The boss of the firm behind the planned arena complex on the former Filton Airfield site has admitted that the venue may now not open until 2026, representing a slippage of two years on the last announced date.
Andrew Billingham, CEO at YTL Arena Bristol, said the venue’s opening date has been pushed back to late 2015 or 2016 due to “delays resulting from the impact of Covid” and the “general challenges in the construction market”.
He added that the firm has been improving its design and has created the opportunity to increase the maximum capacity of the arena from 17,000 to 19,000, with over 2,000 “premium seats”.
Planning permission for the arena complex, which will be constructed within the listed Brabazon hangars on the site, was granted in 2020 after earlier plans for an arena in the city centre had been scrapped by Bristol City Council. At that time, the target opening date for the complex was stated as being “early 2023”, but this had slipped to “2024” by the time a package of transport infrastructure investment was announced in April 2021.
A bizarre development in July 2022 saw city mayor Marvin Rees announce that Bristol was bidding to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in the Brabazon hangars, but the venue failed to make the initial short list.
In addition to the arena, the Filton complex will house the region’s largest column-less exhibition and convention halls with 6,000m2 of floor area and height clearance of 21 metres. It will also offer banqueting capacity for 4,000, together with a flexible hub for entertainment, film, TV and music rehearsals.
A spokesperson for YTL Developments said the company is making “good progress” on the arena and is in the final stages of the design process, adding:
“Work has begun on key pieces of infrastructure required including new road connections, establishing new power supplies and site preparation works.”
It had already been announced that a planned railway station that will sit alongside the new arena complex will not open until 2026, with delays blamed on several design changes. The station was originally due to open this year.
The arena will also be served by the M4 MetroBus service, which provides an express link from Bristol city centre and Bristol Parkway Station. The M4 started running last Sunday (22nd January 2023) but its route currently skirts around the airfield site pending the construction of roads through the Brabazon mixed-use development.
