Thinking without limits and redefining experiences at Coventry Building Society Arena
Thinking without limits and redefining experiences at Coventry Building Society Arena – Paul Michael, Managing Director.
Over the past year we have been pushing boundaries, innovating and have been committed to doing thing differently at Coventry Building Society Arena.
We have been expanding our offer, investing in the visitor experience, enhancing our event spaces and entering exciting partnerships as we continue to push the venue to the next level.
This groundwork has led to another strong 12 months for the business – reflected in a record sales year for the conferences, exhibition and events and attracting thousands of new visitors through the doors.
Paul Michael, Managing Director at Coventry Building Society Arena, discusses how the team continue to challenge itself, expand its mindset and do things differently to drive commercial growth and the best possible experiences.
What does Thinking Without Limits mean at Coventry Building Society Arena?
It’s a mindset shift. It means doing thing differently, challenging the traditional ways we have worked and reimagining what this venue can offer.
This is a fast-paced industry and to stay at the forefront we must keep evolving our service, developing our offer and looking at new ways to drive forward growth.
‘The Best Times are Here’ at Coventry Building Society Arena and by continually investing, improving and enhancing we can continue to deliver on that promise.
The Best Times Are Here!
How important is the versatility of the venue and the team?
Versatility is one of our biggest strengths and it has been central to a strong 2024/2025 for the business.
Whether it’s hosting a record high attendance for a Coventry City home fixture, the world’s largest inflatable course, 4,000 guests for a private Christmas function or a conference for more than 3,500 delegates – our team has risen to the challenge.
Many of the feats achieved by our team won’t be seen by the public and are achieved for private events, for example we expanded the footprint of our conference venue by utilising the stadium concourse for catering and relaxation areas when we welcomed a major conference last year.
Over the festive period we were able to host a Christmas event for a major international business, only a matter of hours after 28,000 fans had left the stadium after cheering on Coventry City.
Contrast that with last summer, when 25,000 people came to take on The Monster, with the world’s largest inflatable course taking over the Indoor Arena… the very same room that hosts hundreds of conferences and exhibitions throughout the year.
We’ve also worked tirelessly to improve the matchday experience at the venue, with the last year seeing the East Stand Fan Village adding a new dimension to our matchday catering.
Coventry Building Society Arena is simply one of the most diverse and versatile venues in the UK.
Christmas party December 2024
It has been a year of firsts for the venue – what achievements stand out to you?
We are always striving to deliver new experiences, so one that stands out must be hosting the Kabaddi World Cup as it came to Coventry for the very first time.
Over the last 20 years we have hosted a vast range of sports, from Olympic football and Commonwealth Games Rugby to professional snooker and darts – but never something quite like kabaddi!
This event demonstrated the true strength of partnerships, working with Coventry City Council to host a brilliant day of world-class sport but also a full day of community activities leading up to the event.
It was wonderful to see so many communities come together from across Coventry here at the venue.
Also, we welcomed back England’s Lionesses again in October. While that wasn’t a first, the delivery of the event did bring a first for the venue. The event was delivered with an all-female led safety team for the first time.
They led a team of 345 stewards on matchday, it was a huge success and, while it was a first, it won’t be the last time!
Lionesses October 2024
How are partnerships continuing to contribute to the Arena’s growth?
Since 2022 we have placed partnerships at the heart of our business and they continue to be crucial to the growth and development of the venue.
Partnerships are vital not only to the Arena commercially, but also for enhancing the visitor experience, ensuring we are as sustainable as possible and mobilising our work in the community.
For the first time this year we have established a network of community and charity partners, with two of those partners already announced – Coventry & Warwickshire Children’s Charity and Coventry foodbank.
This is already enabling us to directly support local people in Coventry and ensure that events we host can bring significant social value and positive impact to communities.
I’ve said that we are doing things differently at the Arena and that is reflected in our groundbreaking sustainability partnership with E.ON, which is set to transform energy use across the venue and ensure we are leading the way in decarbonisation.
This is all vitally important to future proof the venue, but we are also working with partners to improve the visitor experience too, with the recently announced partnership with Planet set to make payments smoother for all visitors to the venue.
E.on Partnership announcement 2025
How is the team supporting the ambitious five-year vision for the venue?
Our brilliant people are backbone of everything we do at Coventry Building Society Arena.
We have ambitions to be to be an industry-leading venue, encouraging career growth and opening pathways for development.
Over the last year we have had an 87 per cent retention rate of staff, which is brilliant for this sector and reflects the opportunities we are giving to the team, and the investment we have made such as welfare and staff check-in areas.
We are already looking at expanding the team to more than 100 fixed term roles to facilitate our forward growth, alongside investing in training for our existing team.
At the venue we are looking to bring new people into the sector and open their eyes to the endless career opportunities in events, we are establishing relationship with local universities, colleges and schools to do this.
‘Our People’ is one of the six core pillars of our five-year plan. We are creating an environment where people want to work and a team that are passionate about delivering incredible experiences.
What’s next for Coventry Building Society Arena?
We aren’t sitting still and are investing in all areas of the business.
There are plenty of exciting developments progressing behind the scenes – whether that is new events, partnerships, event spaces or improvements to the fan experience.
To cater for demand in the conference, exhibition and events space we are opening expanding our facilities with the opening of The Curve.
The next 12 months will also see the completion of the full multi-million-pound refurbishment of our onsite Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, with new room categories to expand the offer for guests.
Hotel refurbishment phase 1