Coventry Building Society Arena

General

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Coventry Building Society Arena
City of Coventry Stadium
Full name	Coventry Building Society Arena
Owners	Frasers Group
Location	Phoenix Way, Coventry, England
Built	2005
Opened	2005
Expanded	2010
Tenants	Coventry City (2005–2013, 2014–2019, 2021–) Wasps RFC (2014–)
Capacity	32,753 (football and rugby matches)
Field dimensions	120m x 68m
Surface	XtraGrass (Hybrid grass)
Highest attendance	32,019 (Wasps V Leicester Tigers, rugby union, 9 May 2015)

The Coventry Building Society Arena, also known as the City of Coventry Stadium when sponsorship names are not allowed, is a complex in Coventry, England. It includes a 32,609-seater stadium, home to Wasps and Coventry City F.C., a 6,000 square metres (65,000 sq ft) exhibition hall, a hotel and a casino. The site is also home to Arena Park Shopping Centre, containing one of UK's largest Tesco Extra hypermarkets. Built on the site of the Foleshill gasworks, it is named after its sponsor, Coventry Building Society who entered into a ten-year sponsorship deal in 2021. For the 2012 Summer Olympics, where stadium naming sponsorship was forbidden, the stadium was known as the City of Coventry Stadium.

Originally built as a replacement for Coventry City's Highfield Road ground, the stadium was initially owned and operated by Arena Coventry Limited (ACL), with Coventry City as tenants. ACL was owned jointly by Coventry City Council and the Higgs Charity.

Following a protracted rent dispute between Coventry City and ACL, the football club left the arena in 2013; playing their home matches in Northampton for over a year before returning in September 2014. Within two months, both shareholders in ACL were bought out by rugby union Premiership Rugby club Wasps, who relocated to the stadium from their previous ground, Adams Park in High Wycombe. A further dispute with Wasps prior to the 2019–20 season saw Coventry City leave the Ricoh for a further two seasons. In March 2021, Wasps and Coventry City agreed to a ten-year deal to return to the arena and the city of Coventry.

The stadium was the first cashless stadium in the United Kingdom, with customers using a prepay smartcard system in the ground's bars and shops. However, the stadium now accepts cash at all kiosks.

External links

• Official website
• London 2012