Mattioli Arena Leicester

Negative experience: Absolutely shocking, staff won’t let you bring in food and drink in venue despite arguing with them that I need to bring food and drink due to being diabetic. Will never be returning to this venue absolutely disgraceful

Fantastic experience: Went to see the darts. Excellent evening.

Fantastic experience: Visited a couple of times recently for the darts and was impressed overall with the facilities, staffing and so on. I hope the Grand Prix continues to return here…

Positive experience: Had a conference here through work. The organisation and staff were great. Not sure how much was my work and how much was the arena. Coffee needs to be stronger.

Positive experience: a few of us went to a boxing event last Saturday night.. it was a decent night but totally let down by the bar facilities.. £7.25 for a pint of Carling or £30 for a pitcher.. as if the beer didn’t enough of a bad taste in your mouth.. absolutely disgusting

Fantastic experience: If you've not experienced Basketball then this is the place to start. Great facilities and just an amazing way they look after the kids. Excellent evening out with the family

Fantastic experience: Great place but the prices the was expensive

Positive experience: A really good arena. Well organised & the staff were great. Just a shame that the nearest parking was so far away.

Fantastic experience: Fabulous N8ght Out As Always For PDC Darts

Positive experience: Amazing experience watching the darts

Negative experience: Security team could benefit from some improvement in customer service. Their approach was harsh and aggressive which made the environment less welcoming. I believe with some additional training on respectful and courteous interactions, they could help create a much more positive atmosphere.

Positive experience: Great venue. But £7.50 for CARLING? Sort it out

Positive experience: They need to get the things changed on Google maps. Map will take you to the back door from where you need to take a long walk. Name is changes so it’s very confusing to find it! Huge place but to get there is a problem even with help of Google maps, people were parking in nearby car parks and walking to the back door just to find that they have to walk again for few more minutes to front door!

Positive experience: Good night, buy the only beer was Carling

Fantastic experience: Great venue.

Negative experience: Terrible crowd for the darts

Negative experience: Went to the darts for the first time ever and won't be going back. The bars there were poorly stocked and horrendously over priced. Also security staff were over officious and downright rude. Message to anyone thinking of trying live darts don't bother!!!

Fantastic experience: Was well worth the money and security was second to none brilliant venue loved it

Negative experience: 2 bottles of water and and tango orange can £11.50 mate day light robbery may aswell drink alcohol

Negative experience: Crazy high cost of parking on game day dreadful food - soggy greasy and cold chips for £5! Don’t visit unless you need to

Negative experience: The security team at Mattioli are thugs . We’re at it again last night at an event . Rude aggressive and horrible . Why do people book this venue ? If Management reading this learn to treat people with respect . And your ridiculous prices for food and drink. I had crisps for my 4 year old and he just threw it in bin . So then you have to buy your over priced £3.50 bottle of water and £2 for a mini chocolate bar . Thieves you are and horrible horrible Service

Fantastic experience: Fantastic Night ! Smile 2024

Negative experience: We had a concert booked here and there was no show from the artist B Praak. Many of us were waiting for 2 hrs at the door, and there was no representative from the arena or any signs displayed to say the concert had been cancelled. Very disappointing after such a long wait and travelling from so far. There should have at least some signs on the door or information on their front online page!

Fantastic experience: Great to see the Riders pre season and the arena is great. Easy to get to, entertainment for the family and a team who stay to meet the fans.

Positive experience: I went for Atif Aslam live concert here Very big Clean Well arranged Tight security Smoking area Food stalls Parking charge £15 which I think is too much So parked on road side for free

Positive experience: I think it's poor that you charge extra for the booking fee, we are already spending money for the ticket and then another £5 is added on. Attended a show this week and we were not allowed to take a water bottle which we have brought from home inside meaning you want us to spend money even for water. That is so wrong it's water at the end of the day. When people are booking you should state this so that people do not end up wasting things. First part of the show poor security but second half was better in terms of security. The show said it would start at 7.30pm and it didn't start until 8pm, it should start on time, we are paying customers.

