Editing the Venue Resorts World Arena

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Venue Description
The Resorts World Arena is a multipurpose indoor arena located at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Solihull, England. It has a capacity of 16,000 seats. The venue was built as the seventh hall of the NEC complex. After 18 months of construction, the arena opened as the "Birmingham International Arena" in December 1980 with a concert by Queen. Together, the NEC and the Resorts World Arena host over 3 million visitors each year. The Ticket Factory is the official box office for the Resorts World Arena. The venue was known as Birmingham International Arena until 1 September 1983, then as NEC Arena from 5 September 1983 to 31 August 2008. From 1 September 2008, the NEC Arena was officially renamed as the LG Arena, following a naming-rights sponsorship deal with global electronics company LG. The arena then underwent a £29 million overhaul of its facilities, paid for by loans from Birmingham City Council and regional development agency Advantage West Midlands. Work on the LG Arena was finished mid October 2009 and the arena hosted its first concert with Tom Jones. Included in the installation were around 1,000 new seats, bringing the capacity to 16,000 to compete with venues such as The O2 Arena in London and the Manchester Arena in Manchester, which are amongst the busiest music venues in the world. Also constructed were new hospitality areas and a forum containing new bars, restaurants and other customer facilities. Prior to its first concert, the arena hosted the 2009 Horse of the Year show. In 2011 the venue became the tenth-busiest arena in the world and 13th-busiest in 2014. It was announced in November 2014 that as part of a sponsorship deal with the casino group, the arena would be renamed the Genting Arena from 6 January 2015. On 25 September 2018, the NEC Group announced that the Genting Arena will be renamed "Resorts World Arena" as of December 3rd of this year. Genting UK will continue to sponsor the hall. The reason for the new name is to more closely align the venue with Genting's Resorts World Birmingham that is opposite the arena, which opened in October 2015. Events The Spice Girls performed 6 sold out shows on the Spiceworld Tour during April and May 1998. Comedians such as Michael McIntyre, Ricky Gervais and Peter Kay have brought their shows to the venue. In 2010 and 2011, the arena hosted the Birmingham audition stages of the British reality television music competition, The X Factor. On 19 December 2010, it played host to the 2010 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, and it also hosted the 2016 and 2018 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards. On 5 November 2011, it played host to UFC 138. Beyonce performed at the arena during two of her world tours. Lady Gaga concluded her Joanne World Tour at the arena on 1 February 2018. South Korean rapper, G- Dragon also played at the arena on 23 September 2017 as part of his ACT III MOTTE tour. The Vamps have played the arena multiple times on the 8th & 9th May 2015, 25th & 26th March 2016, 19 May 2017 and 4 May 2018 amongst multi artist events such as Hello World and Free Radio Live. Six time Grammy award winning artist Christina Aguilera will be performing during her European Tour on the 14th November 2019. NEC Group Parent company The NEC Group also owns and operates the Arena Birmingham (previously the National Indoor Arena and Barclaycard Arena) and ICC Birmingham, both in central Birmingham, and the National Exhibition Centre.