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Harry Styles announces 'significant' investment in huge Co-op Live arena set to open in Manchester

Apple Music/YouTube
Apple Music/YouTube

Harry Styles has made his first substantial move into the business world with an investment in the UK’s largest ever indoor arena.

The One Direction band member and solo star has paid a “significant figure” to become a minority equity shareholder in new £350 million Manchester venue Co-op Live.

Co-op Live is set to eclipse London’s 20,000-seater 02 Arena when it opens in 2023 with a 23,500-person capacity.

It is being built by US entertainment venture Oak View Group, in a local partnership with The Co-operative Group.

The Co-operative Group, which has been based in Manchester for hundreds of years, is partnering in the new venue (PA)
The Co-operative Group, which has been based in Manchester for hundreds of years, is partnering in the new venue (PA)

Announcing the news on Monday the 26-year-old, who grew up in Cheshire and got a first job delivering papers for the supermarket, called Manchester a “music city” and said the investment “very much feels like coming home”.

He told the Financial Times he had not originally dreamed of becoming a businessperson, but that “when an opportunity like this comes up, for me it feels so much about what I can bring to it as a musician, and also as a fan.”

Asked about the wisdom of opening a mass-participation venue in the Covid era, Styles has said he believes “Manchester is going to come back.”

The 26-year-old has been in the limelight for more than 10 years (Samir Hussein/WireImage)
The 26-year-old has been in the limelight for more than 10 years (Samir Hussein/WireImage)

Oak View Group - run by Tim Leiweke, former CEO of the concert promoter AEG, and Irving Azoff, former CEO of Ticketmaster – said on announcing the new venue earlier this year that the group has developed a tight security strategy with Greater Manchester police.

It will be the first large venue built in the city since the terror attack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in May 2017, which claimed 22 lives.

Construction on the arena is set to begin next month, and bring more than 3,500 jobs to Manchester, which is currently facing Tier 3 Covid-19 restrictions.

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