Sheffield Arena

Sheffield Arena, known for sponsorship purposes as Utilita Arena Sheffield, is a multi-purpose arena located in Sheffield, England. It is situated near Meadowhall and lies between Sheffield city centre and Rotherham town centre.

Sheffield Arena

Exterior view of venue (June 2022)
Former names	Sheffield Arena (1991–2002, 2007–10, 2015–17, 2021) Hallam FM Arena (2002–07) Motorpoint Arena (2010–15) FlyDSA Arena (2017–21)
Address	Broughton Lane, Sheffield, S9 2DF, England
Coordinates	53°24′0″N 1°25′8″W
Public transit	Arena / Olympic Legacy Park
Owner	Sheffield City Trust
Operator	Sheffield International Venues Live Nation UK
Capacity	Concert: 13,600 Ice hockey: 9,300[1] Steel Hall: 4,500[2]
Construction
Broke ground	1989
Built	November 1990 (roof structure)[3]
Opened	30 May 1991
Renovated	2013
Construction cost	£34 million
Architect	HOK Sport, Lister Drew Haines Barrow[4]
Project manager	Roger Colebourn[5]
Structural engineer	Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company[6]
Services engineer	Oscar Faber & Partners
Main contractors	RM Douglas
Tenants
Sheffield Steelers (EIHL) (1991–present) Sheffield Sharks (BBL) (1994–2004) 1991 World Student Games
Website
Venue Website

Opened in 1991, it is used for concerts and sporting events, and is also home to the Sheffield Steelers ice hockey club. Attendance for all events at the venue has totalled around 14 million since its opening. It has a maximum capacity of 13,600.^[7]

History

Spectators queuing outside the arena in 1993

Constructed at a cost of £34 million, it was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 30 May 1991 as Sheffield Arena.^[8] The first concert took place that evening, Paul Simon playing as part of his "Born at the Right Time" tour. The arena then took on the role of Gymnastics Hall for the 1991 World Student Games which were held in the city and which prompted the investment in, and development of, both the arena and nearby Don Valley Stadium.

Since the venue opened in 1991 the arena has averaged 122 shows a year with over 650,000 customers passing through the doors each year.^[9]

The Arena was the location of the infamous Labour Party Sheffield Rally during the 1992 United Kingdom general election which was widely criticised for being prematurely triumphalist.^[10]

The arena was renamed Hallam FM Arena in 2002, but returned to its original name from 1 November 2007.^[11] On 9 August 2010, Sheffield Arena was officially renamed Motorpoint Arena Sheffield, after the Derby based car sales company invested £1 million to rename the venue.^[12] In August 2015 the arena was once again rebranded as Sheffield Arena, however in September 2017 nearby Doncaster Sheffield Airport began sponsoring the arena giving it a rebrand, FlyDSA Arena.^[13] In 2021, Utilita Energy took over sponsorship of the arena.

The arena underwent a major renovation installing a new roof, doors, seats, lighting, catering and toilet facilities in July 2013.^[14]

In 2013 the arena was ranked as the 18th most popular arena in the world and this was in the year that the building was closed for over 2 months to enable the multi-million pound refurbishment of the venue. More recently, in 2019, Pollstar ranked the arena at 65th worldwide and 7th in the UK as part of their 'Top 200 Arena Venues' with 311,125 tickets sold,^[15] up 5 places from 70th in 2018.^[16]

COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the car park of the arena was used as a drive-through phlebotomy service operated by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the first of its kind in the country. This allowed patients to attend for routine blood tests from within the isolation of their cars, reducing the requirement for patients to attend GPs or hospital clinics. The drive-through phlebotomy service opened on 8 April 2020 for patients with underlying health conditions,^[17] and was expanded to become available to all patients in the Sheffield area on 27 April.^[18] The drive-through was deemed such a success that it was turned into a permanent service, relocating first to a warehouse next to the Sheffield Parkway before settling into a permanent site next to the Northern General Hospital after the end of the pandemic.^[19]

