Coronavirus has pulled the plug on the live music business, and scientists are warning physical distancing restrictions may have to continue until Christmas, but one entertainment company is pushing ahead with plans to build a gigantic concert venue in London.
The US’s Madison Square Garden Company (MSG) – which owns the New York concert and sports venue – is planning to upstage the Millennium Dome with a globe-shaped structure called the MSG Sphere.
In the face of opposition from local people, the project is awaiting planning approval for a site in Stratford, just north of the dome, also known as the O2 Arena. The enormous building, measuring over 90 metres high and 120 metres wide, would contain a nightclub, bars, restaurants and shops, as well as a concert hall, which could welcome 21,500 people. This would make the Sphere bigger than any of the UK’s current concert venues, including the 21,000-capacity Manchester Arena, and the O2 Arena itself, which can hold 20,000.
The Sphere is just one example of how the UK’s multibillion-pound live music industry is banking on a comeback in 2021. But smaller operators will need help.
Event organisers have warned that this summer’s music festivals will not be able to take place without government support. Glastonbury festival, which takes place in June and attracts about 210,000 people, has been cancelled for the second year running.
A key demand from organisers is for a government-based indemnity scheme that operates like a form of insurance by providing financial support if festivals are affected by coronavirus, similar to a €2.5bn (£2.3bn) event cancellation fund launched by the German government.
It may take more than government support to restart live events. Scientists on the government’s scientific advisory group Sage have reportedly warned ministers that unless the Covid-19 jabs are highly effective at giving immunity from the disease, social distancing measures will have to remain in place for months in order to avoid a third spike in deaths.
Chris Carey, a music industry economist, believes the development of another arena-sized venue would be good news for music fans in London and further afield.
“An additional space for people to play could stimulate demand without having to raise prices,” he said.
MSG’s plans for the London Sphere predate the pandemic, but the company has faced other headwinds: local people are concerned about a new venue on their doorstep. MSG has underlined its commitment to transforming “a long abandoned and unproductive site in east London into a state-of-the-art entertainment venue”.
The US’s Madison Square Garden Company – which owns the New York concert and sports venue – wants to build a gigantic concert venue in London. Capable of hosting concerts for 21,500 people, how would MSG Sphere London compare with other UK venues?
Up until 2007, when the Millennium Dome became the O2 Arena, London’s Wembley Arena was the first port of call for the big-name entertainers looking to play an indoor gig in the capital.
Built as a swimming pool for the 1934 Empire Games before being converted, the 12,500-seat facility – now called the SSE Arena – has hosted everyone from the Beatles (four times) to the Who, and every big band you care to mention in between.
Since 2007 the Wembley venue has been somewhat eclipsed. Much better transport links, and a marginally more intimate experience, helped make the O2 London’s premier venue. In normal times it would expect to feature year-round events including tennis exhibition matches.
Despite this, the O2 is not the UK’s biggest indoor venue. The 21,000-seater AO Arena in Manchester holds that title.
The 15,800-seat Utilita Arena in Birmingham is next up. The Utilita has been through several name changes since it was opened as the National Indoor Arena in 1991 by the athlete Linford Christie. In 2014, £26m was spent on a revamp, and Michael Bublé was the first to play after it reopened.
P&J Live in Aberdeen is the biggest indoor arena in Scotland (up to 15,000), and the fifth biggest in the UK. The First Direct Arena in Leeds is in sixth place with an audience capacity of 13,781.
As record sales have been replaced by streaming and digital sales, live performances in large 15,000-20,000-seat venues have become the major source of income for most artists. Concert tickets rarely cost less than £35 and frequently top £125, making each night a major money-spinner for all concerned.
Miles Brignall
The US group is building its first Sphere in Las Vegas, although construction has been delayed by Covid-19, and it hopes to expand the concept globally.
While the project does have some local backing, worried residents fear that a building suitable for “Sin City” does not belong in a densely populated part of the capital. As a result, many have joined forces to try to block the development through a group called Stop MSG Sphere.
