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Sheffield Arena, known for sponsorship purposes as Utilita Arena Sheffield, is a multi-purpose arena located in Sheffield, England. It is situated near Meadowhall and lies between Sheffield city centre and Rotherham town centre.
Opened in 1991, it is used for concerts and sporting events, and is also home to the Sheffield Steelers ice hockey club. Attendance for all events at the venue has totalled around 14 million since its opening. It has a maximum capacity of 13,600.
Since the venue opened in 1991 the arena has averaged 122 shows a year with over 650,000 customers passing through the doors each year.
The Arena was the location of the infamous Labour Party Sheffield Rally during the 1992 United Kingdom general election which was widely criticised for being prematurely triumphalist.Alyssa McDonald "The NS Interview: Neil Kinnock", New Statesman, 29 April 2010
The arena was renamed Hallam FM Arena in 2002, but returned to its original name from 1 November 2007. On 9 August 2010, Sheffield Arena was officially renamed Motorpoint Arena Sheffield, after the Derby based car sales company invested £1 million to rename the venue. In August 2015 the arena was once again rebranded as Sheffield Arena, however in September 2017 nearby Doncaster Sheffield Airport began sponsoring the arena giving it a rebrand, FlyDSA Arena. In 2021, Utilita Energy took over sponsorship of the arena.
The arena underwent a major renovation installing a new roof, doors, seats, lighting, catering and toilet facilities in July 2013.
In 2013 the arena was ranked as the 18th most popular arena in the world and this was in the year that the building was closed for over 2 months to enable the multi-million pound refurbishment of the venue. More recently, in 2019, Pollstar ranked the arena at 65th worldwide and 7th in the UK as part of their 'Top 200 Arena Venues' with 311,125 tickets sold, up 5 places from 70th in 2018.
To support the rollout of the local COVID-19 vaccination campaign, the Sheffield NHS Vaccination Centre opened at the arena on 25 January 2021, taking up the space previously occupied by the drive-through phlebotomy clinic before its relocation. The vaccination centre remained open until 26 July, when it was relocated to the former NHS Blood and Transplant building next to the Northern General Hospital to allow the arena to reopen for its usual events.
In April 2020, the interior space of the arena was used as a storage location for 1,800 additional which were being delivered to hospitals in Sheffield to support pandemic operations. Photographs of the hospital beds inside the arena later leaked onto social media, and the local NHS trust issued a statement denying rumours that the arena was going to be repurposed as a Nightingale temporary hospital. In August 2020, an ophthalmology clinic was opened inside the arena featuring eye imaging suites, remaining in operation until the arena reopened for normal usage after the pandemic.
The venue's record attendance for a seated music concert is currently held by Little Mix when 12,485 customers attended their Get Weird Tour Saturday 23 April 2016. The record for most shows in Sheffield Arena is held by Irish boyband Westlife with 32 shows played to date.
British-Irish boy-band, One Direction played their last concert, before going on an indefinite hiatus, on 31 October 2015 at the arena. The arena held from somewhere between 35,000–37,000 people raising over 3 million dollars.
! colspan="8" | Entertainment events held at the Sheffield Arena | |||||
| 3 December | United Kingdom | David Bowie | Outside Tour | |||
| 11 December | Cher | Believe Tour | ||||
| 7 March | ||||||
| 8 March | ||||||
| 2 May | ||||||
| 3 May | ||||||
| 4 May | ||||||
| 5 May | ||||||
| 14 May | Australia | Kylie Minogue | KylieFever2002 | |||
| 15 May | ||||||
| 19 July | ||||||
| 21 July | ||||||
| 22 July | ||||||
| 6 July | United Kingdom | Iron Maiden | Dance of Death World Tour | Funeral for a Friend | ||
| 8 March | ||||||
| 29 April | Ireland | Westlife | The No 1's Tour | |||
| 30 April | ||||||
| 1 May | ||||||
| 19 May | United States | Cher | ||||
| 19 March | ||||||
| 28 April | ||||||
| 18 July | United States | Guns N' Roses | Chinese Democracy Tour | Bullet for My Valentine | ||
| 18 November | United Kingdom | Muse | Black Holes and Revelations Tour | The Noisettes | ||
| 18 December | United Kingdom | Iron Maiden | A Matter of Life and Death Tour | Trivium; Lauren Harris | ||
| 14 March | ||||||
| 7 December | Barbados | Rihanna | Good Girl Gone Bad Tour | |||
| 26 March | ||||||
| 25 May | ||||||
