Arena is something to sing about (From Daily Echo)

Arena is something to sing about

2:22pm Tuesday 2nd June 2009 in

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Let’s be clear.

I am not about to “do a Baroness Vadera” and proclaim green shoots. Neither am I buying chancellor Darling’s line about things turning by the end of the year.

Nor am I saying the grim tide of insolvency, redundancy and financial misery is anything like over.

There is more, much more to come. Of that there is little doubt.

“We’ve had Spitfire Wings and heritage centres, casinos, ice rinks and re-imagined Royal Piers to name but a few. All sunk by a toxic combination of lack of funds, bitter infighting and tenuous grip on reality.”

It does, though, finally feel like things have stopped getting worse.

That the stomach-churning rollercoaster has plummeted to the full and now we can finally measure the scale of the hole we’re in.

Having said that, there’s no denying this month’s issue is chock-full of recession pain. Just ask the Vestas workers who, astonishingly, find themselves set for the scrapheap despite being at the cutting edge of a boom industry (page 5).

Ford workers too have yet more punishment on their plate (also page 5), while Wyatt Citroen’s collapse is just the latest and undoubtedly not the last for the region’s ailing auto industry.

And yet, for what feels like the first time in a long time, there is good news in equal, if not greater measure.

Chief amongst the reasons for this welcome wave of optimism are the plans for a massive 10,000- seater arena and conference centre on that vexed bit of land that is Mayflower Park.

Given its calamitous history, you could be forgiven for accusing me of clutching at straws. Grand dreams come and go down there with the regularity of the cruise ships sailing past.

We’ve had Spitfire Wings and heritage centres, casinos, ice rinks and re-imagined Royal Piers to name but a few. All sunk by a toxic combination of lack of funds, bitter infighting and tenuous grip on reality.

Now, though, we have an idea that may have come at the right time, with the necessary backing and it’s making all the right noises.

Previous plans for an arena and conference centre – on a plot largely comprised of the De Vere Hotel’s car park, were scandalously shelved on the advice of a faceless bunch of consultants who said there was no call for it.

They could not have been more wrong.

What developer Kilmartin propose promises to fill a yawning gap on the south coast for a major venue between Brighton and Bournemouth.

It’s a potentially transformational project.

Southampton’s lack of a conference centre threatens to terminally undermine its claim to be THE business city south of London, while major artists are frequently forced to play elsewhere for want of a fitting venue.

From hotels to restaurants, taxis and takeaways, a conference centre would be a boon beyond measure.

The city would finally get the place on the entertainment map its regional heavyweight status demands and, if reports of an iconic structure on the scale of Bilbao’s vaunted Guggenheim are to be believed, it’ll get the Wow Factor we’re all so tired of searching for. Amen to that.

Most importantly, it has a funding structure that seems viable. The regional casino Southampton landed a licence for all those years ago helps to fund it. Meanwhile, the all-important flats that are so unpopular with port bosses and have torpedoed previous efforts are moved to a nearby site that shouldn’t lead to residents’ complaints about noisy, smelly ships spoiling their lovely new port view.

For the first time, a Mayflower Park plan can boast political backing with the port bosses on side and all teamed with a sane business plan.

Now, in these dark days, the future is finally looking bright for Southampton’s waterfront.