Special guests, partners and funders were treated to an evening of entertainment and food to celebrate the success of Coventry’s new sports bar.
The Anecdote at Coventry Building Society Arena welcomed around 100 people to a VIP opening event, where they toasted the early success of the bar – which has been welcoming guests for over a month.
Wasps Group CEO Stephen Vaughan delivered a welcome message and thanked partners and funders, including the Arena’s catering and hospitality partner Delaware North and the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP), for supporting the creation of the state-of-the-art bar.
Players from Wasps Rugby and representatives from Coventry City joined the VIP guests to experience the bar which will be regularly filled with fans from the teams that call Coventry Building Society Arena home.
The event gave those in attendance the chance to enjoy The Anecdote’s sports bar menu whilst challenging each other on the interactive games, including giant foosball and shuffle ball.
The Anecdote is open seven days a week from 11am to 11pm and since opening, it has been the backdrop for major sporting events including screening the British & Irish Lions Tour and finals day of cricket’s Hundred.
It has already welcomed more than 6,500 people through its doors since opening.
Stephen Vaughan, Wasps Group CEO, said: “It was a great pleasure to welcome our partners to The Anecdote and to celebrate its success. After a difficult 18 months, it was great to see so many familiar and happy faces in the sports bar.
“The Anecdote is a fantastic venue and there is nothing else quite like it here in Coventry. It’s already attracting people for sport, entertainment and conferencing – which is exactly what we were hoping when we built it.
“We have made a huge seven-figure investment in this bar, with support from CWLEP and Delaware North, and this was a wonderful evening to celebrate its official opening.”
Amy Burgess, General Manager at The Anecdote, added: “Since opening we have gone from strength-to-strength and we have received really good feedback from people who have joined us, be that before a big sport fixture, for lunch during an exhibition or for an afternoon or evening out.
“It was great to welcome everyone for the VIP open event and to give our thanks to all those who helped to support the creation of this fantastic new sports bar.”
Delaware North funded a significant portion of the seven-figure investment in the sports bar, alongside investment from the CWLEP, which was been made via an allocation of funding as part of the Government’s Getting Building Fund, and from the Government’s Local Growth Fund and Growing Places Fund.
To find out more about The Anecdote at Coventry Building Society Arena visit www.anecdotebar.co.uk
PICTURE CAPTION: Left (front to back) - Stephen Vaughan (Wasps Group), Sarah Windrum (CWLEP) and Doug Tetley (Delaware North). Right (front to back) – Charlie Atkinson (Wasps player), Amy Burgess (The Anecdote) and Nick Abell (CWLEP).