Dubai Arena is a new state-of-the-art multi-purpose arena being built in City Walk.
The Arena covers an area of half a million square feet and has a capacity of around 17,000, making it an ideal venue for large scale international music concerts, sporting events such as tennis, basketball, boxing, volleyball and ice hockey. It will also cater for exhibitions and conferences, festivals and gala dinners.
Dubai Arena has 46 hospitality suites.
Dubai Arena will be the only all-purpose indoor air conditioned arena of its size in the entire region and has been designed to be able to host end-stage, central and half-stage concerts.
Its location at City Walk enhances the venue’s attraction; it is close enough to Dubai International Airport and the Dubai Metro, and will be surrounded by a host of hospitality, dining, entertainment and shopping options.
The complex roof structure weighs 4,000 tonnes, equivalent to the weight of seven A380 aircraft, and is supported by two mega-trusses spanning the entire length of the venue. The construction and lifting of these trusses required some of the world’s biggest cranes, with a capacity of 1,600 tonnes, to lift them into place.
In total, 16,000 bolts were used to connect the 14 frames that make up each of the 120-metre mega-trusses, roughly the length of a football pitch, with more than 20 tonnes of paint needed to coat them. Over 110 tonnes of show and production equipment will be placed above the arena’s versatile viewing areas.
District cooling service provider Empower is connecting 3,600 tonnes of chilled water to the arena via tunnels under Sheikh Zayed Road.
The Dubai Arena will be managed by AEG Ogden, an international venue management company linked to over 100 of the world’s top facilities such as The O2 in London, the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai and Qudos Bank Arena in Australia.
Work is underway on the project and the developer, Meraas, expects the venue to open in 2019.