The opening of Coventry’s state-of-the-art £6 million Arena will not be until the new Millennium.

The 4000-seat facility, which is part of Rank Leisure’s £40 million SkyDome Coventry development, is due to host top concert and sporting dates.

It was hoped that the Arena would be open in early December but Rank now claims that developer Morrison Impregilo has missed the arranged hand-over date.

This means that Rank still does not have an opening date for the Arena, leaving them unable to confirm any of the events they had hoped to host during December.

These included the World Boxing clash involving Coventry boxer Dean Pithie, which will now be held at the Sky Blue Connexion in Ryton, and both international and local basketball.

Rank today issued the following statement to explain the reasons behind the delayed opening of the Arena.

"Rank Leisure Division Limited has confirmed that there will be a delay to the intended opening of the SkyDome Arena following the Developer, Morrison Impregilo (Coventry) Developments Limited, missing the contractual hand over date of 1 November 1999.

These events have been totally outside the control of Rank.

The Developer has not been able to confirm the revised date by which hand over to Rank will take place.

Rank has concerns that given its current state of progress, the Arena may not be ready before the Millennium and have taken the prudent course of action advising third parties that no event bookings will be taken for dates prior to the New Year to avoid potential cancellation."

The problems are in stark contrast to the overwhelming success of the leisure box which attracted over 45,000 in the ten days after opening and is continuing to pull in crowds from around the area.