Industry News

Hotel plans revealed for Leicester Tigers stadium

Plans have been announced to build a new hotel next to Welford Road, the home stadium of English Premiership rugby union club Leicester Tigers.

Work on the £22m (€24.9m/$29.7m) hotel is expected to begin as soon as the rugby club completes a new car park that is also being built next to its home ground. The car park will cost £5m and is due to open next autumn.

The new hotel is expected to have 165 rooms and cover an area measuring 1.7 acres. The Leicester Mercury newspaper said that the facility will also feature parking for hotel guests as well as enhanced Tigers conference, corporate and fan facilities.

Leicester Mayor Sir Peter Solsby formally agreed to the freehold sale of the land last summer and the club is now keen to push ahead with work, in the hope of completing the hotel in time for the start of the 2019-20 season.

Simon Cohen, chief executive of the Tigers, said that the club is keen to secure a deal with a partner for the new hotel before the end of the year.

“Most of the preparations for the car park are in place, so we hope to start building in the not-too-distant future,” Cohen said, according to the newspaper. “We hope that once that is up we can start on what is currently the Granby Halls site, with a 52 week build.”

The Tigers have been based at the 25,849-capacity Welford Road since 1892. The facility was also used to stage matches at both the 1991 and 1999 editions of the Rugby World Cup national team tournament.

Image: NotFromUtrecht