| 29 November | United Kingdom | Coldplay | Viva la Vida Tour | |||
| 7 June | United States | Beyoncé | I Am... World Tour | 11,049 / 11,049 | $901,750 | |
| 18 November | United Kingdom | Muse | The Resistance Tour | |||
| 10 May | ||||||
| 13 May | Barbados | Rihanna | Last Girl on Earth Tour | |||
| 4 June | United States | Lady Gaga | The Monster Ball Tour | Semi Precious Weapons | colspan="2" | |
| 29 March | ||||||
| 24 July | United Kingdom | Iron Maiden | The Final Frontier World Tour | Airbourne | 11,650 / 11,650 | $711,879 |
| 5 November | United States | Britney Spears | Femme Fatale Tour | Joe Jonas | ||
| 19 November | Barbados | Rihanna | Loud Tour | |||
| 19 May | ||||||
| 12 June | ||||||
| 17 June | United States | Blink-182 | 20th Anniversary Tour (Blink-182) | |||
| 13 November | Australia | Kylie Minogue | Kiss Me Once Tour | Third Party | ||
| 21 June | Electric Light Orchestra | Alone in the Universe Tour | Tom Chaplin | |||
| 3 July | United States | Green Day | Revolution Radio Tour | Rancid | ||
| 17 October | United Kingdom | Little Mix | The Glory Days Tour | Lina Makhul | ||
| 27 October | ||||||
| 28 October | ||||||
| 7 June | Ireland | Westlife | The Twenty Tour | The Rua, Keelie Walker | ||
| 8 June | ||||||
| 19 September | United States | Ariana Grande | Sweetener World Tour | Social House | ||
| 28 October | England | Little Mix | rowspan="2" | |||
| 29 October | ||||||
| 10 November | England | Louis Tomlinson | Faith in the Future World Tour ! | |||
| 10 October | United States | Katy Perry | The Lifetimes Tour ! |
The first ever competitive Sheffield Steelers game at Sheffield Arena took place on Sunday 6 October 1991, when the Steelers were held to a 3–3 draw against Chelmsford Chieftains in front of 300 spectators. However, the first Ice Hockey game played at the Sheffield Arena took place on Thursday 26 September 1991 when Durham Wasps beat a Sheffield Steelers select 7–1 to win the World Leisure Cup. Durham's Rick Brebant scored the first goal at 2:18 in front of an estimated crowd of 2,000.
In February 2020 it was announced that the arena had secured planning permission to install a new 22-ton machine to make production of the ice surface more cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
TV shows such as The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing on Ice visit the arena every year as part of their tours. It hosted the BBC revival of Gladiators in 2023 and will host it again on select dates during August 2024; the arena previously hosted the live show during Easter 1995.
The arena has hosted major special high-profile events, including The International Indian Film Academy Awards, which took place on Saturday, 9 June 2007 and was broadcast live around the world. This included a season hosted by the city of Sheffield and nearby Leeds. Also, in 2009, the arena hosted the annual BBC Radio 1Xtra concert and the 2009 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
The arena has hosted major boxing events such as when Joe Calzaghe first won his WBO world title here on 11 October 1997 against former world champion Chris Eubank. On the same bill Sheffield born Naseem Hamed defended his WBO title against Jose Badillo. On 26 November 2005 Ricky Hatton extended his unbeaten record to 40–0, defending his IBF and Ring Magazine Junior Welterweight world titles and winning the WBA belt by 9th-round knockout against Carlos Maussa. Sheffield fighter Clinton Woods also defended his IBF light-heavyweight title against Mexican Julio César González on two occasions, winning on points both times. Kell Brook has had many fights here, his most notable being a fourth-round knockout victory of Vyacheslav Senchenko.
The Great Britain men's national basketball team played a test match against Portugal in that arena in preparation for the 2012 Olympics.
As well as being home to the Sheffield Steelers the venue has also hosted other ice hockey events such as the 2019 Super Series between USA and Canada featuring many ex-NHL stars and has acted as a neutral site for the EIHL Challenge Cup final
The arena has hosted many professional wrestling events held by companies including WWE, NXT and 5 Star Wrestling over the years dating as far back as the WWE UK Rampage events in 1992 and 1993
Since 2007, it has played host to the Premier League Darts.
Every year students from both Sheffield Hallam and The University of Sheffield assemble to watch the final game of their varsity play out as both universities ice hockey teams play and the stadium fills to capacity.
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