M.E.N Arena.
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The Manchester Evening News Arena or M.E.N as its more commonly known is managed and operated by SMG Europe, and is the busiest venue in the World* and the largest indoor arena in Europe.
Opened in 1995, the M.E.N Arena has staged the biggest names in live entertainment; from U2, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Ricky Hatton and Pavarotti to a record-breaking 27 shows by local band Take That.
Attracting over one million visitors each year, the 21,000 capacity Arena was named 'International Venue of the Year' in 2002 by industry publication Pollstar and has been nominated 7 times since.
The venue was officially opened by Torvill & Dean in 1995 and also broke the UK Box Office record for a single ice performance to over 15,000 fans, since then it has gone onto host some of the biggest venues in the music industry and sports world.
Including Mike Tyson's UK debut fight at the Arena which was watched by over 100 million people worldwide, two years later it held the 2002 Commonwealth Games' Boxing and Netball tournaments.
And in 2005 Comedian Lee Evans broke the Guinness world record for a solo act performing to the biggest comedy audience.
This was one place that I never really thought of exploring until a phone call one night from Userscott asking if I fancied doing the place, well being a live infiltration and to take in some views of the city centre at night it was and offer to good to refuse.
So with that we made our way into town and wandered through the party goers who scattered the streets, on to our objective.
The weather was cold and ice was forming so with safety in mind Alley, Scott and myself strapped on the safety harnesses which Scott had kindly provided for the event.
Once set we carried on up to the summit of the roof trying not to slip as by now the rather sponge like aluminium roof had iced over quite badly, that said though it was a nice relaxing explore and worth doing, seeing the city from a different perspective and angle too was also worth the effort.
The only down side to the whole event though was the fact that the roof wobbled with every step you took, making photography extremeley difficult to say the least.
The M.E.N isn`t really that high in comparison to some of Manchesters other buildings but definatley worth seeing and very under rated.
Date : March 2008 : Location : Manchester : Explorers : Havoc : Alley : Userscott