Negative experience: If they was rating to rate zero i would say zero after the horrible experience on 24th August. It was Garba event. the event music and everything perfect. However venue staff specially Security staff was rude arrogant and aggressive for no reason. We wanted to take photo with singer and the singer has no issue with that singer was seating on chair and waiting for people to come and take photo but the security people has issue was not allowing anyone to take photo with the singer? Why? Security guy would not listen to anyone and was just showing his threating behaviour towards us and other people who came for this event. The venue managment need to short out they security big time. This was family event so no alcohol or anything we all were well-behaved but again the venue managment were blind and would not interfere with security when this poor guy was being dragged out by security guy without any valid reason event the poor guy was telling sexurity to let him go but no this security guy has some next level aggression and anger towards this poor guy and we think this security guy had some people issue with all of us as the way he misbehaving everyone who came to the event. Also the Venue managment need short out food and drink price. Omd its ripp off day time robbing packet of crisp 3 pound, bottle of tango orange 500ml/600ml 4 pound? Small portion of chips 5 pound 10inch Margherita Pizza 12 pound that just ripp off by the venue. Venue managment team please sort out your security.

Negative experience: Oh my god . Just attended a garba event at Matioli arena . It was an Atul purohit garba event well organised amazing music . The crowd had a great time and everyone behaved well . At the end there were people who wanted to meet the artists including their friends and family . My negative review is about the security staff at the arena who are basically nothing short of thugs . They were pushing polite people who were simply waiting . They refused to even allow the female singers back on stage - they had no communication with the event organisers . Despite the organisers telling them to let certain people meet the artists the security team refused . The security was rude aggressive and I have never seen anything like it . There was no alcohol . People were well behaved . This thug of a security guard picked up a poor guy by his neck and arms and literally threw him out . It was ridiculous . This poor guy said let me go and did not fight back at all. Security was a bald guy with a beard who has serious anger management issues and this very rude female . Not everyone ate trouble makers . This was a family event with little kids and no alcohol .Matiloi arena you need to reconsider your security . Who would pay you thousands for your security team to not even liase or listen to the event managers who have paid you thousands . It’s a joke . I don’t think anyone should book this arena because of the security staff . Also food and drink prices rip off . £2 for a bag of cheese and onion crisps 40g bag and a mini size Milky Way for £2 . Even the serving staff thought it was ridiculous .matiloi arena - maybe you start treating people with the respect they deserve . Sack your security team and get decent people not thugs and you have a ruined reputation and after what we have just seen we would never book you for an event

Negative experience: ROBBERS. daylight robbery. £3.50 for a bottle of water. £15 per car park. Attended the Garba on 24 August 24. Security staff are rude and bad. There are other ways to make money then hiking price tenfold

Fantastic experience: Watched snooker behind closed doors.

Negative experience: I attended the Four Aces concert and the venue decided to change the seating plan with very short notice. Luckily I saw that on their website on the morning and was able to get new seats however there was no communication about it i.e. no emails received. As a result, when I arrived at the venue, there were many people sitting wherever they liked and I ended up sitting in another seat. Even after the show had started, security had to deal with many complaints by other audience members of people sitting in their seats. Really poor organisation of the event.

Negative experience: We are attending the Four Aces concert and were told that the seats were reallocated. With no prior information and chaotic scenes. Easy to get to etc but pathetic management of an event. I might have to think twice before attending an event here.

Fantastic experience: Leicester Election results 2024 at Mattioli Arena Leicester, I was Election observer. Everything was very Good.

Fantastic experience: Went to Comic Con Mania here, was a lovely venue with some amazing and supportive staff

Positive experience: The arena was easy to find and well maintained. I was there with my podcast at a comic con event, and access to set up was a breeze. The gents toilets were pretty basic and a little tired but the rest of the venue was great, it would be a good place to attend other cons or watch some sports, if I lived in Leicester I'd probably be there more.

