Melchester Arena - A Major Infrastructure Project to Celebrate the City's 2000th Anniversary

The (fictional) City of Melchester, one of the UK’s major cities with a population of 750,000 people, lies within the second-most populous urban area in the country, with a local population of nearly 3 million people.

The first settlement was established here nearly 2000 years ago around AD 25 by Cunobelinus, King of the Catuvellauni tribe. Later, around AD 79, a major Roman fort was constructed here. Since that time, Melchester has been a large centre of population in this region of the UK. Melchester was awarded city status in 1875.

After London, Melchester is the most important British city economically, and it is also the third-most visited city in the UK after London and Edinburgh. It is famous for its world-leading research university and hospitals, and has a strong reputation in world of Arts and Culture. There is good access to and from Melchester, throughout the year, by road and by rail. Melchester is linked into the motorway national network.  It is a place where people want to live or visit.

In 2016, Melchester local government politicians agreed that a major infrastructure project should be commissioned to celebrate its 2000th anniversary as a major population centre, and also the 150th anniversary of its conferment as a UK city. Given the city’s world-renowned status, it was decided that a multi-purpose covered exhibition space with the capacity to hold 20,000 people would be built in an area of the city in need of regeneration. The project would generate thousands of jobs for local people, now and continuing into the future. The budget awarded to the project was £750m.

The Melchester Arena has a planned opening date of 1 June 2025. Already, the design has won prestigious awards for its architects, Gordon Jenkins Associates, but it has now run into a number of unforeseen problems, with just three years until its scheduled opening. The project planning stage is now complete, and project execution is imminent, subject to project initiation approval from the Board.

Here is some additional information about the project.

1.The original budget was £750m. 50% of this budget is being met from the UK National Lottery, with a further 45% being raised by the UK Government and Melchester local government. Plans are in place to raise the remaining 5% contribution from local businesses. These businesses would have a stake in the Arena, and the £37.5m contribution is not considered a problem.

However, during the late stages of project planning it has been found that there has been an underestimate of the costs of the groundworks, and the revised budget is now £800m. The groundworks are absolutely necessary, but there is no further public funding available by the Lottery, UK Government or local government. Thus there is a budget shortfall of £50m which needs to be found.

2.In spite of the extra groundworks, the construction of the Arena and surrounding infrastructure is on schedule for an opening on 1 June 2025, when a major festival event will be held to celebrate the opening, and Melchester’s 2000th anniversary as a major population centre.

3.As new, stronger construction materials have been invented since the original design was agreed, there is an opportunity to redesign the roof, and so increase the Arena capacity. In particular, if the redesign is approved, the roof could be opened in the summer months, i.e. 4 months of the year (May, June, July, August). This may make the Arena more attractive to potential users.

With a new Arena design incorporating an open roof, while the capacity can be increased to 24,000 (an additional 20%), the project will be delayed until 1 December 2025. However, this will mean that not only can more people enter the Melchester Arena, but that more people will be spending money inside the arena. It will also mean that if the capacity increases to 24,000 then the Melchester Arena will be the largest of its kind in the UK.