Description:
Created by world-renowned architects Foster and Partners, who
also designed the SECC's Clyde Auditorium, Scotland's new national
arena will seat 12,000 and will be the largest entertainments venue
in Scotland. To be known as The Scottish Hydro Arena, the venue is
the only one of its scale in the UK built specifically for
concerts, conferences and events.
Like the Clyde Auditorium, The Hyrdo has been designed from the
inside out. Visitors will enjoy sightlines from each of the 12,000
seats in the fixed, tiered and demountable seating system and the
acoustics will be of the highest standard. There will be a wide
range of food and drink outlets as well as a club seating area and
a number of VIP boxes, each capable of accommodating 12 people.
There will also be restaurants and bars.
Scottish Enterprise will contribute £25m to the project.
The QD2 masterplan will enhance and transform the 64-acre site into
a complete exhibition, conference and entertainments complex of
significant national scale and make the SECC a world-class
venue. The new facilities will enhance Glasgow and Scotland's
tourism offer, specifically business tourism, and the arena will
play an integral role in the 2014 Commonwealth Games as the
home for both gymnastics and the netball finals at the games.
The Scottish Hyrdo Arena is one of the first major developments
to be undertaken in the SECC's QD2 master plan which has the
potential to inject an additional £131 million per annum into the
local economy and create 2,449 jobs. The current economic impact of
the SECC is £347million per annum with 1.5 million visitors a
year.
The 12,000-seat SECC national arena will be the largest
entertainments venue in Scotland and the only one of its scale in
the UK built specifically for concerts and events.
Work is underway on the site. Piling is being put in place and
the substructure for the arena is under construction.
In September 2010 SECC announced that AEG Facilities have been
appointed to create an event programme for the new venue in advance
of it opening in 2013.
Bovis Lend Lease have been appointed to build the auditorium and
began work in February. Considered one of the UK's
leading project management and construction companies, Bovis Lend
Lease, who previously worked on the SECC and the Clyde Auditorium,
fought off stiff competition during a formal tender
process.