Coventry Building Society Arena Accessibility Review

Image Description: View from accessible seating at Coventry Building Society Arena. The stage is visible in front and slightly to the left of the seating, with a large crowd in the standing area in front of it. The stage has a large video screen either side and the word 'Monkeys' written in white text on the front of a roof section covering it. On the stage, there are some background artwork pieces.

Back with another accessibility review. This time for Coventry Building Society Arena from my visit to see Arctic Monkeys in May 2023. 

(Disclaimer: I’m aware “accessibility” means different things to different people, as I said before, these are MY views on my experience of accessibility at this venue as an electric wheelchair user, I obviously can’t speak for others experiences but feel free to add your experiences in the comments!)  

Ticket Buying 

Ticket buying was a little more convoluted this time. I called and bought a wheelchair space and carer ticket over the phone. I was then told to make an online membership account and send in my proof of disability with my membership number and that the carer ticket and accessibility would THEN be attached to my account. The membership account seemed unnecessary as I could have just sent my documentation to an email address the same way I do with many venues. 

Travel 

The travel for this show was also overly complicated due to train strikes. I first took a long bus from Birmingham to Coventry to get to my hotel. This was Premier Inn Coventry City Centre Earlsdon Park and was a standard accessible room with wet room. There was nothing to really shout about but no complaints either. From my hotel I took a shorter bus from Coventry itself specifically to the arena. 

Experience & Seating 

The first thing I noticed once walking to our seats was that there was actually a fair distance between our entrance gate into the arena and the entrance to our seat section. This seemed to defeat the purpose of accessible seating somewhat as I would expect the accessible seating to be nearer to the entrance gate in order to make it accessible for those who cannot walk long distances. We actually had good seats with a good view. There was also an accessible toilet next to our seating block which had to be opened with a radar key (which stewards will have if you don’t have your own key) 

Once the show was over, we headed out to find my friends who were going to drop me back to the hotel in accessible van. However, the lack of lighting and signage made it very difficult to find each other. 

Overall, the word I would use to describe the accessibility at the venue is convoluted. Everything just seemed to have an extra layer of difficultly involved that did not need to be there, particularly the membership account requirement for access tickets. 

Stay Invincible! 

Em (Invincible Woman On Wheels)