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DaiB wrote:Last service to Ponty at usual times is at 2325ish. I believe they're currently running a Sunday service all week. Anyway surely the point about transport, if there is one, is that the arena will be walkable from Cardiff Central so there's no need to rely on a train to get you there if you're averagely fit. And if I wanted to get home to the Valleys then I'd be getting the Bay shuttle to Queen St anyway, which runs every 12 minutes until late.

Presumably the Bristol service is also running a reduced service, yet it still manages to be better than ours. Good luck with your two-carriage Bay shuttle to Queen Street a Station when there's an event on. But even then that's not going to magically provide any more services to the valleys than Cardiff Central, it'll just add 5 minutes to the last train departure time at best. As for buses, I'm sure they have those in Bristol too.

Why are we comparing connections from Filton to Bristol TM against Cardiff Bay to Pontypridd?

Comparable journey should be Cardiff Bay to Cardiff Queen Street - 5 grubby shuttle trains per hour today but will be replaced by 6 shiny tram trains per hour by the time the Arena opens - taking only 5 mins. All of these trains will run directly onwards to Pontypridd (and beyond). Public transport is infinitely better for the Cardiff site than the Bristol site.

I'm still not convinced. The eastern part of a Cardiff catchment area will overlap with the western part of Bristol's. If the Bristol one does get up and running before Cardiff breaks ground then Bristol would have the benefit of being established, as mentioned above (though I'm not certain established advantage works for arenas as it does in other businesses).

I'm not that familiar with that part of Bristol to make a fair comparison but Rover Way does hamper traffic from the east, Newport Road is ok until the pinch point at Albany Road to Clifton Road. The walk along Lloyd George is easy but dull which always makes me think it's longer than it really is, about 15-20 mins.

Another thing that bothers me is if the business has much life left in it. Not because of coronovirus but fashion and return on capital. Businesses always chase returns. Hedge funds raked in money until everyone entered the market and profits shrank. Coffee shops started closing in some areas after reaching saturation point. Casual dining and upmarket burgers are other areas that have suffered. Again, I don't know if this is a market that's close to either tipping point but it will come.

To my mind to make a new arena have any chance of working millions have to be spent on Rover Way. A new tram system will cost even more money and could well be a white elephant in 15 years, as could the arena. Cardiff Council can't even keep the streets clean yet would need to spend millions of pounds they don't have to possibly have no real return.

As to the O2, yes it is poorly sighted. The road network south of the river is quite poor, the tube doesn't have much reach there, mainline rail is unreliable in South East London, the DLR isn't that convenient (another project that was implemented very poorly) and the Blackwell Tunnel hasn't been able to cope since the 90s.

Though of course I don't own an arena so can't call myself an expert...

How either Arena fares is more likely to depend on who the operators are than physical location, transport links etc. Bands, stand ups etc don't generally book tours venue by venue. They're assembled by the arena chains.

The new Cardiff arena will most likely be operated by Live Nation who currently operate the Motorpoint Arena. They may or may not want to operate two arenas in ajacent markets.

There's no operator been announced for the Bristol Arena as yet although Live Nation were involved in the abandoned plans for an arena at Temple Meads.If Filton attempts to operate as a stand-alone venue, its likely to struggle regardless of any 'first arriver' advantages it has.

Any news on this yet?

IIRC there will be a planning application later this year.

Mr Blue Sky wrote:

Lewisbeecham wrote:

Mr Blue Sky wrote:Sadly I think that the days of packing any venue, be it an arena, stadium, theatre, bar, nightclub, restaurant or cinema are gone forever. People are unlikely to want to be too close to other people from now on.

I see a future of open-air entertainment with patrons widely spaced.

Gone forever?

God only knows why you are laughing about this.

Is anyone laughing now?

We're nowhere near your doomsday scenario of "gone forever".
If we get a vaccine in the next 4 or 5 months, and cases die down again after Winter, I'm sure concert venues will be reopening to allow crowds in.
Each country will obviously deal with things in a different way, but crowds were allowed in New Zealand, without restrictions, for the recent Super Rugby games (apart from the final round when there was a lockdown again, after a few new virus deaths).
I've just been watching some darts on TV from Austria, and there didn't seem to be much social distancing going on, or masks being worn.
Cinemas have been reopening around the world, albeit with social distancing for now.

"People are unlikely to want to be too close to other people from now on" - the scenes at pubs and beaches around Britain would suggest otherwise, not to mention the flouting of lockdown rules with big indoor / outdoor parties.

If the new arena is able to open in 2-3 years time then we'll have to see what happens, but even Spanish flu disappeared after 18-24 months, so the new arena should be in a good position by then (hopefully without any extra competition from Bristol).

Just browsing online, and noticed that planning permission was approved yesterday for another massive arena in Manchester, costing 350 million, of 23,500 capacity. Next to the Etihad stadium.

The developers are expecting the concert market to start picking up again early next year, with normality by 2022.

They have a planned completion date of 2023.

In response the management of the current Manchester Arena has announced plans to revamp their arena, and increase capacity from 21,000 to 24,000.

I wouldn't expect artists to play both Manchester arenas, so hopefully there'd still be plenty of capacity left over for the biggest artists to fit in some gigs at Cardiff. Some further competition though that the new Cardiff arena could have done without, especially if that Bristol arena ever gets built.

Personally I don't think Manchester is a big enough city to have two arenas of that size, and I have my doubts that both will survive.
If anyone's interested...
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... m-18992256