Coventry Building Society Arena

Image: © Stephen McKay Taken: 18 Nov 2022

Known as the Ricoh Arena until May 2021, this 32,609 seater stadium opened here in 2005 in Coventry's northern suburbs. It was built as a replacement for Coventry City's Highfield Road ground on the former Foleshill Gasworks site and was originally intended to be a state-of-the-art facility with greater capacity and a retractable roof; in the end, following Coventry City's demotion from the Premiership in 2001, the plans had to be scaled back. In fact, the stadium has had a rather unhappy history. Since opening, the football club has had two separate disputes with its owners resulting in three seasons in which home games have been played elsewhere. In 2014 rugby union Premiership club Wasps bought the stadium, relocating here from High Wycombe. In October 2022 Wasps' holding company went into administration and the following month Arena Coventry Limited, the stadium operator, also applied to enter administration. On the day prior to this photograph, it was confirmed that Frasers Group (best known for its retail activities) would take over. In this view, the colourful steps lead up from the subway under Coventry Arena railway station behind which is the South Stand.

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