Manchester 02 Arena Parking

[Kite22]

Does anyone have any suggestions for parking for the 02 Arena in Manchester, that isn't going to result in a 90minute wait to get out of car park at the end please?
I'd rather walk a mile or so than sit not moving whilst trying to get out of a car park, as I understand it is an enormous arena, and we have a long drive home afterwards.

I don't know the area at all, but a friend has said they always manage to park on the street when going to the Etihad, which, in his head, is in a similar part of the City ???? (Geog. not his strong point though ).

thanks

PS, not ignoring any replies, but am tied up at work for a bit now.

Do you mean the O2 Apollo or the AO Arena?

O2 Arena

Sorry, try again AO Arena. Getting my Cities muddle up

Definitely AO Arena

I'm doing this soon too, then driving back to Glasgow so also interested.

On street parking by strange ways

Or red bank car park

There’s often a couple of ‘car parks’ near Strangeways where you can park, usually charge £5 or so.

Etihad is nowhere near the AO arena. Ditto other suggestions and park in a temporary event car park off Cheetham Hill Road, Red Bank or Bury New Road.

If you're getting there early, go for the smallish car park opposite the arena on Shaw Street.

You'll need to turn into Dutton Street and get will herded by parking people to get you to go straight on. Ignore them and go first right onto Shaw Street and the car park is there on your right. It's not massive but I have always parked there and get away easily.

If you look on google maps, when you're leaving go up Skip Place, right onto Park Street and you're back on Cheetham Hill Road then.

There's also Manchester Victoria Train Station car park which is brilliant but can be really problematic getting out of, depending who you're seeing. Liam Gallager, dead easy because most people were adults and came on the trains / trams etc. Shawn Mendes, horrific because it was parents with kids.

Consider parking further out and getting a tram after the event finishes? Many of the outlying tram stops either have formal park-n-ride or have some street parking nearby.

Last time I went we parked at an Oldham tram station (free) and got the tram there and back. It was very easy and Oldham was the right side of Manchester to get home quickly.

Last time we went we just parked in the venue carpark. It's just easier and as long as you reverse in, it's not too painful getting out.

Total car parks on Rochdale Road is my favourite for parking near Manchester city centre. Probably about a 15 minute walk to the arena but it's cheap and tends to be plenty of space

Geography definitely not your friend's strong point 😂, however there are a number of pay-by-phone car parks across the road from the arena car park entrance and when we've been recently they still had plenty of spaces (admittedly it wasn't sold out and on a Wednesday!). If you can I'd recommend getting there for about 6 if doors are 6.30-7 as you'll queue to get in as well

Where abouts are you heading back to, as for me that would direct where I was going to park. If you need to get onto the m60, I'd park up rochdale road as mentioned by a pp, or one of the car parks off strangeways (kick air does arena parking I believe). If you're heading towards east lancs, parking up towards Salford might be better (car parks off chapel street for example). For south Manchester I'd possibly go near Piccadilly (or even Piccadilly statjon which I think is cheaper after 6 for the big car park) and you can get the tram back over after the gig.
Security is tight at the ao for obvious reasons so avoid taking a bag if you can.

What direction would you be coming in from? Im just wondering if you Could consider the park and ride on the tram? Last time I went to a concert there I found it easy to get the tram back to the carpark. It might add a bit extra time to your journey in, but at least you'll feel like you're not just sitting there afterwards!

Actually yeah, there’s a great park and ride on the Rochdale line at Hollinwood, and another at Ashton Moss on the Ashton line. Benefit to those is that you’d be on the M60 in minutes.

Both Hollinwood and Oldham Mumps can be quite rough at night, I wouldn't go there on my own late at night.

Thank you all SO much.
We will be heading back south on the M6.

Really appreciate you taking the time to help.
I will read through all and do a bit of googling.

Thanks again.

Thank you for this thread! I’m going from birmingham to Manchester on my own in January and getting nervy about it! This will help me so much.

What is the event? If it is something that appeals to kids and families, car parks will be rammed. If it is a weekend adult kinda thing, nobody will drive and you'll be straight out of the car park. There is a big car park next to strangeways and all the streets around there are free to park on.