Co-op Live: Manchester venue boss resigns after shows postponed

The general manager of Manchester's troubled Co-op Live arena has resigned after a series of problems and delays.

Gary Roden has quit his role days after comedian Peter Kay's opening shows were cancelled this week, as the £365m venue was not ready in time.

Some tickets for the arena's first test event last Saturday were also cancelled at the last minute to reduce capacity.

There was also a backlash over Mr Roden's comments to the BBC that some small music venues were "poorly run".

A statement from the arena said it did not "share the sentiment" expressed by Mr Roden and that "Co-op Live remains committed to grassroots music in Manchester and beyond".

The statement thanked Mr Roden for his "help bringing the UK's newest arena to live entertainment fans and wish him the best for the future" and said Rebecca Kane Burton, an ex-boss of London's O2 Arena, would be interim general manager.

Ahead of its grand opening shows, Mr Roden told the BBC he acknowledged the financial pressures facing grassroots venues but added there was no robust system to decide who would get a suggested subsidy of £1 from every arena ticket to support pubs and clubs, which the Music Venue Trust (MVT) is calling for.

"Why is a small venue failing?" he asked. "Absolutely, en masse bills are going up and this, that and the other. But ultimately if there are 1,000 venues, one of them is going to be the best-run venue and one of them is going to be the poorly run venue, and where does the money go?"

Instead Mr Roden said the new arena would give £1m a year to the Co-op Foundation charity, which helps a range of causes, and would work with smaller venues on projects like training.

He added: "If the conversation stops being 'Give me a quid' and quite aggressive - if it changed to be, 'What can we do together to help?', that's where I think we start to get into that apprenticeship conversation and all those different things that we want to work through."

In response, the MVT told NME that grassroots music venues were not "poorly run", and it was "disrespectful and disingenuous to suggest otherwise", pointing out "insurmountable and highly specialist challenges" they faced.

It said: "Obviously, the irony of making ill-judged, unnecessary and misleading comments about grassroots music venues on the day that the launch of their new arena has unfortunately fallen into such difficulties is not lost on anyone in the music industry, on artists, or on audiences."

Peter Kay was due to perform the first official events at the arena but it said work on its power supply was "a few days behind" schedule.

The comic's performances were rescheduled for 29 and 30 April.

The venue, which will hold up to 23,500 people when fully open, apologised as Kay admitted to being "truly gutted" for the disappointment.

Kay added at the time that "obviously it's a brand-new venue and it's important that everything is finished and safe for full capacity audiences".

"Fortunately, we've been able to reschedule the shows to next week," he said.

US rock band The Black Keys are still due to play the arena on Saturday, before Kay's rescheduled dates.

The venue said that gig would have a 10,000-capacity and managers would use it to "continue to test the resilience of the venue and its operations".

Olivia Rodrigo, Take That, Eric Clapton and Liam Gallagher are among other stars lined up to perform at Co-op Live in the coming months.

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