How Coventry Building Society Arena came to be
It has been 20 years since Coventry Building Society Arena opened its doors and changed the landscape of sport, live events and business in Coventry forever.
But the story didn’t start when Coventry City faced QPR on 20 August 2005 – it began much earlier, with the story of how the plans became a reality as dramatic as any of the live entertainment or sport that it has hosted since.
The original plans
The dream for a new football stadium in Coventry began in the late 1990s, and initially that’s exactly what the plans were, not the multi-purpose venue you see today.
From the beginning, it was part of a wider regeneration plan alongside the former Coventry Colliery site.
The bold designs took shape under the ‘Arena 2000’ banner and were part of plans for England’s 2006 FIFA World Cup Bid.
The stadium would have been a first of its kind in the UK, with a state-of-the-art retractable roof and a sliding pitch which would reveal an all-purpose surface for the staging of other events.
Initial planning permission was granted for the stadium in 1999, with a targeted completion of August 2001. However, in 2000 the news broke that England had failed in its bid for the 2006 World Cup.
With the plans no longer able to rely on the nation’s World Cup aspirations, the stadium was rethought. Coventry’s new arena needed to be redesigned to serve wider objectives around the regeneration of the north of Coventry and be able to host a wider range of events.
Those plans grew into the Arena you now see today with a hotel, convention centre, indoor arena, exhibition space and casino.
Foleshill Gasworks
Coventry Building Society Arena stands today on the site of the former Foleshill Gasworks. The gasworks once dominated the skyline of the north of Coventry, but by 2002 they were no longer in use and preparations began to demolish the gasworks to make way for the city’s new stadium.
Officially it was meant to be a low-key and under-the-radar operations, but in reality, word had started to spread around the city and thousands of people gathering to watch the towers collapse.
The decision was made for the explosion to take place at 5.45am on Sunday 22 September 2002. The M6 was set under a discreet rolling blockade, the charges were fired and the land was cleared for the new stadium.
Funding challenges
Arguably the most crucial day in the venue’s history came at a Special Council meeting on 16 October 2003! The stakes were high, and the meeting became the longest in the city’s history at that time.
The meeting was to seek full council approval for funding and to proceed with the Arena contract.
Councillors did everything they could to attend the vote, with early signs indicating it would be incredibly tight. One councillor even discharged themselves from hospital to ensure they could cast their vote.
The vote passed, the Arena project survived, and it was full steam ahead with construction.
The countdown to opening
As the 2005-2006 season approached, the countdown was on for the team to get ready to host the first Coventry City home match
Prior to the first match against QPR, the Arena hosted two trial events to test the systems. It was all hands to the pump for staff at the Arena, some of whom are still with the venue today, working as fast as they could to get the stadium ready to welcome thousands of football fans.
The final safety certificate arrived only days before the first match, which saw a capped attendance, but still an incredible day as the Sky Blues ran out 3-0 winners against the London side.
Birth of the casino
The lower ground floor of the venue today is home to Grosvenor Casino and the venue’s Convention Centre – including three convention halls – but the entire space could have been a ‘supercasino’.
International casino operator Isle of Capri Casinos tabled the plans for regional casino status - but were ultimately unsuccessful.
The casino still opened its doors in 2007 as part of the £113 million Ricoh Arena complex, but two years later it was sold to Rank Group to operate the new G Casino.
Ahead of opening the venue, there was a point where the entire stadium was nearly named ‘The Isle Arena’ but those plans were shelved.
Plans then moved ahead for the venue then set to be named The Jaguar Arena, before eventually it became Ricoh Arena. The indoor arena was still named The Jaguar Exhibition Hall!
A 20-year legacy
Two decades on from the challenges that the Arena overcame to open its doors, it has delivered on its core goal of catalysing investment and regeneration in the north of Coventry.
From the council votes and dramatic demolitions, to agreeing a naming rights partner and the last-minute scramble to open, Coventry as a city and the original team refused to let the dream of a new state-of-the-art arena slip away.
Within five years the Arena had already welcomed more than seven million visitors and created thousands of jobs.
Fast forward to 2025 and the venue is estimated to have seen more than 22 million visitors come through its doors and now supports around 1,100 jobs annually, across full-time, part-time and casual roles.
It has since been an anchor in the community, hosted some of the biggest events and secured Coventry’s place on the national stage for business, sport and live entertainment.
