Phoenix ArenaBlackpool

A 20,000-seat arena at Blackpool Central

Blackpool
rises.

Next to the Tower, bigger than Bloomfield Road, built for the tours that stop at Manchester and Liverpool and miss us out. Government has set aside £20 million to look at it. Here is one idea of what it could be.

Have your say See the concept

Move your mouse through the fire

Independent concept. Not a planning application.

Why an arena, and why now

Blackpool has been putting on shows for 130 years. The Tower Ballroom, the Winter Gardens, the Opera House, the Grand, the Pleasure Beach, the Illuminations, three piers. What it has never had is an indoor venue bigger than about 3,000 seats. The Opera House is the largest theatre in town. Bloomfield Road holds 17,000 on a match day and the roof is open. So the arena tours play the AO Arena and Co-op Live in Manchester, the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool and the First Direct Arena in Leeds, and Blackpool gets the coach trip.

The town centre is being rebuilt: Blackpool Central on the old Central station site, Talbot Gateway by North station, the Multiversity campus on Cookson Street. In 2026 the Government committed £20 million to explore a new arena for Blackpool after a campaign led by Chris Webb MP. The Phoenix Arena is one independent idea of what that could be.

The concept so far

The roof is a set of wings. You would see them from the prom, from the top of the Tower and from the Big One. Between them is an open ring of glass over the main entrance. The building is meant to sit next to the Tower without trying to outdo it.

Aerial visualisation at dusk of the proposed Phoenix Arena beside Blackpool Tower, its winged roof lit from within, the promenade and sea behind
Above the Golden Mile at dusk
Night visualisation of the Phoenix Arena with the roof wings lit and Blackpool Tower behind
Show night
Visualisation of the 20,000-seat arena bowl during a concert
Inside the bowl
Visualisation of the arena's entrance atrium with a large marine aquarium
The arrival atrium
Visualisation of a restaurant inside the arena looking into an aquarium wall
Dining under the sea
Aerial visualisation of the Phoenix Arena at Blackpool Central with the Tower and seafront
The Central site from the air

Visualisations by Carters Building Consultancy, who published the Phoenix Arena concept in February 2026. Shown here to get people talking. The design is theirs.

Walk round it

A model built from what the concept tells us: a glazed oval bowl, a shallow roof with a ring of glass over the entrance, eight fins swept up like wings, a square round the outside, and the Tower about 300 metres away for scale. Drag to orbit. Nothing here is to a drawing; the seat numbers are a guess at how a 20,000 bowl would be sold.

Show night

The 3D model needs WebGL, which this browser doesn't have.

Getting there

Most people would come by train. Out of North station, along Talbot Road to the prom, left at the Tower. Or the tram from the stop outside the station to the Tower. Not to scale.

North station Winter Gardens Tower North Pier Central Pier Phoenix Arena Irish Sea Talbot Road Promenade to Preston

About 20 minutes on foot

Twenty thousand seats.
Pick yours.

Every dot is ten seats. Hover or tap to see where you would sit.

Block B, row 12. Lower tier, side on to the stage.

What would get you through the doors first?

One vote a day. You see the running total as soon as you have voted.

How we got here

  1. Eight arc lamps light the promenade, years before most towns had electric light. The Illuminations grow out of it.

  2. The Tower opens. The Winter Gardens, the Grand and the Opera House follow, and the town becomes the place the North goes for a night out.

  3. Blackpool Central, Talbot Gateway and the Multiversity campus start the biggest rebuild of the town centre in a century.

  4. Carters Building Consultancy publishes the Phoenix Arena concept: 20,000 seats, a winged roof, a venue for every day of the year.

  5. Government commits £20 million to explore a new arena for Blackpool. The concept is on the front page of the Gazette.

Get updates when there's news

One email when something happens: a consultation, a decision, a new design. Nothing else. Reply to any email to come off the list.