Co-op Live has room for improvement based on customer feedback. Customers particularly appreciate service and quality, though some mention concerns about expensive and customer service.
Dreadful experience at Stevie Wonder concert on 5/7/25, queued over an hour to get in, only just caught the start of the show-many didn't. Overpriced drinks and food. No legroom, packed too tightly in, very cramped and uncomfortable. Will never return!!
Arrived by car. Parking in pre booked blue area all straightforward. Queue to get in moved fast took about 10 minutes to get in so quick. We arrived fie 6.30 even though Stevie not on stage until 8pm. Plenty of space inside and hardly any queues at bars. Drinks price way too much £9 a pint. Good view of stage in block 112. Excellent concert. On leaving massive queue for ladies toilets. 20 mins to get out of car park. Gridlocked traffic all the to M62 took 1 hour to go 4 miles. Probably would not return. A few years ago my daughter could not get a tram so missed train back to Liverpool so had to pay for a taxi.
Went to see Stevie Wonder who was fantastic the coop however was not will never return. Stairs to seats were dark and steep leg room was tight. No escape route when at the top area. Screen way to small lighting was useless sound was good thanks to Stevie. Price not your every day shop £3.50 can of water disgusting food or the lack of it. No thank you. Staff were nice Stevie amazing venue rubbish come on at the prices charged we surely can do better.
Money making machine!! We were there at Stevie Wonder’s concert yesterday. The show was great. However, there was no public transport at 11 pm, no trams or buses. People were asked to walk all the way into the Manchester which took more then one hour!!
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The venues event management team need a good talking to. By the time we actually got in, there were a lot of annoyed people. On arrival we were told to join the queue in front of us. Then a large proportion of people were sent to join another queue. Was a good 3min walk to find the back of that queue. Then as we got about 3/4 down they sent us back to where we were originally, announcing that anyone can go in that line irrespective of your entrance number. Think they realised they had made a massive error in their crowd management. You couldn't get into any of the restaurants prior to the doors opening (doors open at 6.30 - show started at 7.30) wtf?!! So the only place you could get a drink in the heat was a little bar which you had to queue for. It cost £5 for a pepsi and £4.50 for packet of squashies as that was the only food we could get. I had to show my event ticket (why on earth would we queue for a overpriced bar serving expensive soft drinks out of choice??!!) Inside there were co-ops but you could only get a couple of things from a heated cabinet, then cans of various things, crisps or sweets. Then they made you open the can when you paid for it (even if you were saving it for later) - this was to prevent you using it as a weapon (I thought she was joking when she said - that apparently not haha). Thankfully the event we went for was fantastic. Egress was handled much better though.
Date of experience: June 15, 2025
US
Went to see Linoel Richie last night it was amazing staff so helpful amazing arena but where did they get them seats from so uncomfortable so small iv been to many arenas but that has to be the worst seating ever I won't be going back there
Date of experience: June 14, 2025
US
The venue is well equipped with water points, food places and plenty of toilets, which is great. We sat in section 306, row 7, seats 133 and 134. Found cup holders on the seats in an awkward position so put my drink on the floor. View is pretty obstructed from here. Couldn’t properly see the big screen or stage unless everyone sat down (as they were asked) but a few spoiled it for the rest by standing and obstructing views. Staff had no control over anyone which was pretty worrying. Even when some girls shouted for assistance in asking people to sit, the lady steward was more interested in watching the show than watching the crowd. A few people were close to fighting. We paid for blue parking as one of our party is disabled. Still a long walk to entrance F for that seated section. It took over an hour to get off the car park with no organisation whatsoever. This is seriously needing some focus. People were blocking others in, pushing cars through, u turning etc and the girl who told everyone to turn round caused absolute chaos. Some investment in traffic management such as bollards directing people one way round would be beneficial.
Date of experience: June 14, 2025
US
Everything went wrong, it was the worst experience of my life, total waste of money.After receiving a email telling me the time was going to be 1 hour earlier than first being told, no reason, we went to coop at 6.30pm like we were told, they also changed our seats, no reason.we were kept waiting till 9.30pm before lionel richie came on the stage, no explanation, then because we had come by train, we only got to see 30minutes of his show, because the last train was at 10.45,pm , I couldn't of been more disappointed if I tried, completely lost any enthusiasm to go again.
Date of experience: June 13, 2025
Getting there was ok on the tram from Piccadilly. However the queues were so bad snaking up and down . With a guy on the mega phone barking orders to get you “ in the right q”. After 40 mins they decide we are going in another q ! When we got in we were told we could have gone in any one! Missed the support and we had arrived at 6! As for the coop app don’t bother !!
Date of experience: June 12, 2025
I'm sorry but the organisation for car parking is absolutely ridiculous and spoils the concert experience. We took 2 hours to travel 3 miles last night at Robbie Williams (10/06/2025). We had booked blue parking, and arrived 3 miles away from the venue at 18:45, thinking we'd have plenty of time to get in and settled for the support act before Robbie. However, after nearly 2 hours creeping along to cover 3 miles of dual carriageway cars, the left hand lane turned off to "orange" parking. We had pre-booked blue parking, £25, guaranteed space close to the arena as my wife has difficulty walking. We kept in the signposted right lane for blue parking, but then after the orange turn off it was a free for all to get back over to the left to turn into the "blue" parking - only to then be told by staff that the car park was full and we had to turn back to use the orange car park!!!! How can a pre-booked car park at £25 a pop be sold out??? No explanation - just turn round and park on orange. This was then a 15 minute walk to the arena, difficult for my wife, but we got there, missing the first 5 minutes of the concert. Didn't see the Lottery Winners at all and we were so pee'd off and fed up that it ruined the overall experience. It's a good job that seeing Robbie in person for the first time was worth it!!! Co-Op arena, the parking and organisation was a joke. 3 and a half hours for what should have been a 1 hour 20 minute journey for us, and 2 hours of it right outside the arena stuck in a queue of traffic that had not been accounted for. £25 pre-booked ticket was pointless, we might as well have paid £10 at one of the "dodgy" parking and walked the short distance even if my wife would have struggled. At least we might have got there on time to see the whole concert and not forced to arrive 5 minutes after Robbie had started. I'm sorrry Co-Op Live, but you have not got this right by a long shot - the venue is amazing but the parking has just not been sorted out and made it a very frustrating journey. We could have easily missed the concert if we had waited in traffic any longer. Very, very dissapointing and just not good enough....
