For all you buswnkers out there

[Jack2jack]

The decline in town centres is not a phenomenon limited to Swansea. Since the advent of the internet traditional bricks and mortar retail has been in a fight for its life and one it's mostly losing to eCommerce and out of town retail parks.

Swansea Council fully deserve criticism for a lot of their actions in recent decades but I tend to think that the current strategy towards a mixed use city centre will prove to be the right one in the long run. I just wish that they hadn't spent £100m on an Arena so unfit for purpose.

Agreed. It's such a shame, I guess we all remember city centres as, well, shopping centres. As for the Arena. The car park access onto Oystermouth Road is appalling. It looks impressive but let's face it's a big multi storey car park with a medium sized arena perched on top. The auditorium is reasonable enough. The outside looks shite, it's not going to age well either imho.

 

[LeonWasTheDog's]

Agree on the buses, an already insufficient service is being slashed further. Also not happy that this Adventure Travel seem to have taken over so many routes in Swansea and they won't accept a First day/week pass, meaning extra cost to travel by bus.

Adventure Travel not taking the day pass pisses me off. I used to use the bus on Saturday match days, but it’s twice as expensive now and not always reliable. I always drive now. Which I assume is what the Council wants and why they’ve put up parking charges.

 

[Dr. Winston]

Agreed. It's such a shame, I guess we all remember city centres as, well, shopping centres. As for the Arena. The car park access onto Oystermouth Road is appalling. It looks impressive but let's face it's a big multi storey car park with a medium sized arena perched on top. The auditorium is reasonable enough. The outside looks shite, it's not going to age well either imho.

The biggest problem with the Arena is that they haven't built an Arena. They've just built a big theatre.

There's plenty of parking nearby. More than enough to meet capacity within a 5-10 minute walk. The problem with the inside is the huge amount of seating compared to standing space. Most people who go to see a band would prefer to stand. Putting seating out for other events would be easy. There's just not much standing space there, and the seating has legroom that would embarrass Veal exporters.

They could have fitted a Motorpoint sized facility in the same space, with the same capacity if they'd used their heads.

 

[Robbie]

Regarding Swansea Arena and Seating , agree the seats are so tight , toilet facilities could also be improved .

Did last year , got my hands on a ticket the Hollywood Vamps show there .
Last minute chance to go , grabbed it , sat next to a nice guy , chatty , but rather large , wall one side , no way out for me .

Lets hope AEG who promote and own the Venue do not lose interest , Swansea Council make it easier for transport .
That particular night I parked over in St. Thomas and walked over , others audience could struggle .

 

[Dr. Winston]

Went to see the Australian Pink Floyd show there last year. Parked less than five mins walk away in Paxton Street which was nearly empty and only cost £2.

The location is fine, but they've self-sabotaged what kind of shows that can be done there.

 

[JackSomething]

The decline in town centres is not a phenomenon limited to Swansea. Since the advent of the internet traditional bricks and mortar retail has been in a fight for its life and one it's mostly losing to eCommerce and out of town retail parks.

Swansea Council fully deserve criticism for a lot of their actions in recent decades but I tend to think that the current strategy towards a mixed use city centre will prove to be the right one in the long run. I just wish that they hadn't spent £100m on an Arena so unfit for purpose.

If we started a thread on all the poor decisions that various iterations of Swansea Council have made over the past 20 years, we'd be here all day! :lol:

I'm not proposing we start one, but deciding to bring in bendy buses (and all the work that had to be done to roads to accommodate them) just as they were being phased out from areas that had brought them in sooner, would definitely be near the top of my list. Somebody in the council was definitely getting their palms greased on that one.

Is the problem with the Arena that they tried to make it a jack of all trades rather than a pure arena for live music? I know they designed it so they can hold trade shows, split the main hall in half and have something on at the same time on both sides, have smaller rooms available for hire for events, etc.

 

[Dr. Winston]

deciding to bring in bendy buses (and all the work that had to be done to roads to accommodate them) just as they were being phased out from areas that had brought them in sooner, would definitely be near the top of my list. Somebody in the council was definitely getting their palms greased on that one.

The concept of a bus service linking the main hospitals was a sound one and indeed it's still in place, there was just absolutely no need to screw around with the roads to implement it. I'd hesitate to blame corruption when simple incompetence will do.

Is the problem with the Arena that they tried to make it a jack of all trades rather than a pure arena for live music? I know they designed it so they can hold trade shows, split the main hall in half and have something on at the same time on both sides, have smaller rooms available for hire for events, etc.

I've been to loads of different types of events at the Motorpoint and it's adaptable enough, even if the acoustics are crap. I just think we'd have been better off building something similar rather than just a bigger version of the Grand Theatre.

 

[Neath_Jack]

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/news-opinion/walked-around-swansea-city-centre-28058305

 

[jack_lord]

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/news-opinion/walked-around-swansea-city-centre-28058305

Thats the kind of point I am trying to make although my tongue in cheek remark about our city not making the list of high street closures may have been missed. The urban topography of Swansea is being redrawn and I really hope this works because we have been murdered by the bombs of WW2, we had London stopping our own regeneration plans for its own vision and we have had the assembly cream skim everything good since devolution. This area is far more than DT's ugly lovely town and it should be celebrated by our people.