Won over by the promise of panoramic views over the rooftops of east London, Nick Kompas decided at the start of January 2016 to purchase an apartment on the 21st floor of a residential high-rise which was under construction.
Yet for most of the two years he has lived in Legacy Tower, the 39-year-old software engineer has worried that those city scenes will be blocked by the Sphere complex, which would dominate the view from his home.
If the proposed development is greenlit, the completed building – directly opposite Kompas’s home – would be almost as tall as Big Ben, and covered with LED panels, programmed to display videos or adverts.
“This structure will be like living next to the surface of the sun,” said Kompas. “It is a nightmare scenario. It is not just the biggest billboard on the planet, it is going to have video, it is going to have moving, strobing lights.”
However, MSG has said the digital display will be switched off from midnight until early morning.
Kompas said he and many other Legacy Tower residents had already moved in when MSG first submitted its planning application in March 2019.
Residents and the company are now waiting for the authority, the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), to make its decision in the first three months of the year.
MSG plans to build on a triangular strip of land, close to the Olympic Park and next to the Westfield shopping centre, which was used as a coach park during the 2012 London Games.
The US company set out its plans for the Sphere, which it calls “next generation” and “the world’s most advanced entertainment venue”, long before the pandemic halted large-scale live events.
The planning application process has been delayed, and MSG has been sent back to the drawing board several times by the LLDC. There are now more than 2,000 documents associated with the application.
The LLDC’s planning committee is due to make a decision about the Sphere in the first quarter of the year. However, as is standard with major planning decisions, its verdict will be referred to the mayor of London.
Local councils, including Newham, where the Sphere would be built, as well as West Ham MP Lyn Brown oppose the plans. Rival entertainment group AEG, which owns the O2 Arena, located on the Thames approximately four miles south of Stratford, has also laid out its objections to the Sphere on the proposed site.
Concerned local people fear the disruption during the projected three years of construction, and thereafter the pollution and increased traffic from visitors to the arena, which is expected to operate 300 days a year.
Brown wrote of her concerns for her constituency in a letter to the LLDC, stressing that “the presence of bright lights until after midnight on some days, and beginning again at 6am on some mornings, clearly has the potential to impact on health and wellbeing for residents living nearby”. The area has been home to much construction since it hosted the Olympics, and blocks of flats are still being built.
MSG insists the venue will bring economic benefits and jobs to this area of the capital.
The company asked accountancy firm EY to analyse the economic benefits of the venue for local businesses. EY calculated these would reach £50m a year once operational, while it forecast the Sphere would contribute £2.7bn to the UK economy in its first 20 years.
The firm said that, once open, 3,200 people would be employed there, while 4,300 jobs would be created for its construction – and it has pledged to fill 35% of these roles with local people.
AEG has raised concerns about how London’s public transport network would cope with clashing events at the O2 and the Sphere, with potentially 40,000 people trying to travel on the same underground line at the same time.
“We have always said we are not opposed to competition in London, we do think there is an opportunity for another major venue in London, but we just don’t think it should be situated in this location,” said Alistair Wood, project director for real estate development at AEG Europe.
AEG Europe is also banking on a live music revival following Covid. The group is involved in the £1.3bn redevelopment of the Olympia exhibition halls in west London by investors Yoo Capital and Deutsche Finance International, which will include a 4,400-capacity live music venue, as well as new hotels, shops and restaurants.
MSG Entertainment said: “London is one of the world’s leading cities for music and entertainment, but has been underserved by large indoor venues compared to other global destinations.”
A rejection of its planning application would be a big setback for MSG, but the firm has insisted it is focused on building its second Sphere on the planned site in Stratford, and is not considering other locations elsewhere in the capital.
Carey believes the planned investments will eventually bear fruit: “I see no reason why live music can’t get back to its prior level very quickly and grow at a pace from there as it has for the last decade.”
