More arena meetings

Leeds City Council love to have to host functions.






It means they can hire out some fancy conference room at a posh city centre hotel, have a flamboyant lunch with some expensive Fair Trade coffee whilst putting it on a decent sized expenses account.

So when you like to have these meetings, open days, conventions or whatever you like to call them, it pays to have a few good excuses for one and at the moment, there's no better excuse than the Leeds Arena, or more to the point, lack of one.

A meeting has also taken place today to discuss the development of the Elland Road site, currently a half-modernised home to an ailing football team, some industrial units and a vast spread of wasteland that gets used as a car park for 25 days of the year next to a motorway. It's a complete eyesore as you approach the city and there are few worse ways of saying 'Welcome to Leeds' as you come downhill from the Pennines.

And it's probably no coincidence that the two 'events' have taken place with just 24 hours between them. The council want an arena, they want to improve the Elland Road site - two birds with one stone. Oh, and Leeds United chairman Ken Bates wants to stick in his two penneth as well.

A city centre location is up for discussion as well, a bloke from London has even offered to pay for one, but when he was sounding out his plans, the council seemed more interested in turning the Town Hall into a world class venue. That bloke seems to have vanished in these parts and I can only assume he got fed up of the heel-dragging from our elected leaders.

Long story short, Leeds doesn't have an arena. It effectively rules the city out of hosting indoor sporting events, conferences and major indoor concerts. Outdoor venues we are well catered for and Leeds has successfully hosted major acts in the past at Temple Newsham, Roundhay Park and Millenium Square. This weekend sees the O2 Wireless Festival at Harewood House and the annual Leeds Carling Festival will be coming to Bramham Park this August Bank Holiday. That's OK when the weather's fine, but when the winter comes, Leeds is very much off the radar, with loiners having to make the trip to either Sheffield or Manchester.

Hopefully, something fruitful has come of all this. Leeds has been crying out for a venue like this, be it just for conferencing and pop concerts, or if it is to also play host to an ice hockey - Sheffield Steelers have been crying out for a proper derby clash. My only worry is that the usual 'feasibility studies' continue for a good few years to come to the point where nobody cares anymore.