Fantastic experience: Great venue, and I enjoyed my first basketball game

Fantastic experience: Watched the Riders Basketball team, had a brilliant night fantastic experience defo going back

Fantastic experience: Great atmosphere, friendly people and a great time had by us the time just flew by

Positive experience: Went to see basketball and was very good

Negative experience: We paid for the VIP experience yet it was anything but VIP. We were told we would get table service and Food and recieved neither. I decided to get Chicken and chips which consisted of three ammonia-treated chicken nuggets and stone cold chips for £9.50. I travel to football matches a lot and have never been served food this bad before. The beer is £7 a pint served in plastic cups and is flat. The entrace to the venue is tiny and is extremley difficult to get into leading to nothing short of absolute chaos. The toilets are tiny and not fit for a venue of this size which caused a large queue throughout the evening. I really am trying to find a positive but there wasn't any.

Fantastic experience: Lovely Arena, well located for easy access

Fantastic experience: A great night watching the amazing Leicester Riders, highly recommended , particularly for families looking for an exciting night out !!

Fantastic experience: One of the best Basketball venues in the country. Comfortable seats with plenty of legroom. Can’t recommend high enough

Positive experience: Good organisation and views of snooker. Food and catering awful

Fantastic experience: Great venue.A****

Negative experience: Came on Tuesday evening to watch the snooker and was told the day before that there's no free parking but turned out that there was. Also Came on Friday afternoon and after Ding's match I wanted to congratulate him and maybe get his autograph. I asked the security gentleman and he said it shouldn't be a problem if the player has time. I was going towards his table where he was talking to a few fans , when a security lady stopped me and said you can't get autographs on the premises. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THIS PLACE !! VERY DISAPPOINTED . Friday 19th January 2024

Positive experience: Went to watch basketball. The venue is ok but avoid hot food offering its possibly worst event food I’ve encountered. Pre cooked burger in bun and chips stored in a polystyrene box for hours making it dry and cold like someone’s left over meal. Even stipulates you cannot bring outside food in which would be ok if what was on offer was a least reasonable. Would go again but would eat before I got there.

Positive experience: Went for Riders match , bit more info for car parking would be good , also only one entrance open on Memory Lane no entry via Charter Street.

Positive experience: Went to watch the Bristol Flyers play against Leicester Riders. The venue itself is fine, probably the comfiest seats at a basketball arena. If you are visiting I would definitely research parking, there is no onsite during game nights/days and people seem to just park around the industrial site. I did manage to find a place, for someone who was visiting and didn't know the area it wasn't great.

Fantastic experience: Best basketball venue I've been to

Negative experience: Spamming with marketing SMS despite opting out. Also told me no bags allowed at all in their venue yet allowed others

Fantastic experience: Went the other night for my first ever basketball game with my oldest son wife and two younger children. We all absolutely enjoyed it. It was a fun night. Even got to meet the players

Positive experience: Great environment, atmosphere and family friendly. We very much enjoyed watching the Riders.

Positive experience: An OK place. Not much in the way of local parking if you are attending something there that's going to pull a crowd. I have no idea why they don't use the venue for music instead of poorly supported events like basketball, snooker & darts.

Negative experience: If going to an event DO NOT up grade to the premium package. For £80 each we were served some of the worst food I have ever eaten. Small slice of dried up pate with soggy toast (had been left on the table for a while). A beef stew which honestly was inedible and a piece of chocolate brownie which tasted of old mouldy chocolate (the lady sat next to me spat hers out). We had paid for a platter later but this wasn't served (false advertising). Yes there is a free bar but can you really drink that much to justify the price. I did write asking for a refund as the quality really was shocking. I got a rude refusal email back. Apparently this meal was what a chef describes as acceptable. We felt very sorry for the waitress as she was clearly embarrassed by the food. She said there had been complaints all week and she said 'thank goodness you missed out on the burnt onion bhajis they got served last night' .she also tried the brownie and agreed it was awful.

Fantastic experience: Went for the Darts. Brilliant night out.

Fantastic experience: We watched the world grand prix darts 2023 final here. It was well organised with lots of easily accessible toilets. Was able to get an Uber within 5 minutes of leaving the arena.

Fantastic experience: We went to watch the darts semi final here. Well organised, no ques for the bars, great atmosphere, larger was expensive but always is in these places

Positive experience: We went to watch the darts. Food could be better.

