Cardiff 15000 arena

A couple of questions that occurred to me...
1. If the arena occupies the site of the council office car park and the Travelodge, what happens to Hemingway Road? Will it be severed, or will it pass through/beneath/around the new development?
2. Are we now lumbered with the mediocre Red Dragon Centre and the great ocean of surface-level parking next to it, or is it still the intention to modify the centre and incorporate it into the arena?

Well I'm very pleased that this seems to be very much moving in the right direction!

But it will be great now to get an update on David's significant points, and also the future location of the county hall? I'm still wondering/hoping that phase two of John St could be in the mix? I'm also thinking that this means that the 'mysterious' canal qtr will start emerging in city centre plans. And another thought I've pondered is a water taxi service the length of Bute East Dock? in fact generally this development will be great news for Bute East Dock. Hopefully we'll know relatively soon more details of the plans. Regardless of all these details this new arena is absolutely superb news for Cardiff! as I believe Russell Goodway said, this is a large part of the jigsaw that was missing, so well done to all that have pushed for this!

A couple of questions that occurred to me...
1. If the arena occupies the site of the council office car park and the Travelodge, what happens to Hemingway Road? Will it be severed, or will it pass through/beneath/around the new development?
2. Are we now lumbered with the mediocre Red Dragon Centre and the great ocean of surface-level parking next to it, or is it still the intention to modify the centre and incorporate it into the arena?

Some of the answers to these questions will be in the 'confidential attachments'.

There is no point in demolishing and relocating Travelodge unless Hemingway Road will be relocated south to increase the footprint of the Arena site. I understand the intention is to incorporate the Red Dragon complex into the Arena development with multi storey car park built to replace the existing surface car parks.

I expect that Red Dragon centre will be remodelled such that the main Arena entrance will be from Lloyd George Avenue for pedestrian access and public transport with vehicle access and car parking to the East. This would require demolition of Cinema complex, and this could be rebuilt to the east if required.

You would not want the complex to be split by Hemingway Road so I would expect that to be dropped into a short 'tunnel' through the complex. Alternatively Hemingway Road could be cut altogether with road access rerouted to the south via Bute Place, but that probaby not workable.

But I am very happy that things appear to be going ahead - even if very confidentially...

If a multi story car park was built on the flat car park of the redragon center and linked into it would the new arena fit only on the council site? If it did they would only require a bridge across Hemingway road and a new entrance into the car park site could be built straight off the roundabout on the dual carriage way.

https://www.business-live.co.uk/commerc ... r-19355806

First images released

We need to see a Masterplan for the site but the arena will fit on Council Site alone but interlinked closely with the Red Dragon site for its bars restsurants etc. I predict the RD centre will be renamed the Arena Centre...

More information here plus some new renders and a name..... Arena Caerdydd !!

https://www.business-live.co.uk/commerc ... r-19355806

It'll end up being sponsored and named after the sponsor, much like The O2, Principality Stadium etc.

Would like to see a site plan to see how it'll all be configured, it would be a shame not to re-site The Red Dragon Centre as it's really poorly sited with the frontage facing away from the bay.

Would like to see a site plan to see how it'll all be configured, it would be a shame not to re-site The Red Dragon Centre as it's really poorly sited with the frontage facing away from the bay.

To be fair, the Red Dragon Centre (or Atlantic Wharf as it originally was) was a great boost for the bay when it opened. I agree that it's dated and badly sited but I think over the years it's achieved what it was designed to do.

Ironically it was a certain Cllr Goodway who was the moving force behind that scheme. Say what you like about him, and I do, he's very good at delivering big schemes.

If they demolish the southern end of the cinema complex (or all of it) they could turn that into the main entrance to an integrated Arena complex, at least for pedestrians and public transport users.

The main entrance would then be directly opposite the new Cardiff Bay metro stop and face the Millenium Centre which would increase footfall irrespective of whether the Arena is in use.

Arena visitors would then pass through the RD complex of bars & restaurants on the way to the Arena itself.

Cardiff Council should find their purchase of Red Dragon Centre to be a very wise investment.

Now to play devil's advocate:

Ought this not to be fully financed by the private sector? Seems that CC is taking on a liability of sorts here.