Andrew Billingham has been appointed as managing director arena operations for YTL’s planned arena within the Brabazon hangars in Filton.

The former CEO of Bristol Sport – the company that oversees Bristol City, Bristol Bears and Bristol Flyers – has previously been working as a consultant for YTL UK.

This has involved him giving plenty of tours of the Brabazon site to help raise its profile and convince people across Bristol of its value as a scheme.

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Billingham said: “The moment I walked through the Brabazon Hangars’ huge doors and was surrounded by so much history of innovation and engineering I knew something special needs to happen to bring them back to life.

“I am excited about the opportunity to develop our plans and privileged to be part of YTL, an organisation that has a highly respected international reputation in the communities it serves.

“We have an immense amount of work to do but together with the wider Bristol community we can make history: transforming an iconic building into a truly world class arena and entertainment destination for the people of Bristol.”

Billingham said that over the next few months he will be building the team to help deliver the 16,000-capacity multi-use arena.

Following Bristol mayor Marvin Rees’ decision in September to prioritise a mixed-use development on Temple Island rather than the long-awaited arena, Filton is now the most likely site of an arena for Bristol.

Part of Billingham’s new job will undoubtedly be securing new transport links to the site.

Two schemes already funded are the rail link from Temple Meads to Brabazon station (situated between the proposed arena and the former Filton Airfield) and Metrobus phase 2, but upgrading the Parkway to Brabazon station route to a passenger service is estimated to cost £5.2m.