Plans submitted for UK’s largest live entertainment venue

Plans to create the UK’s biggest concert venue, featuring the “largest and highest resolution LED screen in the world”, have been submitted to authorities.

The Madison Square Garden Company (MSG), which is behind the New York concert and sports venue of the same name, aims to create what it claims will be “a state-of-the-art live music and entertainment venue – known as MSG Sphere” in east London.

But the plan has raised opposition and environmental concerns among some local residents, who say it would “block sunlight, create light pollution and increase traffic in the area”.

The company says: “The venue would be wrapped in triangular LED panels which, when active, will showcase a range of static and moving images including digital art, content related to current and future events in the venue, and advertising and partnership branding.”

It has purchased a 4.7-acre triangular site next to the Westfield Stratford City shopping centre, where the “iconic” structure would sit at 90m (almost 300ft) high – almost as tall as Big Ben – and be 120m (almost 40ft) in diameter.

MSG says the site has been left empty for more than six years, since last being used as a temporary coach park during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Holding up to 21,500 people, it would outstrip the capacities of both the Manchester Arena (21,000) and London’s O2 Arena (20,000).

MSG also claims it would support 3,200 jobs, create up to 4,300 each year during the three-year construction period and generate £2.7bn in positive UK economic impact over a 20-year period – £2.5bn of that in London.

Jayne McGivern, MSG’s Executive Vice President of Development and Construction, said: “This is an opportunity to take an inaccessible coach park and use it to support thousands of jobs, and billions of pounds of economic benefit.

“Our plans make training and local hiring a priority and would create a premier destination that serves as a long-term investment in the future of Newham, London, and the UK.

“If our plans are approved, we believe MSG Sphere will complement London’s existing venues and drive overall growth in the music and entertainment market – benefiting residents, artists and fans.”

Residents against the plans have launched a petition to stop them from going ahead.

The say they could “potentially keep people awake,” – and that the “existing transport infrastructure, both public transport and road networks, is regularly swamped, with illegal levels of air pollution on our roads”.

They will get a chance to have their say during a public drop-in session towards the end of May/early June 2019.

The Planning Authority says the application will be determined by the LLDC Planning Decision Committee, after the Planning Policy Decisions Team have reviewed the submission and all written responses received during the consultation period.

No date is currently set, with winter 2019 considered the earliest this could take place.

(c) Sky News 2019: Plans submitted for UK’s largest live entertainment venue