Mention 2012 and most people think of the Olympics but here in Leeds, the home of Core Telecom and 08 Direct, we’ve got other reasons to be excited about next year.

You see although we’ll be rooting for the likes of Phillips Idowu and Jessica Ennis as they attempt to win gold medals for Team GB in London, we’re also going to be looking forward to the opening of the new Leeds Arena.
It has been a long time coming, because although Leeds is the 5^th largest city in the UK, it has never had a dedicated entertainment arena (cue Leeds United fans pointing out that Elland Road is witnessing tonnes of entertainment as LUFC go for back to back promotions this year…).

However, construction work has now started on the £60m arena which should attract an extra million visitors and add around £25.5m a year to the city’s economy, creating around 450 construction jobs.

We’re proud to be from Yorkshire and in these times of austerity, it is superb news that this scheme is going ahead and will undoubtedly give our great city a real shot in the arm.

However, the arena’s construction is publicly funded by Leeds City Council and Yorkshire Forward, so the pressure will be on to make it a commercial success once it is open and we’d urge the management to consider adopting 0844 numbers for the arena’s ticket lines.

These numbers are cheap for the public to ring but will provide the arena with a valuable income stream through revenue share on the call charges. So if the arena’s managers are reading this, please do get in touch and we’ll tell you all about the revenue opportunities. Let’s work together, as Yorkshire businesses, to make the arena a huge commercial success.