Fantastic experience: I signed my 2 yr old son up to baby ballers here. 5 sessions for £15.00. Every Thursday morning for 1 hour. My son loves going . The staff and coaches are all fantastic and have great enthusiasm with the little ones. Weve been going ever since we found out about it. I cant praise it enough . Brilliant

Fantastic experience: Home to the Leicester Riders basketball team,certainly come on a long way since the old Grandby Halls day. Good sized Arena, Also hosts...snooker,darts,music and comedy gigs.

Positive experience: Played basketball today but there were no shower facilities available due to 'refurbishment'. Also, no signs informing of their unavailability.

Fantastic experience: It was my first time at a professional darts tournament. Great night out

Fantastic experience: Great night meeting Liverpool legend one my sons heros

Positive experience: Sonu Nigam is Love ❤️

Fantastic experience: Came to see the Riders such a smooth process getting in, getting a drink and the Riders game was brilliant great atmosphere and DJ

Negative experience: We attended the Cheercity comp this weekend and were left absolutely disgusted with how the venue handled things. Bag searches were conducted in look for… snacks, biscuits, sweets. With a cheerleading competition taking place, all children were left without any small snacks they would have brought from home, just so that the venue earns 2-3 pounds extra. On top of this all the legal and CISA guidance were disconsidered. The checks were nothing visual, like CISA advises, the staff was taking the bags and emptying them without any prior consent from anyone. Useless to say many of us are asking Cheercity not to come back here. Disgusting

Negative experience: Love the snooker but the staff leave a lot to be desired, left this afternoons session just after 4.45 as the entrance has changed since last year, had to walk to the front to wait on a taxi, that's not an issue though but while waiting for the taxi I asked to use the toilet!!!!! Have you got an evening ticket I was asked it's only people with an evening ticket allowed in I was told. Now I've only left the place 5min and they know I've been in all afternoon but nope rules ate rules. When I tried to say yeah but I've only just left the guy then says do you not get it mate its only people with evening tickets allowed in!!!! Yep and this at 5 o'clock when the evening session starts at 7. What a bright spark he is we really need more people like this guyAs I've said love the snooker and follow it over the country but sad to say the Leicester arena staff let Leicester as a city down.

Fantastic experience: Modern, clean and functional, plenty of space for watching the basketball, looks like they have some great events taking place in the future with both the Darts and Snooker featuring on various adverts. Boys played basketball today and must say it’s a fantastic set up that the Riders have!

Positive experience: Go regularly for the BasketBall but the Arena it's self is used for many other events. Just been refurbished throughout and has an nice large area before you go into the court and seats yourself which they sell snacks, drinks and merchandise. Great place and great atmosphere if you ever want to go see an BasketBall match, well worth it, very Family friendly.

Fantastic experience: Came to watch the basketball again and I've got to say this is the best sporting location / event for young families. The whole environment is very friendly and welcoming and the players all sign autographs and do photos with the kids after the games. Small selection of merchandise available on game days and a bar with drinks and snacks. Cheerleading in-between play, t-shirt giveaways and a 'chuck the duck' game. Highly recommended coming here

Negative experience: Very poor organisation and a lack of common sense is the best I could describe this place as well as taking my money.

Positive experience: Brilliant venue just watched the snooker here live! Ricky Walden against Adam duffy. The only reason it's not 5 stars is for the snooker itself nothing to do with the arena. The worst display of snooker I have ever watched how did doofy lose from 4-1 up he had a million chances! The miscued chipped red in the decider was brilliant when amongst the reds absolute comedy!

Fantastic experience: Great venue with friendly staff. Took my daughter to her first pro basketball game to see the mighty Leicester Riders. (They won which may or may not have increased my review by one star...) Security was great. They wouldn't let me in the VIP entrance but to be fair, I'm not a VIP (which my daughter constantly reminded me of during the long walk to the regular entrance...) The players took time after the game to meet the fans and sign some autographs, which really made the night for my non VIP daughter. Brilliant experience and 2 new fans for life who will definitely be back!!!

Negative experience: Security is so rude will push women and elderly people. Very disrespectful especially the bald security guy. Need to sort this out.

