The venue opened its doors on 12 January 2008 as the Echo Arena Liverpool, with the official opening ceremony for the
Capital of Culture. The ceremony launched a year-long celebration and signified the culmination of a decade of regeneration in the city. The show, named 'Liverpool the Musical', featured 700 performers and took 15,000 hours to organise. Since opening, the arena has attracted more than 7 million visitors to over 3,800 events, as well as generating £1.6 billion in economic benefit for the
Liverpool City Region.
Naming rights In November 2018, it was announced that the Echo Arena Liverpool would be renamed to its current title, as part of a sponsorship deal with
M&S Bank. The new name took effect from 7 January 2019, with the
Liverpool Echo continuing as a business partner of the arena. A complete rebranding also took place inside the venue and across the Kings Dock site, before being unveiled on 31 January 2019.
2017 car park fire On the evening of 31 December 2017, a fire broke out in an adjacent multi-storey car park and as a consequence, the Liverpool International Horse Show, taking place at the arena, had to be cancelled. Around 80 horses were safely evacuated from temporary stabling built on the ground floor level of the car park, and held on the arena floor and the land surrounding the building. The fire continued into the early hours of 1 January 2018. The structure had to be demolished later and cars were removed. Virtually all of the 1,400 cars there were destroyed, but no serious harm to people or horses was reported. == Events ==