Bristol Arena could have to find a new location

There is a road bridge already built to Arena Island from Cattle Market Road, with work currently underway to construct a footbridge to reach the site from St Philip’s.

And yet there is now renewed doubt that Bristol Arena will ever be located on Arena Island, with mayor Marvin Rees putting the brakes on any further work to be done by the project’s contractors and expanding the scope of a team of consultants looking at the arena’s future.

The interior of Populous’ winning design for Bristol Arena

A review carried out by accountants KPMG to consider the financial case for the project will now have a wider focus, taking in both the location and design of the 12,000-capacity venue more than two and a half years after the team behind London’s Millennium Dome and Olympic Stadium was announced as the venue’s designers following an international competition.

The possibility of private financing will also be looked at in the review expected to be completed next month, with a decision on how to continue expected to be confirmed at a cabinet meeting early next year.

The current projected budget for the arena is £123.5m, with funding of £53m available from the City Deal Economic Development Fund, £42.5m from operator contribution and income, and £28m from infrastructure funding for the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone’s Temple Meads East project.

Bristol24/7 understands that building the arena to its current design on Arena Island remains highly likely to cost significantly more than £123.5m, but the city council are unwilling to reveal their precise target figure citing commercial sensitivity.

The council has already poured £9m into the major regeneration of the derelict Arena Island site.

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Read more: ‘Bristol Arena should be moved to the city’s outskirts’

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In January, the council parted company with the original contractor appointed to build the venue after failing to reach an agreement on price.

The council have now told Buckingham Group Contracting to stop working until the KPMG review is received and considered.

Council bosses say that a pause at this stage of the pre-construction phase of a project “is not unusual and it means the council will not be paying a contractor whilst there is no final decision on how to move forward”.

IDOM’s shortlisted design for Bristol Arena

Rees said: “Buckingham have done a good job and we now need to see what the wider review of the project says.

“I remain 100 per committed to delivering an arena for Bristol and with this in mind it is right to look at every available option, along with the benefits and drawbacks of each.

“We can’t commit to the current design on this specific site at any cost and I wouldn’t want that kind of blinkered approach to become the arena’s undoing.”

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Read more: ‘We see the arena as Bristol’s future’

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Rees said that a lot of work continues to go into the project “and this pause shouldn’t be mistaken for a backwards step… This is about doing the sensible thing in looking at all of the possibilities and being open minded about where the advice received takes us. Whatever happens the arena will become reality.”

The mayor added: “Nothing is off the table because one way or another this city is going to get an arena it can afford.”

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Read more: Bristol Arena faces more uncertainty