Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees has today (September 4) finally brought discussions about the potential Bristol Arena in the centre of the city to a close, by announcing that it will not be built at all, and instead there will be new offices and housing opportunities at Temple Meads.

The negotations about the Arena have taken place for years and years and years and there are too many different opinions and arguments to mention - basically, Bristol Arena had two potential locations (near the train station, and in Filton a few miles out of the city). 

There were pros and cons for both ideas, relating to money and jobs as politics always does, and the Mayor was against building one in Filton, so it was all down to building it in the centre or not at all. The final decision has been made to forget all about it and build some different stuff instead. There will be housing, a conference centre, hotels and office space.

The Arena had been predicted to be able to attract some huge artists as one of the biggest arenas in the South West of England, but now we're just going to have to stick to the O2 Academy instead for convenience.

Despite this refusal, there's still a chance that an arena could still be built at Filton. The fact that it definitely won't be in the centre opens the door for a Malaysian investment firm called YTL to build one at Filton, and the Mayor now needs to enter negotiations with them over a potential 16,000 seat arena, even if he's against the idea. 

Sad times for now. We'll have to travel to Cardiff or Birmingham.