Demolish-and-rebuild is surely not the way to go

CLLR Goodway’s estimates of one million visitors a year to the planned 15,000 capacity arena in Cardiff Bay, with £100m annual eco- nomic impact, are, he says, com- parable to those of similar- size arenas in the UK. But is this true?

To take one example, the 13,600 Sheffield Arena has attracted fewer than half a million visitors each year, with an annual impact estimated at £21m. Even before the pandemic, it had to be bailed out by the city council.

The Cardiff Bay arena expects an average attendance of more than 7,000. This is scarcely half its capacity but more than double the average Motorpoint attendance. With high ticket prices and squeezed personal budgets, where will demand come from to fill all the new arenas cities are building?

It is expected that when the new arena opens, the 7,500 capacity

Motorpoint Arena will close, and other venues could also be affected. The net benefit will therefore be well below the sums claimed.

Jobs are important, but there is more useful, and less environmentally damaging work to be done than demolish-andrebuild. Too many of the new jobs will be zero-hour contracts, at or near the minimum wage. If Cardiff council were confident of its analysis, it would publish it for public scrutiny. But as Cllr Goodway thinks 15,000 is “nearly three times” 7,500, perhaps they are wise to keep their numbers secret. Nerys Lloyd-Pierce

Chair, Cardiff Civic Society

Too many of the new jobs will be zero-hour contracts, at or near the minimum wage

Nerys Lloyd-Pierce