Negative experience: Very limited number of toilets for a large concert venue. Disabled facilities very limited.

Positive experience: I was there for an exam and took the time to study the place. It seems to be an interesting experience watching a game there

Fantastic experience: Great arena,darts was a great night out

Fantastic experience: The location is like many, just average. The dart tournament was amazing. We had the best time

Negative experience: Darts was fun. Pints and drinks are 6 pounds a pop. The security were aggressive on a guy in a costume the person didn't really do anything and starting mocking the guard as he was acting aggressive.

Fantastic experience: Darts love the darts great atmosphere good night out

Positive experience: Had a brill night at darts, Staff and security good

Fantastic experience: Great venue. Huge open space for events. Refreshment area is very well situated, quick and excellent service

Positive experience: Went for boxing match on saturday it was a good night but bit exspensive

Fantastic experience: A fantastic time loads of drink and dancing and some bingo. Will do it again

Fantastic experience: Fantastic place and the development will make this a leading venue for bball in the UK (plus hosting boxing, darts, and large events)

Negative experience: BWEARE: RIDICULOUS CANCELLATION PRICES.... You will end up paying almost £7 per ticket if the show is cancelled. Booked a ticket for Sunidhi Chauhan. The show was cancelled and we were not even informed about the cancellation. Then the cancellation was processed after 25 days and I was not offered full refund, apparently as per T&Cs you are only entitled to FACE VALUE of the ticket...... So remember to read 20+ pages of T&Cs before booking the ticket.

Negative experience: 5000 people expected and only a handful of seating places for the Halal food festival. Pathetic!

Negative experience: Over populated, no parking, very few stalls most of which selling the same stuff wouldn’t come again.

Positive experience: We went to see wheelchair basketball We couldn't get in the main door no one on reception The gym busy lots children playing and th wheelchair basketball good to see. As busy no proper score board or clock for the wheelchair teams who had travelled a good distance to play

Negative experience: The entrance has now been put on the back of the building since the new build was done, we didn't know anything about this until we went to walk through the doors and there was a a4 size note saying go to memory lane (very dark and dingy area to be honest) staff was all out having a cigarette break when we arrived and when we left (stood at the main entrance too very unprofessional) drains on car park are a trip hazard when dark and carp park entrance from memory lane is very dangerous.

Negative experience: I went to a concert by Atif Aslam. No parking there. They kept us waiting outside, and the actual concert started 3 hours later than it was meant to. Not the venue's fault that it started late but at least don't keep us standing in the rain outside. All in all a horrific experience and the singer was awful as well.

Fantastic experience: Was my first time there taking my son and really enjoyed it friendly atmosphere and staff. Clean also

Negative experience: Very bad after customer service, bought tickets and they changed them so did not attend they wont refund, they especially the arena manager dave clayton are sooo horrible and rude that they ignore all emails and calls Please can i have the details of dave claytons manger

Positive experience: Went to watch the Snooker Shoot Out 2022. Focussing on the arena and not the snooker (which was brilliant), the arena itself is fantastic. Seating and temperature were perfect for an event like this. You can’t get in before the entrance time and even then, doors opening at 6pm meant they open at 6.20. Not an issue if you arrive very early because they have a marquee with a bar with heaters. But if you’re not there by 5.20pm the marquee is full and you’re stuck outside for over an hour, by the time they’ve processed everyone. If it’s cold inclement weather either be early or late.

Positive experience: Saw the snooker here. The event was set up as you would expect except for the speaker system to the centre stand. You couldn't hear a thing.....

Fantastic experience: It was a great venue for the snooker tournament I attended and be any other like darts and so on

Fantastic experience: Leicester Riders is a great family night out. Can't fault it.

Positive experience: Great nights entertainment ( Tyson fury ) Good facilities, good COVID marshalling . Just a little bit slow in getting people into their seats, but understandable at this moment in time ... So I'm being a bit harse even with just my 3 stars once COVID is under more control I'm expecting another star to report ..

Positive experience: Great size venue for a gig but the bar system is a joke, can't have that many people with no bar space.