Date of experience: June 11, 2025
Firstly the queue to get into the venue was ridiculously long, had to walk for ages to find the back of the queue with multiple people just jumping in rather than walking to the back, took an hour to get into the venue a people were struggling to scan mobile tickets so missed the support act completely. Once in the venue the positives are there are plenty of toilets and places to get a drink and staff are friendly. However the seats are too small and close together, I'm only 5,4 and size 10 but struggled to fit in the seats, especially if someone next to you is slightly bigger. The seats are very steep and made me a little nervous. Overall the concert was good but would avoid this venue in future.
Date of experience: June 11, 2025
I feel I need to get this off my chest. Call me a Karen if you have to.... but.... why are gig tickets so expensive? Had my first experience at the Co Op live Manchester on Tues 10th June to see the man himself Mr Robbie Williams, now anyone who knows me, knows I actually love this guy and been to all his gig when in town. And of course last night was no exception, only when his tickets were released we (my friends and I) didn't have the budget to commit to tickets , as at that point they were to expensive for us, being an adult with families etc, and bills yawn yawn, this was just not doable. (It was a few years back though and was always a good giggle). Anyway, we all said no. Can't do it. So when another friend of mine said recently she had one for sale, I said yes, it was £100 for a seat up on level 3 of the arena. Not wanting to miss out (even though I hate sitting in the higher level at the MEN arena). I thought how bad can it be. Anyway, we sets off to the gig, no parking now where we've always parked.... (for free), it's all charged locations. So we pay a tenner. Not to bad i guess. On the approach to the arena we noticed no food outlets etc, just fancied something for tea as you do. Nothing around. Hey ho, we will get something inside. Treat ourselves. After a queue to get into section D we arrive at level 1, started well, looked like a really smart venue, we headed up the escalators (by passing level 2, literally) and stopped at level 3. (Our floor). But as we were heading up we noticed all the food places and restaurants and bars etc, and wondered how we get to them... Anyways we ask someone. And I was astonished we would have to buy tickets for this section at £40.. wft... we were told we could buy something from the co op shop!!! Nice. Not what I wanted to do, but not much choice. £3.90 for a can of still water!! Wft. We headed to our seats, block 309, and soon realised how high up and far back we actually were... absolutely no atmosphere, and a real fear of falling over , it was just terrible and it got me thinking... Why is it now that in order to have the best experience I have to be absolutely loaded???? Why is fun and experiences on levels??? I really felt like the poor man last night, and rightly put in my place. At the back. With lack of amenities. And I paid £100 for the ticket so to me that's a lot. Maybe I'm out of touch. What happened to the days where we all just paid the same price, and those die hard fans queued for the best seats or if you have aa standing ticket you got there early and queued. im all for that. I wouldn't have paid 166 for a lower tier, I just couldn't do it, and that's for robbie, God knows what other artist are charging. So thank you co op live for making me feel even though I work hard I may never get to see artists I like anymore and have that same experience I shared with my friends and hundreds of people way back when. You've priced me out of what I would be willing to pay to see a gig. Well done. You can stick your new arena up your arse, with its tiered luxury areas, and let all the tik tokers and insta photo taking, love island nobs have it all. I'll catch up on YouTube.
Date of experience: June 11, 2025
US
Went to watch Robbie Williams 10/6/25. The actual venue is amazing, plenty of toilets and food/drink stands/bars. I didn’t have to queue for any of these which you do in other venues such as Sheffield where I have been many times. The traffic on approach to the venue was busy - we waited about 15 mins. We were parked in the blue car park but if I go again I will definitely look at parking further out and either getting the tram in or walking. The cost of parking is steep - £25. Getting into the venue was pretty smooth - we didn’t queue for very long. We entered into section C which took you to the ground floor. The entrance area is huge and lots of space, I didn’t once feel crammed in. The price of food and drink is ridiculously high. £9 for a pint and £36.50 for a bottle of wine. However this was similar to Sheffield Arena so I presume they are all pricing similar. They have coop stores inside which was a good touch - but again the prices in here were ridiculous £4.90 for a pack of maltesers and I think around £3.90 for a can of pop. We were sat I section 307. The view was fine. However the seats have drinks holders between them so this takes away some space and you feel pretty crammed in. If you are a larger person you will feel snug!! When the concert finished we went through what looked like an emergency exit and we were back at our car in around 5 minutes so this was really smooth. However it took us 1hour 15 minutes to get out of the car park. It was a free for all. More stewards were needed to keep drivers under control. Overall I much preferred this venue for its facilities inside. All the staff we came across were great 😊 however the seat sizes let it down as did the parking.
Date of experience: June 11, 2025
US
Seeing Lionel Richie tomorrow night. We booked 4 tickets all sat together then got an email saying our seats had been moved. As I bought 3 tickets first and then another ticket to join them, I have found the last ticket now is on the opposite side all alone. Thanks for already ruining our trip. Ticketmaster/co-op unhelpful/didnt reply
Date of experience: June 11, 2025