To support the rollout of the local COVID-19 vaccination campaign, the Sheffield NHS Vaccination Centre opened at the arena on 25 January 2021, taking up the space previously occupied by the drive-through phlebotomy clinic before its relocation.^[20] The vaccination centre remained open until 26 July, when it was relocated to the former NHS Blood and Transplant building next to the Northern General Hospital to allow the arena to reopen for its usual events.^[21]

In April 2020, the interior space of the arena was used as a storage location for 1,800 additional hospital beds which were being delivered to hospitals in Sheffield to support pandemic operations. Photographs of the hospital beds inside the arena later leaked onto social media, and the local NHS trust issued a statement denying rumours that the arena was going to be repurposed as a Nightingale temporary hospital.^[22] In August 2020, an ophthalmology clinic was opened inside the arena featuring eye imaging suites, remaining in operation until the arena reopened for normal usage after the pandemic.

Events

Music

Slipknot @ Sheffield Arena, January 2020 – We Are Not Your Kind World Tour

Sheffield's own Arctic Monkey's broke the Arena ticket sales records when they instantly sold out over 13,600 tickets for their date are the arena in November 2013. The previous record of 13,300 was held by fellow Sheffield band Pulp in December 2012.^[9]

The venue's record attendance for a seated music concert is currently held by Little Mix when 12,485 customers attended their Get Weird Tour Saturday 23 April 2016.^[9] The record for most shows in Sheffield Arena is held by Irish boyband Westlife with 32 shows played to date.^[23]

British-Irish boy-band, One Direction played their last concert, before going on an indefinite hiatus, on 31 October 2015 at the Arena. The arena held from somewhere between 35,000-37,000 people raising over 3 million dollars.

