A falling air con unit, broken lights and no backstage toilets: Behind the ... trends now

The Co-op Live arena in Manchester has been billed as the greatest indoor arena for music, comedy and sport ever built outside the United States.

Costing £365million, it is the most expensive and largest purpose-built concert venue in Britain and the jewel in the crown for an American-based firm that owns 300 venues around the world. 

Venue mogul Tim Leiweke, co-founder of its owner Oak View Group, also claimed it is also 'acoustically the most perfect ever built in the UK' ahead of some of the biggest music and comedy gigs of 2024. He also said it would be a springboard to building a new arena in the London to finally rival the 02 in Greenwich. 

But today MailOnline can reveal that hundreds of construction workers are desperately working around the clock trying to complete Co-op Live arena - almost two weeks late.

One told MailOnline today, in no uncertain terms, that the arena is a 's**t show'.  'We have been telling them for weeks that the place wouldn't be ready but no one listened', he said. 

Another claimed it will take 'at least the next two or three [weeks] definitely. It's because they need to check and recheck because nothing has really been checked. Fire checks, safety checks…they haven't been checked out.'

Key investors include local boy Harry Styles and Manchester City, who provided land across from their Etihad Stadium. This week Styles sent a video message speaking of his 'pride' in being involved and saying the 'people of Manchester deserve one of the best arenas in the world'. 

So how could the opening of what Mr Leiweke calls a 'marvel of engineering', started in 2021, turn into such a disaster? Tens of thousands of tickets worth millions of pounds have been sold to gigs that have been cancelled - even with a few hours to go. 

Officially, a part of the heating and ventilation system coming loose has been blamed. 

In fact it has been claimed that Co-op Live's first full show was cancelled minutes before it was due to start after part of an air conditioning unit fell from the gantry inside the venue prior to the start of the gig.

It has also been claimed there are no permanent backstage toilets yet.  

And staff there claim that the problems run deeper, and rushing the opening is all about money. 

Safety operators are now being brought in to check all the air conditioning systems to ensure their security. 

In words that will devastate fans of Peter Kay, Rick Astley and Olivia Rodrigo, another worker said: 'All these concerts should have been postponed weeks ago. There's still temporary lighting up in parts of the arena. It was never going to pass safety regulations.

'It's all about money. The construction firm building this place will have it written into the contracts that it has to be finished on a certain date.

'If it's not, they get hit with massive fines. They've tried to rush the job to hit the completion dates because they can't afford to take the hit.'

The state-of-the-art music venue's car parks were packed with work vans today and exclusive show workers rushing around trying to finish almost two weeks after comedian Peter Kay cancelled its first proper live show on Tuesday, April 23.

One contractor aid : 'Just look around at the number of work vans still on the car parks. If the building company was ready to complete the handover and was ready to be signed off, there wouldn't be so many of us still here working. There's still a lot to do.'

Tim Leiweke  put his arm around an equally excitable BBC Breakfast reporter and promised 'we're never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down' - a nod to Rick Astley who was playing in the first gig that night.

But by the evening those words would come back to haunt the 67-year-old multi-millionaire, whose grand opening has been an unmitigated disaster.

There were chaotic scenes when thousands of fans turned up to watch 80s idol Astley perform only to find out their tickets had been cancelled without notice after the capacity was slashed because of safety fears.

Behind the scenes Leiweke is likely to have been incandescent over the scandal - and despite the horseplay in his BBC interview - there were signs of problems because he stood there with his arms crossed and said with a hint of desperation: 'I'm just trying to get it open'. After failing to do just that - days later the venue's general manager quit under a cloud.

Before the problems, Tim said spending £365million on the arena was 'a bet' that had gone in his favour.

'We were fortunate that the bet we made – that we'd see the single greatest live entertainment return and surge in the history of the industry – is what we've seen these past few years', he said.

Discussing Co-op Live, Leiweke said: 'It's the largest single investment in the history of our industry internationally. It's the most expensive arena ever built outside of North America.'

American businessman Tim Leiweke is one of the biggest names in the entertainment business in the US.

Until around ten years ago he was boss of AEG Worldwide, the biggest owner of venues, sport teams, and entertainment businesses.

Leiweke is married to wife Bernadette and have one daughter. Francesca, who is married to a former hockey star and works for her father, made headlines in 2009 when she sat with David Beckham at a LA Lakers game as the England footballer moved to the use.

Becks was playing for LA Galaxy, which was owned by AEG. 

Leiweke also described turning his attention to a new super-venue in London - and an arena in Cardiff.

After leaving AEG, Leiweke co-founded Oak View Group with Irving Azoff, ex-boss of Ticketmaster, with the view of 'disrupting' the market - especially his former employer.

OVG owns and operates more than 300 venues worldwide, mostly in the US but with projects planned across Europe, Africa and Asia - bankrolled by investors including private equity firms.

It has big plans for venues ion London and Las Vegas - but until then the jewel in the crown is the Co-op Arena in Manchester - the most expensive venue of its kind outside the US.

However, its opening has been marred by a failure to safely complete it on time.

Manchester is scarred by the suicide bomb attack on its city centre Arena in 2017. 

One survivor

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