first direct arena Review

Great venue attend a music concert drinks are a reasonable price but the food isn't all great

Fab arena..always great atmosphere coz of the way seated

Love this arena
Find it easy to get out of at the end of concerts
Dont feel like your being stampeded
Like in some arena
Never not had a good view

My local gig stadium. Good bands on. The rear seating is very high and quite a distance from the performance. So avoid these cheaper seats.

Great venue in the heart of the city. Very good arrangements and security makes getting in and out a piece of cake. Every seat has an unobstructed view of the stage and the acoustics are brilliant.

Exterior is stunning , particularly at night. Internally it's a bit bare and could do with some stand tables near the food and drink outlets. Arena wise classic horseshoe shape. Also with the angles involved in the design of the seating, gives a good proximity to the stage. One comment 're staff. Basically not enough on the night I attended. This caused lengthy queues outside and some out of confusion in the seating area. Otherwise it's a good venue

Vast arena. Very good view of the stage from any seat as it is build like an amphitheatre.

Great venue for bigger events. Not as large as MEN which I personally think is a good thing. Sound is immense.

The walls are too thick for phone signal and there is no WiFi available. Which is surprising for a state of the art venue like this.

Well staffed, only issues are with visitors who don't know how to behave in public

Would be a top venue if they sorted out the bar queues - why they still haven't installed fast pour stations yet is totally beyond me.

Great venue I was poorly & the staff looked after me so well. Sound was great. Really enjoyed the concert.

Huge arena! Good to see plenty of ladies loos. Only one coffee machine for 3 queues! Best go outside for coffee if there's time in the breaks!

Alice Cooper concert was fantastic. Staff at the arena are brilliant, they took good care of my disabled partner and myself. Everyone has a good view. Only problem we have is if we can't buy accessible tickets, can't manage the steps.

Would be 5* were it not for the disgusting overpriced warm beer and cold chips.
The venue is 5*. The catering and pricing, forgetable.

Great venue just needs more to choose from at the food vendors

Layout of arena means that even the cheaper seats at the back have a good view of the stage. Food and drinks are slightly overpriced for what they offer. I understand the need for security checks when entering, but I believe they could be organised better to prevent guest from queuing for hours to get in.

Great accessibility for people with disabilities... Great security staff and ushers... Good seats where no seat has a bad view and good acoustics... Definately recommend

Good choice of gigs but as expected the drinks are expensive

Decent arena. Here for a conference, security was fairly tight.

Very good music venue our 3rd visit and looking forward to many more. 5star.

Loved it , maybe something to do with seeing Alfie Boe & Michael Ball there but it was well staffed and organised.

Good venue for seating and view food and drinks expensive

Great Venue, my daughter performed there in a gymnastics competition and the staff where fantastic.

Great venue with friendly staff. Parking at city centre pay and display.

Had the time of my life in there seeing The end with Black Sabbath! The place is huge and syill you have nothing distracting any views! This place is simply great! Do lookinc forward to come back to see Iron Maiden 11/5!!!

Amazing. Staff are the best. Having a Changing Places toilet is wonderful.

Pass by every night going home, but it is nice inside, had quite a few friends who have told me about it when they have been to Concerts there.

Nice place for gigs. Not the world's biggest arena but has some quality acts. Could do to offer some vegetarian option at the food stands.

Great venue, really good sound, air conditioned, easy to park, well coordinated entry

A lovely venue located in the Arena Village. Close to all amenities, shops, hotels, bars. Some top acts to be viewed here.

Really good place to see some of your favorite artists, saw Jane McDonald, BRILLIANT

Attended Celine Dion last night (we had tickets for Manchester, but were re-located after the tragic terrorist attack) - what an amazing concert !!! I am a wheelchair user and was there with my son and his partner. All credit to the Arena staff who couldn't have been more courteous, kind and helpful - thanks you all so much for adding to our wonderful experience, you are worth your weight in gold. Thank you also to the security staff and police officers on duty who were there doing their brilliant best to try to keep us all safe in these troubled times. May you all keep safe in the future - thank you again, Susan xxxx

Awesome venue. Great acoustics and good chairs designed for long days. Our 3 day conventions we have there really fly by!

It isn't a beauty from the outside but very well build inside. We had a great view to the show and really enjoyed our stay. The seats where comfortable and it felt like they designed the public area very well, to give a good view for everyone.

Some Extremely unhelpful staff. Gig was amazing shame about the arena. Won't be coming back

Great arena (especially if you are a first direct customer). Gets the big attractions

Went to see the Cirque du Soleil 2 days ago with the wife. The show was excellent and well worth seeing. UNFORTUNATELY we could not enjoy the show fully, as we both had a restricted view of the stage due to an elevated safety barrier at the foot of the aisle!! This was not mentioned when purchasing the tickets. We had tickets for block 214 Row C, seats 12 & 13. if you choose block 214, avoid the first 3 seats along the right hand side aisle. This affects the view all the way up the block, and the view is restricted. As the arena is symmetrical, the same will be the case in all the way up block 216 in the 3 seats on the left hand aisle.
These seat should either be removed, or should be sold at a reduced price due to restricted viewing. i have photos to show how this affects the view of center stage. MOST DISAPPOINTING. :-(

Worst venue ever acoustics where poor. The ability to balance sound from the sound person? well let's say a deaf person could have done better. Listening to blink 182 and all I could hear for entire gig was the drums. I did not go to see a drum solo. Save your time and money and go somewhere else.

Great theatre style gig site. Don't bring backpackd you will be turned away

Staff were friendly and helpful. Sound quality was good.

Great arena. Huge place. Attended an event for the day.

Excellent place you feel safe the staff are highly professional and very caring I was ill at a Drake concert and they looked after myself and my daughter very grateful I love my music love it.

Amazing venue and no waiting around in queues to get out. Clean and tidy too.

In the heart of leeds city centre. Reasonable size.

Just a small arena but not expensive and is a nice place. Would defiantly recommend

Excellent venue. Shame we have had to wait over an 1hr in the car park to get out
Going to be a long night!

First time in Leeds. Went to a Rod Stuart concert there. The palace runs like a well oiled machine... Really impressed.

On arrival to the Neil Diamond concert last night, we were informed by an arena attendant that despite our disabled parking permit and a clearly disabled passenger with a ticket to the concert, we were unable to access the disabled car parking at the arena. Reason given that in the disabled parking there were no disabled spaces available. Having dropped our friend and his partner off at this blockade, I then had to park a 20 minute walk away in a now crowded multi storey. A distance too great for my disabled friend to manage after the concert. On my return to the stadium I walked past 8 empty disabled car park spaces where I had initially requested to park. This resulted in missing the start of the concert and 30 minutes at the end, as there was no way I could risk my friend having to stand and wait for me to get out of a busy car park which on previous occasions has taken 2 hours to get out of after a concert. Such a disappointing and frustrating example of a totally avoidable discrimination by the arena that also led to the limited attendance at a concert that I had been looking forward to.

Great venue arena that is well organized. Not sure the purpose of the security checking outside as each station asks you to place keys, phones and money, plus handbags into a tray that is checked - this is good. But the warning light on the walkthrough security portal goes red for almost everyone!! Clearly watches on everyone.
Good view of the stage and brilliant audio. Staff very friendly with good and drink inside at reasonable prices.