Entertainment events held at the Sheffield Arena
Year	Date	Nationalities	Artists	Events	Supporting Acts	Attendance	Box Office
1992	17 June	Ireland	U2	Zoo TV Tour	The Fatima Mansions
1993	16 May	England	Iron Maiden	Real Live Tour	The Almighty
1994	14 November	Sweden	Roxette	Crash Boom Bang
1995	4 April	United States	Janet Jackson	Janet World Tour	MN8
	3 December	United Kingdom	David Bowie	Outside Tour
1996	4 December	United States	Gloria Estefan	Evolution Tour
1997	8 September	United States	Toni Braxton	Secrets Tour	N/A	Un­known
1998	4 June		Janet Jackson	The Velvet Rope Tour	Another Level
1999	9 September		Whitney Houston	My Love Is Your Love World Tour
	11 December		Cher	Believe Tour
2001	6 March	Ireland	Westlife	Where Dreams Come True Tour
	7 March
	8 March
2002	1 May			World of Our Own Tour
	2 May
	3 May
	4 May
	5 May
	14 May	Australia	Kylie Minogue	KylieFever2002
	15 May
2003	18 July	Ireland	Westlife	Unbreakable Tour
	19 July
	21 July
	22 July
	6 July	United Kingdom	Iron Maiden	Dance of Death World Tour	Funeral for a Friend
2004	13 February	Canada	Shania Twain	Up! Tour	Björn Againe
	8 March
	29 April	Ireland	Westlife	The No 1's Tour
	30 April
	1 May
	19 May	United States	Cher	The Farewell Tour
2005	18 March	Ireland	Westlife	Back Home Tour
	19 March
2006	27 April			Face to Face Tour
	28 April
	18 July	United States	Guns N' Roses	Chinese Democracy Tour	Bullet for My Valentine
	18 November	United Kingdom	Muse	Black Holes and Revelations Tour	The Noisettes
	18 December	United Kingdom	Iron Maiden	A Matter of Life and Death Tour	Trivium; Lauren Harris
2007	13 March	Ireland	Westlife	The Love Tour
	14 March
	7 December	Barbados	Rihanna	Good Girl Gone Bad Tour
2008	25 March	Ireland	Westlife	Back Home Tour
	26 March
	25 May
	29 November	United Kingdom	Coldplay	Viva la Vida Tour
2009	28 February	United States	Metallica	World Magnetic Tour	Machine Head The Sword
	7 June	United States	Beyoncé	I Am... World Tour		11,049 / 11,049	$901,750
	18 November	United Kingdom	Muse	The Resistance Tour
2010	9 May	Ireland	Westlife	Where We Are Tour
	10 May
	13 May	Barbados	Rihanna	Last Girl on Earth Tour
	4 June	United States	Lady Gaga	The Monster Ball Tour	Semi Precious Weapons	Un­known
2011	28 March	Ireland	Westlife	Gravity Tour
	29 March
	24 July	United Kingdom	Iron Maiden	The Final Frontier World Tour	Airbourne	11,650 / 11,650	$711,879[24]
	5 November	United States	Britney Spears	Femme Fatale Tour	Joe Jonas
	19 November	Barbados	Rihanna	Loud Tour
2012	13 May	Ireland	Westlife	Greatest Hits Tour
	19 May
	12 June
	17 June	United States	Blink-182	20th Anniversary Tour (Blink-182)
2014	30 March	United States	Justin Timberlake	The 20/20 Experience World Tour	DJ Freestyle
	13 November	Australia	Kylie Minogue	Kiss Me Once Tour	Third Party
2015	28 February	Ireland	The Script	No Sound Without Silence Tour[25]	Colton Avery Tinie Tempah	Un­known
2016	5 April	Australia	5 Seconds of Summer	Sounds Live Feels Live World Tour[26][27][28]	Don Broco[29]
2017	10 May	United Kingdom	Iron Maiden	The Book of Souls World Tour	Shinedown	9,043 / 10,566	$639,499[30]
	21 June		Electric Light Orchestra	Alone in the Universe Tour	Tom Chaplin
	3 July	United States	Green Day	Revolution Radio Tour	Rancid
	17 October	United Kingdom	Little Mix	The Glory Days Tour	Lina Makhul
	27 October
	28 October
2018	14 December		Def Leppard	Hysteria & More Tour	Cheap Trick
2019	25 January		The 1975	Music For Cars Tour
	7 June	Ireland	Westlife	The Twenty Tour	The Rua, Keelie Walker
	8 June
	19 September	United States	Ariana Grande	Sweetener World Tour	Social House
	28 October	England	Little Mix	LM5: The Tour	TBA
	29 October
2022	28 November	Ireland	Westlife	The Wild Dreams Tour
2023	30 September	England	The Reytons	What's rock and Roll Tour	TBA
2025	23 May	Australia	Kylie Minogue	Tension Tour	TBA

Comedy

The arena is a regular venue for some of the world's best known Comedians such as Russell Brand, Lee Evans, Jack Whitehall, Eddie Izzard and Peter Kay who in 2011 played the arena for 5 nights running with all shows selling out within hours of going on sale. In June 2018 Michael McInytyre broke the venue's record attendance for a seated comedy show when his Big World Tour played the FlyDSA Arena on Saturday 23 June 2018 in front of 12,347 fans

Sheffield Steelers

Sheffield Steelers v Guildford Flames @ Sheffield Arena, January 2020

The arena is the home to the city's Elite Ice Hockey League team, the Sheffield Steelers, who began to play at the arena in 1991. Whilst the standard capacity for ice hockey at the arena is around 9,300,^[1] the Steelers have recorded crowds of over 10,000 in the building with extra seating being installed at the venue. In 2019 the Steelers were the highest ranked team in the UK in terms of attendance and 35th in Europe drawing an average crowd of 6,045 to the arena.^[31]

The first ever competitive Sheffield Steelers game at Sheffield Arena took place on Sunday 6 October 1991, when the Steelers were held to a 3–3 draw against Chelmsford Chieftains in front of 300 spectators. However, the first Ice Hockey game played at the Sheffield Arena took place on Thursday 26 September 1991 when Durham Wasps beat a Sheffield Steelers select 7–1 to win the World Leisure Cup. Durham's Rick Brebant scored the first goal at 2:18 in front of an estimated crowd of 2,000.

