Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena would have gone bust without £7m taxpayer loan, says boss
The chief executive of Nottingham’s council-owned National Ice Centre and Motorpoint Arena has revealed the venue would have gone out of business without £7m of loans from city taxpayers. Martin Ingham has described how the “dark days” of the pandemic meant the venue had to lay off more than 1,000 permanent and casual staff.
A statement of accounts filed with Companies House for the year ending March 2021 confirms the city council provided a loan of £7.4m, to be repaid over 15 years from 2023. It also says the council set aside a further £1.5m for the Arena, if required.Mr Ingham said: “There was some really dark days during Covid because we had to shut the venue down without any notice and laid off most of our staff. “When you close a business overnight, your income stops immediately but costs don’t.
He said the venue will not be asking for any more loans from the city council and now plans to “rebuild.” The Arena will increase its number of shows from around 130 to 180 a year. It has also diversified, to provide merchandise for the London 02 Arena and festivals such as Download and Latitude. The city council originally invested £16m into building the venue, which opened in 2000. Mr Ingham says that by 2025 the 10,000-seat Arena will have generated an estimated £1bn for the local economy, creating business for local hotels, pubs, restaurants, shops and taxis.
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