Utilita Arena Sheffield

The utilita arena in Sheffield has survived a dozen name changes, and the latest one is the one that sticks for now. It opened in 1991 as the Sheffield Arena, before the sponsors came calling. Since then it has been the Hallam FM Arena, the Motorpoint Arena Sheffield, the FlyDSA Arena, and finally the utilita arena. The building itself has not altered much; the arched roof and the vertical columns remain the same. Inside, the floor is concrete. For concerts, the ice is pulled away and the space becomes a flat expanse for standing crowds, which can reach 13,600 people. The capacity for the Steelers is closer to 9,300, a difference that speaks to how the ground is used. The Arctic Monkeys pulled off a record for standing capacity in 2013. It has hosted Paul Simon on its opening night and U2 on their Zoo TV Tour, and it saw One Direction play their final concert before they went quiet. During the pandemic, the arena fell silent and then kept its heads while it stored hospital beds and became a vaccination centre. The Steelers have played there every season since the doors opened, and the history between them adds an edge to a venue that could easily have been just another ice rink. A photograph from the early days shows a quiet perimeter with a few people waiting by the gate, a stark contrast to the crowds that now gather there. The surface is artificial in the sense that it is a versatile floor, but on match days it is ice, and the heat of the crowd takes the sting out of the cold air.