Leicester’s new £4.8 million community sports arena is beginning to take shape.

Today workmen started putting up the steel skeleton that will support the 2,300-seat venue at Charter Street near Abbey Park.
When the building is complete in December, it will be the new home of Leicester Riders basketball team.

Work on the Leicester City Council-owned former gasworks site in January with a long slog to clear the land of decades worth of industrial pollutants.

Project Director Kevin Routledge, from the Riders, said: “We are very pleased with the progress of the build so far, and I know many Riders fans and others in the community will be delighted to see the tangible evidence, as the building takes shape, that the arena is on track for Riders to move in next season.”

“There remains much to be done, but we have had excellent collaboration from the partners and our contractors, and I am confident we will continue to deliver a high quality and safe project.”

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: “With the uprights going in you can now start to see the scale of the arena.

“It has not been an easy site – with much needing to be done to clear it yet at the same time the scheme is progressing incredibly quickly.

“When it is finished it will be a major asset for the city.”

The multi-purpose sports arena is a joint venture of Leicester Riders, Leicester City Council and Leicester College which has its Belgrave campus nearby.

The arena will also be the new home to Leicester Cobras Wheelchair Basketball Club, a regional basketball centre of excellence.

It will serve as Leicester Colleges Sport teaching and learning facility , and as a large multi-use sports venue the local community.

The council will provide a long term 125-year lease of the site to Leicester Community Sports Arena Limited (LCSAL).

LCSAL will pay £40,000 in rent each year.

Sport England has made a £1.25 million grant towards the scheme and the council will also put up £1.5 million as well as waiving the £1.2 million value of the site.

The completed arena will create 16 full-time and 36 part-time posts.

The Riders are putting £500,000 into the project, with the same sum from the college.

The Government has also contributed £840,000 from its Regional Growth Fund.

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