In February 2020 it was announced that the arena had secured planning permission to install a new 22-ton machine to make production of the ice surface more cost-effective and environmentally friendly.^[32]

Disney On Ice

Disney On Ice holds the record for the most performances & customers of any touring show to perform at the Arena. Feld Entertainment has promoted the show every year since the building opened over November/December, as of 2013 there has been 260 performances seen by 1.3 million customers.^[9]

Other events

Sheffield Arena Interior

The arena was the location for the Labour Party's 1992 Sheffield Rally. Attended by over 10,000 party members and the entire shadow cabinet. Held just before that year's general election, which Labour was widely expected to win, the event is often seen as a factor in the party's defeat.^[33] While the event was seen as a success to those within the hall, many commentators, and Labour politicians, viewed it as triumphalist in nature.^[33] However, it has also been asserted that the event had negligible impact on the outcome,^[34] with a fall in the party's support having already occurred.^[35]

TV shows such as The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing on Ice visit the arena every year as part of their tours. It hosted the BBC revival of Gladiators in 2023^[36][37] and will host it again on select dates during August 2024; the arena previously hosted the live show during Easter 1995.

The arena has hosted major special high-profile events, including The International Indian Film Academy Awards, which took place on Saturday, 9 June 2007 and was broadcast live around the world. This included a season hosted by the city of Sheffield and nearby Leeds. Also, in 2009, the arena hosted the annual BBC Radio 1Xtra concert and the 2009 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

The arena has hosted major boxing events such as when Joe Calzaghe first won his WBO world title here on 11 October 1997 against former world champion Chris Eubank. On the same bill Sheffield born Naseem Hamed defended his WBO title against Jose Badillo. On 26 November 2005 Ricky Hatton extended his unbeaten record to 40–0, defending his IBF and Ring Magazine Junior Welterweight world titles and winning the WBA belt by 9th-round knockout against Carlos Maussa. Sheffield fighter Clinton Woods also defended his IBF light-heavyweight title against Mexican Julio César González on two occasions, winning on points both times. Kell Brook has had many fights here, his most notable being a fourth-round knockout victory of Vyacheslav Senchenko.

The Great Britain men's national basketball team played a test match against Portugal in that arena in preparation for the 2012 Olympics.

As well as being home to the Sheffield Steelers the venue has also hosted other ice hockey events such as the 2019 Super Series between USA and Canada featuring many ex-NHL stars^[38] and has acted as a neutral site for the EIHL Challenge Cup final

The arena has hosted many professional wrestling events held by companies including WWE, NXT and 5 Star Wrestling over the years dating as far back as the WWE UK Rampage events in 1992 and 1993

Since 2007, it has played host to the Premier League Darts.

Every year students from both Sheffield Hallam and The University of Sheffield assemble to watch the final game of their varsity play out as both universities ice hockey teams play and the stadium fills to capacity.

Management

The arena is owned by Sheffield City Trust, an independent charity, and managed under contract by the US media company Live Nation UK.

Transport

Road

The arena is easily accessible by road with the nearest motorway junctions being Junction 34 of the M1 if approaching from the North and Junction 33 of the M1 if approaching from the South. The arena has parking for around 1,200 cars^[39] which is often available to pre-book in advance at a discounted rate

Tram

The arena is accessible via the Sheffield Supertram with the primary stop, Arena / Olympic Legacy Park, being served by both the Yellow Route and Tram Train. The Valley Centertainment entertainment complex nearby provides a secondary stop for the arena, Valley Centertainment, which is also served by the Yellow Route and Tram Train. This stop has Park & Ride facilities

Train

There are 3 train stations that are connected to the arena by Supertram – Sheffield, Meadowhall Interchange and Rotherham Central – as well as nearby Darnall which is a 5-minute drive from the arena

Bus

The arena is serviced by many bus routes (including X1 Steel Link) stopping at the Sheffield Arena and/or Arena Square stops nearby

