The £50m Design and Construct contract for the National Indoor Arena (NIA) was awarded to the Laing Midlands Division by Birmingham City Council in January 1989. It was officially opened on 4th October 1991 by athlete Linford Christie. At the time of opening, it was the largest indoor arena in the UK and had capacity for approximately 12,000 spectators. The arena has been renamed multiple times throughout its history. Originally the National Indoor Arena (October 1991 to December 2014), it later became known as The Barclaycard Arena (December 2014 to August 2017), Arena Birmingham (September 2017 to April 2020), and Utilita Arena Birmingham (April 2020 to present).
This image was catalogued as part of the Breaking New Ground Project in partnership with the John Laing Charitable Trust in 2019-20.
This is part of the Series: JLP01/10 John Laing Photographic Collection Colour Negatives and Transparencies; within the Collection: JLP01 John Laing Photographic Collection
© Historic England Archive. John Laing Photographic Collection
Late 20th Century Sports Centre, Leisure And Recreation
Our website works best with the latest version of the browsers below, unfortunately your browser is not supported. Using an old browser means that some parts of our website might not work correctly.
