Leeds Arena #somethingforeveryone

In a drawer in my desk at the shop, there is a letter dated November 2002. It is a reply from the then leader of Leeds City Council about the lack of an arena in our city. In the letter he says that it has been an ambition of Leeds to have such a venue for 10 years. So from wanting one in 1992 to finally opening one in 2013 it has been quite a long journey. I and many other people have also expressed our frustration over many years in our local paper the Yorkshire Evening Post that Leeds has been the only major city in the UK without an arena. Their reporter Paul Robinson has regularly covered the story as we have slowly inched our way towards its opening. 

So now here we are in 2013 and the opening of Leeds Arena is almost upon us. In my previous blog I gave my views on the huge coup of getting Bruce Springsteen to play his only indoor show in the UK in a special pre-opening gig on Wednesday 24th July. This is probably the biggest gig Leeds has seen for decades and it has opened a bit of a can of worms.

Ourselves and Jumbo have both been ticket agents for all the major venues in Leeds for many years and as soon as the Springsteen date was announced we were both bombarded with enquiries about ticket availability. Neither of the shops will have an allocation, but that wasn't a huge surprise to either of us. We have both been in regular communication with the Leeds Arena boss Tony Watson who has been very clear and honest with us. We will be allocated tickets for some gigs but not for others. The Springsteen gig will sell out instantly with tickets available online and by calling in person at the Town Hall box office. That is the promoters decision and I fully respect that. We would prefer to have an allocation of course but this is a very different situation to the existing venues in Leeds which are largely run independently.

Yesterday a Facebook group was set up to support ourselves and Jumbo and to try and put pressure on Leeds Arena to supply us with tickets. Although it is well meaning and sincere and quite flattering that so many people have joined, it is really not needed. It claims that we have been snubbed on tickets for all but one of the events, but it's simply not true. There have been 11 events announced so far, but some of them are just not relevant to us. We sell tickets for gigs. There is absolutely no need for us to get an allocation of tickets for Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrea Bocelli or Cirque De Soleil. We also don't need Micky Flanagan or Miranda Hart tickets, that's not what we do. We are a music shop and of the acts that have been announced so far we have got Kaiser Chiefs tickets. I didn't see a great need to ask for JLS tickets. So that just leaves Elton John and Bruce Springsteen that we have not received any allocations for. If we were selling tickets for all the events at Leeds Arena it would completely change what we are about as a shop and we definitely don't want that.

Leeds Arena is going to be a huge asset to the city. It will mean that Sir Elton John makes his first visit for 29 years and Bruce Springsteen returns after a 28 year gap. These are indeed exciting times for Leeds. The last thing we want is people being negative about ticket selling arrangements. The new venue has quite often used the tag line something for everyone when it has announced shows and so far it is proving to be the case. Please get behind Leeds Arena, we have waited a long time for it to appear.