Trent FM Arena
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| Former names | Nottingham Arena (2000–08) Trent FM Arena Nottingham (2008–11) Capital FM Arena Nottingham (2011–15) |
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| Location |
National Ice Centre Bolero Square The Lace Market Nottingham NG1 1LA United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 52°57′10″N 1°8′22″W / 52.95278°N 1.13944°WCoordinates: 52°57′10″N 1°8′22″W / 52.95278°N 1.13944°W |
| Owner | Nottingham City Council |
| Operator | Nottingham Ice Centre Ltd |
| Capacity | 10,000 |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1993 |
| Opened | 1 April 2000 |
| Expanded | 2011 |
| Website | |
| www |
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Motorpoint Arena Nottingham (originally the Nottingham Arena, formerly the Capital FM Arena Nottingham) is a multi-use indoor arena located within the National Ice Centre in the Lace Market district of Nottingham, England. The National Ice Centre and Nottingham Arena were opened by Olympic gold medalist Jayne Torvill on 1 April 2000. Since its opening, the arena has hosted over a thousand concerts, comedy acts, family shows and sporting events. The arena is the UK’s first twin ice pad facility and centre of excellence for ice sports in the UK.
The arena is part of the National Ice Centre which was constructed on the site of the former Nottingham Ice Stadium. The ice stadium opened in 1939 and was showing its age, so, in September 1995, plans were announced to replace the Ice Stadium. Plans for the new ice rink, supported by the British Olympic Association, were unveiled in October 1996. In mid-1997 Nottingham City Council voted to adapt the plans of the new centre to incorporate a sport arena.
Several buildings were demolished to make way for the new ice centre; This included an Art Deco warehouse and "The Old Cricket Players" pub, which was initially planned to be spared. The former Ice Stadium closed in March 2000, and by May 2000 was described as "nearly demolished", with four skip loads of demolition rubble being removed from the site every day.
During excavation for the new building in July 1998 a rare 1,100-year-old Saxon jug was found, which is on display at the Nottingham Castle Museum. A 19th-century graveyard was also found under the car park, from which the bodies were then exhumed.
On 1 April 2000, the National Ice Centre was officially opened by Olympic gold medalist Jayne Torvill. The second phase of the project — the family rink — was scheduled to be completed by May–June 2001, but opened early on 7 April 2001. The National Ice Centre was the first twin Olympic-sized ice rink in the UK. The final cost of the project was £43million. The arena was inaugurated by English band, Simply Red on 29 April 2000.
By 2002, the arena was not as popular as planned. The venue posted an operating loss of £1 million in its first year. Concert promoters would often have acts skip Nottingham in favour of Sheffield and Birmingham. In July, the arena booked Rod Stewart and the concert helped place Nottingham on the map. The arena was able to book many big name artists such as: Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Barry Manilow, Usher, Green Day, Iron Maiden, Kasabian, Metallica, Muse and The Killers.
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