A popular sports bar in Crewe town centre under new ownership is "expanding" its offering, with a huge new live music space development underway.

The Arena, High Street, was taken over by Lawrence Thomason and Lynsey Roberts (owner of Dishers), from Crewe, on July 1, changing the venue from 'Off The Rails.'

Offering "high-quality" pool and darts facilities, The Arena is now in the process of reinvigorating Crewe's live music scene.

The Arena, High Street, is expanding its offering, with a huge new live music space development underway (Ryan Parker).

Co-owner, Lawrence, told Nub News: "People have been really positive about The Arena so far. We have made a significant investment with an upgraded bar, new big-screen TVs, darts facilities and decor.

"We are expanding the offering at The Arena, making it more than just a sports bar. Everyone is really excited to see this place progress.

"With the new gig space, we can have up to 200 people in here to start with.

"Once all assessments have been done we should be able to get at least 350, and for a standing event even more.

"A lot of the big tribute acts and more well-known live acts want bigger space and we will be able to offer them that.

"We have loads of live music events coming up from a variety of genres, including rock, pop, indie, and dance. There will be something different on every week.

"Club and DJ nights are coming each month, with us set to bring popular acts from the 90s and 2000s.

The Arena is open 4pm to 11.30pm (Monday to Thursday), 12pm to 1.30am (Friday) and 12pm to 12am (Saturday and Sunday) (The Arena).

"As Off The Rails, this place has always had the darts, pool and live sport. Adding a proper live music and events space attracts people from all over the place, not just Crewe.

"We target to bring more people to Crewe during the evenings and are confident this music space will do just that."

The Arena serves a basic tapas-style food menu, including the likes of chicken wings, loaded fries, garlic mushrooms, halloumi fries and stonebaked pizzas until 9pm. (later for special events).

It also offers private parties to local sports clubs, workplaces and more - available to enquire about via the Facebook page.

Lawrence said: "At the moment, Crewe is is very limited on function space and we aim to improve this.

"We want bring life back to High Street. Although it is painful with all the road closures currently, the new link to the town centre and railway station is exciting.

"There is so much history on High Street. The fact Ringo Starr's first ever gig with The Beatles took place down here in the 60s is crazy.

For live sport, The Arena is having Sky Q installed, meaning it will be able to show three different channels across its 98-inch screens at one time (The Arena).

"We have huge plans for 2025 and will see where it takes us. The Arena has a brilliant atmosphere and is built on a friendly environment.

"This is a fun venue where you can also come for flight club darts, like there is in Manchester. Ours is the first one in the South Cheshire area.

"For live sport, we have Sky Q going in, meaning we will be able to show three different channels across our 98-inch screens at one time."

Before taking on The Arena, Lawrence co-owned a steel trading business in Crewe until 2022 and spent 18 months travelling the world as a pool player making YouTube videos.

The co-owner said: "Lynsey and I were good friends before taking on The Arena. We now have half the shares in each other's clubs. This is something we can't wait to showcase in the coming months.

"Off The Rails was a great pool and darts club. My vision is to make it something more with The Arena, bringing big live music events back to Crewe.

The Arena is now in the process of reinvigorating Crewe's live music scene (The Arena).

"With darts being so popular at the moment, we also aim to hold big national events here with a new exciting setup.

"We want to bring new people to The Arena, making it the go-to place in Crewe for a night out, attracting families, friends, workplaces and the likes."

The Arena is currently taking on new staff and plans to recruit more once the new events space is finished.

Lawrence added: "We previously had four staff members and within the next few months, are hoping to have at least 10.

"There are future plans to open earlier in the week. With so much work going on currently it will remain at 4pm for now.

"We offer a variety of private party packages and encourage people to enquire about this with us via our Facebook page.

The Arena serves a basic tapas-style food menu, including the likes of chicken wings, loaded fries, garlic mushrooms, halloumi fries and stonebaked pizzas until 9pm. (later for special events) (The Arena).

"If you haven't visited The Arena since the new ownership, we encourage you to do so. We can't wait for you to try us out."

The Arena is open 4pm to 11.30pm (Monday to Thursday), 12pm to 1.30am (Friday) and 12pm to 12am (Saturday and Sunday).

READ MORE: Christmas pop-up shop launches at old Crewe town centre card store.

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