Town centre Improvements

Home Forums Wrexham.com Forums Wrexham Forum Town centre Improvements

  • Author
    Posts
  • #166517

    Matt
    Participant

    Echo Arena was built as part of Liverpool’s City of Culture year and they had a lot of dockland area space to redevelop – It cost £164m to build.

    Willing to put up the challenge here then for nearest and most recent equivalent build.

    Derby Arena was built in 2015 and cost £27m to construct. It has a 5,500 capacity for concerts and events and also has sporting facilities for other specialist events.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_Arena

    So if we can find a sufficient sized Brownfield Site and ££££££ to invest from somewhere then we’re good to go.

    #166518

    Alunh
    Participant

    Not a chance that a 5000+ Theatre would locate in Wrexham. It just couldn’t make money. With rare exceptions, the only places that have big Theatres are big towns or cities. Even then, many big towns can’t make their Theatres work profitably.

    The William Aston Hall, which has a capacity of around 900 seated and more standing, is quite large when you compare it with the Severn Theatre in Shrewsbury. It has the same problems hosting Music events as every other Theatre of similar ilk (New Brighton, Rhyl, etc) in that Wrexham has diverse music tastes and can rarely fill to capacity the existing space.

    The Stereophonics gig (and similar) were interesting departures for the town and revealed as fully as possible the reasons why that dreadful individual Hamilton might actually have been right when he advocated ground moving for the Football Club years ago. Many Football Clubs on the brink made a strategic relocation years ago (Stoke, Derby, etc) and, in the case of Swansea the move allowed the Club to provide a diverse offer for the city and averted bankruptcy.

    Unfortunately, the Racecourse can rarely be used for Concerts and the fact is that bands like the Stereophonics could never appear in a smaller venue. For those of you who don’t know, an artist like Billy Ocean can cost over £20,000 for a night’s work and Charlie Landsborough cost me £7200 to put on in Glyndwr a few years ago. It’s a dear game. Comedy works in Glyndwr because it is the one genre that appeals to the student fraternity as well as elements of the town’s punters. From time to time the right promoter will put on the right artist in Glyndwr and pull a crowd but sustaining success promotion after promotion is very hard

    #166521

    DerekJackson
    Participant

    Do concerts etc have to be town centre/ Football Ground – what is wrong with the Queensway sports arena – enclosed – small amount of seating but central area same as Football Club.
    You only need to look at what they have done in Colwyn Bay to what was the Eiras Park sports ground (same as Caia) and they have put on a number of concerts with well known performers.

    #166523

    Matt
    Participant

    I agree Alun, the 5,000 Derby arena was the smallest and lowest cost example arena built in recent times that I could find for comparison purposes as the Echo was way off spec. I’m pretty certain they wouldn’t even think it worthwhile to create one of a lesser capacity. I’m all for development of Wrexham but we have to be realistic about what commercial developers will actually build here.

    At the end of the day if people really want to go and see their favourite band bad enough they’ll take the 1 hour trip up to Manchester or Liverpool. It’s not that difficult to get into a car, on an train or into a coach.

    #166524

    Matt
    Participant

    Derek, I suppose you’d have to ask Freedom Leisure why they don’t put on concerts at Queensway. My guess is that it’s a combination of adequate parking, increased security requirements of a concert, the correct licensing for serving alcohol etc… & permits for late night noise in a highly residential area.

    #166526

    zinger
    Participant

    I was at Theatre Clwyd on Sunday evening to listen to an excellent classical piano recital by a young Romanian artist. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Anthony Hopkins theatre was almost full.
    Why is it that Mold can hold events like that but Wrexham isn’t considered suitable?

    #166533

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    What do people suggest for making Wrexham better then? All I’ve seen so far is a suggestion from the original poster that they should remove the new slabs in the town centre. No one is offering any other suggestions or pie in the sky ideas, even.
    What does the town have to offer anymore? I genuinely don’t know. It used to have a thriving music scene but that seems to be restricted to once a year for Focus Wales.

    #166534

    Rondetto
    Participant

    I’m surprised at all the suggestions, surely we in dire need of Aa multi storey car park at the Maelor hospital. Everyone says they spend ages trying to find a parking space. They’ve gone as far in every direction to accommodate
    cars, there is only one solution.

    #166536

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    [quote quote=166534]I’m surprised at all the suggestions, surely we in dire need of Aa multi storey car park at the Maelor hospital. Everyone says they spend ages trying to find a parking space. They’ve gone as far in every direction to accommodate
    cars, there is only one solution.[/quote]
    This is true actually. It’s a relatively straightforward fix for a problem that has been ongoing for many years.
    Are there any more quick fixes to make people lives here in Wrexham a little better?

    #166540

    Alunh
    Participant

    [quote quote=166521]Do concerts etc have to be town centre/ Football Ground – what is wrong with the Queensway sports arena – enclosed – small amount of seating but central area same as Football Club.
    You only need to look at what they have done in Colwyn Bay to what was the Eiras Park sports ground (same as Caia) and they have put on a number of concerts with well known performers.[/quote]

    You actually raise a really important point here. For bigger artists to come to the town, it might be useful to have an evaluation of those sites that might be suitable for scale events……..and prepare some sort of documentation to outline the logistics of holding an event. There have been a few interesting places used for things like Party in the Park and Wrexfest and there was a proposed mini-fest lined up in Llay a while back. I’m guessing that the Queensway would have even more logistical difficulties than the Racecourse and, as Matt pointed out, between Access and Residential difficulties, it’s tricky.

    The more logical places are usually just outside of town yet in a good access position

Content is user generated and is not moderated before posting. All content is viewed and used by you at your own risk and Wrexham.com does not warrant the accuracy or reliability of any of the information displayed. The views expressed on these Forums and social media are those of the individual contributors.
Complaint? Please use the report post tools or contact Wrexham.com .

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

More...

Plans Submitted to Create Studio Flat Above Wrexham Fast Food Restaurant

News

Football Banning Order issued to Wrexham man for ‘pyro offences’

News

Ambulance Service ‘expecting the Bank Holiday period to be a busy one for us’

News

Reminder to check for Schools Essentials Grant before window closes at end of May

News

Wrexham AFC Women Awarded first UEFA License and FAW Tier 1 License renews for 2024/25 Season

News

“Disrespectful” easter egg hunt in cemetery cancelled after backlash

News