successful events then one of them would be here.” A reason for optimism, says Hall, is something like Derby’s 5000 capacity arena, a good example of a punchy, modern and compact arena that has found a role for itself.
The Blackpool Lead put these criticisms and concerns to Chris Webb.
“We have to see the success of Lytham Festival down the road,” he says of the five-day music festival that will next year host Kings of Leon and Alanis Morisette, “I would point to all of those that say we’ve got Manchester and Liverpool, if that was the case then why has Lytham been such a success? Why do we get famous people coming to switch on the lights? Why do we get the BBC here for Strictly Come Dancing.”
Lytham Festival, while an enormous Lancashire success story, is a five-day pop-up outdoor event at an already established site, where a venue would involve a radically different investment model and the need to be busy for three hundred and sixty further days.
“Blackpool does have that historic appeal to many across the UK because they have happy memories of coming here,” argues Webb, “if you go to a gig in Liverpool or Manchester it’s costly, the hotels are a hell of a lot more so you get more bang for your buck here. We look out for people and make sure they have a good time, we could do that with an arena.”
Pete Eastwood, who promotes Blackburn’s successful Confessional Festival and Night At The Museum franchise, argues that any arena plan should learn from best practices in Lancashire’s small independent sector: adapt, think differently, understand your audience and its limitations.
“The Ferret in Preston is an iconic musical institution now, and it’s a brilliant grassroots venue that bands go to and respect,” says Eastwood.
“You’ll find record shops that are also cafés. Things will never be like what they were before, and why should it, but you have to do more than one thing.” Eastwood points to the example of Ed Sheeran, who performed at the Ferret in 2011 - even tweeting on the night asking for “a cup of tea and a shower in return for a tune” - who today headlines arenas and stadiums.
“When I put events on I want to support up and coming artists, but those artists need rehearsal spaces and venues putting on gigs first.”
Chris Webb MP says that he would favour a one pound small venue levy to help venues like the Ferret and Blackpool’s Bootleg Social. This is in line with demands from the Music Venue Trust for something similar, and in 2025 10% of Coldplay’s proceeds from dates in London and Hull will be donated to the Music Venue Trust.
The argument over an arena for Lancashire speaks to some of the biggest challenges facing Lancashire in the 2020s: how to find a role against increasingly powerful city region neighbours, and to what extent can Lancashire find a story to tell to make it attractive to investors? While there are plenty of reasons to be sceptical or cautious about an arena for Lancashire, the prizes and rewards could genuinely be transformative. “A couple of years ago we had Florence + The Machine and Liam Gallagher,” says Darren Jones, of a stroke of luck at Blackburn’s King Georges Hall in 2022, “suddenly the press were getting in touch with us, Global Radio for advertising. All the bars were busy, there was a buzz around town.”
For Webb, it is a once in a generation moment to be visionary and think big about Lancashire. “We can’t have another generation where we’re discussing what’s going on on the Blackpool Central site,” says Webb, who remembers growing up in the disappointed aftermath of the New Labour era super-casino plan for the town.
“We’ve already had the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in Blackpool and she’s really keen to help, we’ve now got an opportunity with a government that wants to invest power, resources and finances away from Whitehall and out into regions and into communities like Lancashire, Blackpool.
“We’ve got an opportunity to do something special.”
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Blackpool homeless charity warns of funding cliff edge which could leave people out in the cold
By Shelagh Parkinson
A charity which supports young homeless people in Blackpool has seen a rise in demand for its services this year and is warning of a funding ‘cliff edge’.
Streetlife provides emergency beds and help for young people aged between 16 and 25 at its night shelter in St John’s Square and its day centre in Buchanan Street.
This year it says average occupancy at the night shelter, which has eight bedrooms, has risen to 90 per cent, compared to 75 per cent in previous years. Next year the charity expects the shelter to be full most nights as more and more vulnerable people find themselves on the streets.
Meanwhile it needs to find £240,000 of new funding to replace grants due to end in March.
Streetlife spokesperson Kim Hughes said: “Unfortunately there are nights when 12 young people have presented and we only have eight beds.
“We are definitely seeing more young people visiting the day centre, some days there can be 30 plus that attend drop in for a hot meal, practical and emotional support.”
It was recently announced Blackpool Council is to receive £2.8m in government funding to tackle homelessness, which is £875,000 more than last year. It includes grants to prevent homelessness, help rough sleepers and fund services such as drug and alcohol treatment.
Kim added: “We are of course please to hear that more money has been allocated to Blackpool to tackle homelessness.
“This year’s rough sleeping figures were a worrying increase, and we know that Blackpool does experience a higher rate of homelessness than most of the UK, so any money being allocated towards helping vulnerable people within our community is a positive thing.
“There is a cliff edge of funding looming across the whole homelessness sector within the UK as of April next year, as many grant funds that were created following Covid are due to end.
“We ourselves have £240,000 of grant funds that end in March and given the economic landscape it is proving very difficult to find new pots of money to replenish this.”
The latest figures show the council’s Housing Options team – which offers emergency support for people who lose their homes – supported 300 more households in 2023/24 compared to the previous year. The overall number of households needing help rose to just over 3,300 compared to around 3,000. 341 people are estimated to be homeless in Blackpool this year, including 157 children.
The Lead’s national newsletter saw a takeover from all our northern titles this weekend.
The Lead North’s editor Ed Walker, senior editor Luke Beardsworth, and Jamie Lopez, Andrew Greaves and Leigh Jones from Lancashire, Calderdale and Teesside respectively, reflected on their favourite pieces of journalism from 2024, and looked forward at 2025.
Thank you for reading today’s edition of The Blackpool Lead.
Our next send would have fallen on New Year’s Day, so we will next be writing to you on Sunday, January 5. From there, we will return to our regular Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday publishing pattern and our recommendations feature will be back too.
Have a lovely week and we’ll speak to you again soon.
Luke & Ed