Millennium Dome to be reborn

The Millennium Dome has been renamed The O2 to wipe from popular memory its status as UK's whitest elephant. Picture / Reuters

The rebirth of the Dome as a vast entertainment venue got underway yesterday as Britain's most unloved tent gained an ice rink, oxygen rooms and a new name.

The £800 million ($2 million) Millennium Dome complex, which has been mothballed at a cost to the tax payer of £14,000 a week since closing five years ago, will be known as "The O2" after the mobile phone company, O2, struck a £6-million-a-year sponsorship deal with the American billionaire who owns the site.

Organisers admitted the renaming was designed to wipe from popular memory the status of the Dome as the nation's whitest elephant as part of a £500 million redevelopment which aims to turn the structure on London's Greenwich Peninsula into Europe's largest entertainment complex.

Russ Shaw, marketing director of O2, said: "This is not an ordinary sponsorship deal - we are integrating our name with the whole venue. We wanted to get away from the lexicon with which it has been previously associated. We don't want it to be known as the Dome."

Managers confirmed that pictures showing a large structure in the shape of a figure "2" beside the circular Dome, designed to present the word O2 from the air for passengers flying into Heathrow, was an artist's impression and "unlikely" to come to fruition.

The sponsorship deal, which will run for an unspecified number of years, adds the name of Britain's third largest mobile operator to the list of companies whose names appear on stadia and venues owned by the publicity-shy American magnate Philip Anschutz and his conglomerate, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).

The American company, which first agreed a deal to buy the Dome in 2002 but has been plagued by planning delays, runs a series of arenas in the United States including the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, the Nokia Theatre in New York and the Toyota Centre in California.

AEG has made its name by staging high-profile concerts and tours by performers such as Sir Paul McCartney, U2, Prince and Cold Play. It is also responsible for the multi-million dollar deal that sees Celine Dion sing at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas for 40 weeks a year and Elton John for eight weeks a year.

The Dome scheme will see a series of self-contained facilities built under the plastic skin of the structure, including a 23,000-seat performance area that will host up to 150 music, entertainment and sports events a year.

By the time of its expected opening in April 2007 the building will also feature 10 restaurants, eight bars, a permanent museum of British music, a street of jazz and blues venues and a 10-screen cinema which will seek to steal film premier business from Leicester Square.

The venue, which will serve as the site for the basketball and gymnastics competition if London wins the 2012 Olympics, will have an ice rink and oxygen tents, predictably sponsored by O2, which will offer its subscribers priority tickets and concert downloads as part of its deal with AEG.

Mr Anschutz, a God-fearing magnate who attends his local Calvinist chapel each week and made donations to George Bush's election fund, personally approved the £500 million investment after being persuaded by executives that the unhappy past of the Dome - built as the showpiece of Britain's millennium celebrations but pilloried for low attendance figures - would not be repeated.

Tim Leiweke, AEG's chief executive, said: "We are certainly very aware of what happened in the past. We have long been fascinated with London and Britain is the heart and soul of live music. But we are amazed that Britain does not have a world-class events facility.

"We are absolutely confident that you are going to have the best arena in Europe. When the work is finished in 2007, I think the number one comment will be, why didn't we do this in the first place?"

The Dome scheme is part of a wider £2 billion redevelopment of the Greenwich Peninsula which will see 10,000 homes and office space for 10,000 workers added to the area.

In the meantime, the tax payer will continue to pick up the £55,000 a month bill for maintaining the Dome site until building work is completed.

The Government claims that under the profit share deal it has struck with AEG, the scheme will raise £550 million for the public purse by 2035 - less than the £600 million of lottery money the Dome received between 1997 and its closure in 2000.

- INDEPENDENT