References

1. "Boxing Day Vs. Nottingham Panthers – SOLD OUT". Retrieved 26 September 2020.
2. "The Steel Hall | FlyDSA Arena Sheffield". flydsaarena.co.uk.
3. "Sheffield Events Arena" (PDF). Cleveland Bridge UK. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 April 2019.
4. Winch, Graham M. (20 November 2012). Managing Construction Projects. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444314694. Retrieved 30 April 2019 – via Google Books.
5. "25May90 UK: MARGO COLE REPORTS ON DOUGLAS' INDOOR EVENTS ARENA PROJECT IN SHEFFIELD. (1 OF 2)". 24 May 1990. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
6. "Sheffield Events Arena". Cleveland Bridge UK. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
7. "Technical Specifications". flydsaarena.co.uk. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
8. "About the Sheffield Arena". FlyDSA Arena. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
9. "Arena Information | FlyDSA Arena". flydsaarena.co.uk.
10. Alyssa McDonald "The NS Interview: Neil Kinnock", New Statesman, 29 April 2010
11. Motorpoint Arena. "Welcome to the Sheffield Arena". Hallamfmarena.co.uk. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
12. "£1m new name drives Motorpoint Arena Sheffield". Archived from the original on 19 February 2015.
13. Walker, Graham (20 September 2017). "VIDEO: Fly DSA Arena takes off as Doncaster Sheffield Airport gets naming rights of Sheffield Arena". The Sheffield Star. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
14. "Multi-million pound arena upgrade". BBC News. 6 February 2013. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
15. "Top 200 Arena Venues" (PDF). Pollstar. 16 December 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 July 2022.
16. "Worldwide Ticket Sales Top 200 Arena Venues" (PDF). Pollstar. December 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 July 2022.
17. "Sheffield Hospitals set up 'drive through' blood testing with the help of Sheffield Arena". sth.nhs.uk. 9 April 2020. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
18. "Success of 'drive through' blood testing means service now available to all patients". sth.nhs.uk. 27 April 2020. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
19. "New location for drive-through phlebotomy service". sth.nhs.uk. 17 October 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
20. "Sheffield Arena opens as NHS COVID-19 vaccination centre". sth.nhs.uk. 25 January 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
21. "NHS Vaccination Centre at Sheffield Arena to move to new location". sth.nhs.uk. 5 July 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
22. Lewis, Claire (5 April 2020). "Will Sheffield's FlyDSA Arena be turned into a Nightingale hospital during pandemic?". Retrieved 7 April 2024.
23. "Westlife announce upcoming tour dates – and they're set to hit Croke Park". Independent. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
24. Allen, Bob (12 August 2011). "Iron Maiden UK Box Scores 2011". Billboard. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
25. Burn, Chris (1 March 2015). "The Script wow thousands of fans in Sheffield". Sheffield Telegraph. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
26. "5 Seconds of Summer announce April 2016 arena tour – TICKETS". Key 103. 13 October 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
27. Walker, Graham (28 March 2016). "WIN: Meet 5 Seconds Of Summer at Sheffield Arena". The Star. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
28. "Review: 5 Seconds of Summer at Sheffield Motorpoint Arena". Attitude. 13 April 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
29. "Don Broco to support 5 Seconds of Summer". Emily – Kerrang. 12 March 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
30. "Current Boxscore (19 June 2017)". Billboard. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
31. "IIHF – European attendance ranking". IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation.
32. "Sheffield's FlyDSA Arena is changing the way its ice rink is made using a new '22-ton machine'". The Star.
33. "Key Issues in the 1992 Campaign". BBC News, Politics '97.
34. Westlake, Martin (2001). Kinnock: The Biography. pp. 560–564.
35. Parish, Jim (1 January 1999). "It was tax what lost it for Labour". New Statesman.
36. "Contenders Ready! Gladiators Ready! Iconic entertainment series Gladiators is set to burst back onto screens in 2023". www.bbc.co.uk. 25 August 2022.
37. Ritman, Alex (25 August 2022). "'Gladiators' Getting U.K. Reboot on BBC". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
38. "Canada v USA – Familiar faces take to Sheffield Arena ice for good cause". The Yorkshire Post. 20 April 2019.
39. "Directions | FlyDSA Arena Sheffield". flydsaarena.co.uk.

External links

• Official website