MEN Arena, Manchester

The Manchester Evening News Arena or M.E.N. Arena (commonly referred to as just The M.E.N. or simply Manchester Arena) is a large indoor arena in Manchester, England. It is currently sponsored by the Manchester Evening News and has a capacity of 3,000–21,000. It was opened in 1995, and was initially sponsored by NYNEX (a British cable television provider, as opposed to the NYNEX Corporation, a telephone service provider in the United States) as the NYNEX Arena. The Arena took its current name in 1998 after the NYNEX brand name had disappeared as a result of a merger with Mercury Communications in 1997.

The M.E.N. Arena is Europe's largest indoor arena and concert venue. The arena was built to coincide with Manchester's two bids to host the Olympic games in 1996 and 2000 (which were won by Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000).

The M.E.N. Arena was one of the first indoor venues in Europe to be built following the traditionally American arena layout of 360 degree seating and is the only arena in the UK to have this feature (London's O2 Arena has just one tier of seating that is 360 degrees whereas the MEN Arena has two) Other European indoor venues built to the same concept are the Kölnarena in Cologne, O2 arena in Prague, Color Line Arena in Hamburg, and The O2 arena in London, amongst others.

The M.E.N.'s seating capacity is one of Europe's most flexible for an indoor venue. It is often chosen by touring acts because its design and layout makes the venue ideal for any type of performance. The seating is split into an upper tier (bowl) and a lower tier, separated by 35 hospitality suites.

Seating Chart

Seating Chart