The American sports entertainment company AEG(Anschutz Entertainment Group), the new owners of the Millennium Dome are planning to build a cable car from the Dome, west across the River Thames to South Dock at Canary Wharf. Sounds like a good idea to me, AEG are converting the Dome into a sports and entertainment centre and rebranding it the O2 Arena, not sure what that stands for but its about time something was done with it.
The Millennium Dome was the centre piece of Labour’s celebration of the new Millennium and cost close to £800million, built on the Greenwich Meridian Line at the end of a peninsula where the Thames does a big bend. It was open to the public from 1 January-31 December 2000 and was filled with a load of pretentious exhibits and art installations, I couldn’t believe how bad it was the time I went there, the best thing about it I remember was the brand new tube station at North Greenwich. 
A lot of the blame for what went inside should have gone to the mincing Peter Mandleson, Tony Blair’s arsehole buddy and Dome chief, who before it opened was sure it would be one the greatest attractions London had ever put on.
There have been odd one off events at The Dome since it closed, raves, the odd music event, it was a Christmas homless shelter a few years back. In their O2 Arena AEG are putting a 2,000 capacity music club, 11 screen cinema, restaurants, bars and theatre and exhibtion spaces. They’ve got a track record running big arenas, they own the Forum, Staples Center and Home Depot Center in Los Angeles plus other venues around the US, including Vegas, and a bunch of sports teams.
Linking with the South Dock at Canary Wharf(above right) is a good idea. North Greenwich is one stop away from Canary Wharf on the Jubilee Line, but with the Dome so visible from the South Dock area (the top photo’s from the drawbridge into the dock from the Thames) and Canary Wharf being a buzzing place with thousands of office workers, loads of bars and restaurants and lots of apartments on the southern side, something to grab the attention like a cable car might make people want to go over to North Greenwich.
I used to have to go to a place right near there for work on a regular basis and there’s not much around, industrial estates, a Holiday Inn, definitely somewhere to pass through.
AEG will open the O2 Arena in July 2007 and it will also host the gymnastic and basketball at the 2012 Olympics.
Hopefully the new venue’s a success, anything’s going to be better than what was put in the Dome the first time round.
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Anschutz has been a major player in Major League Soccer in the U.S, as well as in the telephone and movie industries so you maybe they’ll turn it into a soccer pitch or a big movie theater with a mobile phone tower on top.
Before they bought it there was talk of somebody knocking down the Dome an building a major sports stadium there.
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