NEC to become the LG Arena

Birmingham's NEC Arena is to be rebuilt and renamed the LG Arena as part of a £28 million transformation.

Work on the development at the venue will start as early as September and is expected to be completed by next year.

Birmingham City Council is providing the NEC Group with a £25million loan for the revamp project, and a further a £3million could come from Advantage West Midlands. It is thought that LG will help to support repayments of the loan through the sponsorship deal.

Bosses say the makeover and the rebranding thanks to the multi-million pound deal with the South Korean electronics giant LG, will help to attract more of the world's leading pop acts who now rely more on live performances because of dwindling record sales. .

The arena, which already welcomes one million visitors a year, will boost its capacity by a further 2,000 to 14,000. The forum space, which will give visitors their first glimpse of the new-look venue, will be reinvigorated with bars and restaurants.

There will also be close to 500 toilets at the new venue, over double the current number.

Paul Thandi, chief executive of The NEC Group, said: "We are proud to have a new world class partner investing in our business and in the West Midlands as a whole, and helping us to create a legacy for future generations."

Construction work is set to take part in two main phases with the first starting in September this year and lasting until April 2009. The second starts in May 2009 and lasts until October 2009.

The NEC Arena opened in 1980 with a show-stopping concert by rock legends Queen. In 1982 the Prince of Wales attended a charity concert in aid of the Princes Trust there, the first time a member of the royal family attended a public rock concert anywhere.

Stars to grace its stage over the years include Kylie Minogue, U2, The Who and Take That. It is not the first building to benefit from rebranding. The O2 Arena, formerly the Millennium Dome is now one of Britain's major music venues.