The SSE Hydro
| The Hydro | |
| File:SSE Hydro logo.png | |
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| Former names | Scottish National Arena (planning) Scottish Hydro Arena (construction) |
|---|---|
| Location | Exhibition Way Finnieston, Glasgow G3 8YW Scotland |
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Owner | SEC Ltd |
| Operator | SEC Ltd |
| Executive suites | 11 |
| Capacity | 13,000 |
| Field size | 125 m wide, 41 m high |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 30 September 2013 |
| Construction cost | £125 million |
| Architect | Foster and Partners |
| Project manager | Turner & Townsend |
| Structural engineer | Arup Group Limited |
| Services engineer | Arup Group Limited |
| General contractor | Lend Lease |
| Website | |
| www |
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The SSE Hydro is an arena located in Glasgow, Scotland, on the site of the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC). The arena has a capacity of 13,000. The arena officially opened on 30 September 2013, with a concert by Rod Stewart. It was designed by the London-based architects Foster + Partners and named after SSE plc.
The SSE Hydro handled 1,045,344 ticket sales in 2014, making it the second-busiest music arena in the world in terms of ticket sales, behind only London's The O2 Arena. This makes the arena busier than Manchester's Manchester Arena and the famous Madison Square Garden in New York.
Background
SEC Ltd. identified the need for a new arena: a level area surrounded by seats, in which sports and other public events could be held. Previously, such events were held in Glasgow Hall 4, in the SECC main building.[citation needed] However, the venue's audience capacity is limited, seating just over 10,000. Therefore, it is unable to accommodate the high attendance typically associated with large-scale performance events, such as rock concerts and children’s shows. The new arena (designed by Foster + Partners and Arup Scotland) is located with the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre and the Clyde Auditorium and hosts international musical stars, global entertainment and sporting events, with an aim to attract one million visitors each year. [1]
| Venue | 2014 Ticket sales for concerts/shows |
|---|---|
| The O2, London, UK | 1.82 million |
| The SSE Hydro, Glasgow, UK | 1.05 million |
| Manchester Arena, Manchester, UK | 1.01 million |
| Madison Square Garden, NY, USA | 793,000 |
| Monterrey Arena, Monterrey, Mexico | 782,000 |
| Barclays Center, Brooklyn NY, USA | 724,000 |
| Arena Ciudad Di Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico | 714,000 |
| Allstate Arena, Rosemont, IL, USA | 653,000 |
| Lanxess Arena, Cologne, Germany | 642,000 |
| Philips Arena, Atlanta, USA | 608,000 |
| Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Canada | 585,000 |
| Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, Netherlands | 577,000 |
| Genting Arena, Birmingham, UK | 550,000 |
| Staples Center, Los Angeles, USA | 520,000 |
| 02 World Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany | 519,000 |
| Allphones Arena, Sydney, Australia | 512,000 |
Fire during construction
At approximately 3:20 pm on 8 June 2013,[3] flames were reported to be coming from the domed roof of the partially completed building.[4] Forty fire fighters from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service attended the blaze.[5] It was determined that the fire was caused by ongoing welding work on the building's roof.[6][7] On 18 June, the venue's operator revealed that despite additional challenges, work on the venue was still on track.[8]
Major Events
- The SSE Hydro hosted the 21st annual MTV Europe Music Awards on November 9, 2014.[9]
- The venue hosted the netball and gymnastic events during the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
- Scottish sitcom Still Game broke records with a come-back run of 21 shows at the SSE Hydro ran from September 19, 2014 until October 10, 2014. The run played to 210,000 fans and made over £6 million in ticket sales.
- The SSE Hydro also hosted the largest televised debate seen in Scotland's history, Scotland Decides: The Big, Big Debate, held on September 11, 2014 towards the end of the Scottish independence referendum, 2014 campaign. The Mentorn/BBC Scotland organised debate, in which every secondary school in Scotland was invited to take part, involved around 7,500 first time voters and was broadcast on BBC One during the evening of 11 September 2014.[10] It was presented by James Cook.[11]
- Scottish comedian Kevin Bridges is due to perform a run of 16 shows as part of his upcoming 2015 tour.
- On December 14, 2014 the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award ceremony was held at the venue [12]
- The UFC held their inaugural Scottish event at the SSE Hydro on July 18, 2015.
- The Artistic gymnastics world championships were held there October 23-November 1, 2015
References
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External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Hydro. |
- Use British English from December 2014
- Use dmy dates from May 2014
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from July 2014
- Commons category link is locally defined
- Official website not in Wikidata
- 2013 establishments in Scotland
- 2014 Commonwealth Games venues
- Buildings and structures in Glasgow
- Culture in Glasgow
- Darts venues
- Exhibition and conference centres in Scotland
- Indoor arenas in Scotland
- Music venues completed in 2013
- Music venues in Glasgow
- Norman Foster buildings
- Sports venues completed in 2013
- Sports venues in Glasgow
