"If you build it, they will come," a voice tells Ray Kinsella in the novel-turned-movie Field of Dreams.

Unlike Kinsella, who worries about attracting the paying public to a baseball diamond in the middle of nowhere, Steve Hoyland, the man in charge of one of the most anticipated venues to be opened in Leeds in recent years, has no such concerns. The crowds are already virtually beating down the doors.

While the likes of the University, the Cockpit, the Hi-Fi Club and The Wardrobe have served the city to the best of their ability, the clamour for an arena-style venue has grown louder with each passing year.

The demands won't be entirely silenced when Leeds Academy opens its doors on October 8, but those campaigners will be at least a little placated.

The first gig will be played by hometown band Kaiser Chiefs – who contacted the owners to ask if they could be the first band on Leeds's newest music stage.

"They used to come here when it was the Town and Country Club and they said would love to play the first night here," beams Hoyland. "When you have a band as big as the Kaisers calling up and asking to play, you know you're on to a winner."

Little wonder Hoyland is smiling.

Even now, as he takes the Yorkshire Post on an exclusive look around the shell of the building which will soon become the Leeds Academy, he can't help but grin even when discussing the site's logistical problems.

Based in the former Town and Country Club, which staged live music between 1992 and 2000, the history of the building – which opened in 1885, and was once home to Leeds's first cinema – has been turbulent.

Seven years ago, it reopened as the nightclub Creation, and Hoyland is less than impressed at the state in which the former owners left the property.

"They did what nightclub owners do, which is put stuff all over the walls, putting bars here, there and everywhere. They even put huge extractor fans up there," he says, pointing out the enormous, stunning original wooden beams which run across the roof.

Inside, building contractors are scurrying about, making sure the venue is ready for the opening night. After a long search for a site in Leeds, the Academy Music Group (which owns the Carling Academy music venues around the country, including the Brixton Academy and Shepherd's Bush Empire) bought the venue last year and work began on a £4.5m refurbishment in June this year.

The Grade I listed building is being stripped back to its original splendour, with a concrete floor installed by the previous owners, nightclub chain Luminar, having been removed.

Hoyland says taking out the floor, which effectively split the main room of the building in half, was the biggest task of the renovation.

He says: "That alone has taken three months to do and there were times when I really couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. There have been frustrations, but I've just been itching to open
the venue."

With the concrete floor removed, a balcony and a 300 seated rake, following the original floor plan of the building, have been installed.

As Hoyland, who was entertainments manager for the National Union of Students before spending five years running the Liverpool Academy, sits at the back of the wooden steps, looking down through the gap left by the recently removed floor, he talks with enthusiasm about future prospects.

"I've wanted Leeds for ages," he says. "Other venues have come up and been offered to me, but I wanted to wait for Leeds.

"I knew it would work here. I know the city and I know that there is a huge appetite for live music in the city. In Liverpool we had a smaller audience, but lots of venues, this city has been crying out for something like this."

So what took so long? Apparently, the Academy Music Group has been waiting for the right deal to come along.

"We looked at the old Odeon at one point, but the money involved just wouldn't have made any sense for us to come in. Even this place has taken such a long time because it took an eternity to get the right deal."

Hoyland points to an article in the Yorkshire Post written earlier this year which questioned how much we value the city's culture and art. The growth of Leeds's financial sector, he says, while a great boon, means that organisations such as AMG which provide culture, find it difficult to afford space.

That said, a deal has now been struck and already the line-up is looking impressive for the first autumn of the Leeds Academy, which will have a maximum main room capacity of 2,300, with 1,800 stalls and 500 on the balcony. Following the Kaiser Chiefs on the opening night are artists including Goldfrapp, The Pigeon Detectives, Billy Bragg, Duffy and The Zutons. When they do arrive, the bands can expect nothing but luxury.

As he walks around the balcony area and to the VIP backstage area, Hoyland becomes even more animated.

The rooms for the bands will be equipped with plasma screen TVs, a kitchen area, showers and, most importantly according to Hoyland, music systems for iPods.

"We're essentially turning this area into something like a very high-class hotel," he says. "We want bands to talk about what a great time they have here, that's how word spreads and you get better and bigger names coming."

Down on the ground floor Hoyland shows off the massive stage and lighting rig which will allow bands to show off their sets to best effect. Discussing the money being spent on the building and the high-tech way in which it is being kitted out, someone mentions the band Oasis. It is said as a joke – everyone knows that this music venue is fantastic news for Leeds, but claims it will rival larger venues like Sheffield Arena just down the road seem a little grand.

"We actually were going to have them," says Hoyland, in answer to the laughter, cutting it short. "But we couldn't get the venue finished in time to fit in with the tour.

"Just wait for some of the announcements we've got coming up, this is going to be a very important music venue, with some very, very big names."

They have built it – and they will come.