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Coventry Building Society Arena
The Coventry Building Society Arena (often shortened to the CBS Arena or just simply Coventry Arena, and formerly known as the Ricoh Arena) is a complex in Coventry, West Midlands, England. It includes a 32,609-seater stadium which is currently home to football team, Championship club Coventry City, along with facilities which include 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 and 2022 Commonwealth Games, where stadium naming sponsorship was forbidden, the stadium was respectively known as the City of Coventry Stadium and 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 Alan Edward 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 deal became null and void with Mike Ashley's Frasers Group's purchase of the arena. In April 2023, it was announced Coventry City and Frasers Group had agreed a five-year deal for Coventry City to continue to play at the Arena, and on 23 August 2025, Coventry City announced they had become the landlords of the Arena following the completion of an acquisition deal from Frasers Group.
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. Following this, the stadium concourse and bars have remained cashless.
The decision to move Coventry City from Highfield Road to a new stadium – with a larger capacity and better road links and parking facilities – was made in 1997 by the club's then-chairman Bryan Richardson. It was anticipated that the new stadium would be ready for the 2000–01 season. Permission for the construction of a 45,000-seater stadium was given in the spring of 1999, with a targeted completion date of August 2001. However, the stadium was delivered four years behind schedule, and was more basic than anticipated in the original plans.
Coventry were one out of three cities to bid for England's new national stadium along with London and Birmingham. In 2001, Nick Nolan, the leader of Coventry City Council, claimed that their proposal was always the strongest as the construction could be completed within three years. The council's plan was to build a 90,000 all-seater stadium for an estimated cost of £250 million. However, it was decided that Wembley, London would remain the location for the national stadium.
The original design for the arena was for a state-of-the-art stadium with a retractable roof and a pitch that could slide out to reveal a hard floor for concerts. After Coventry City's relegation from the Premiership in May 2001, a number of contractor/financier withdrawals, and England's bid to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup ending in failure, the plans were significantly downsized. By the summer of 2002 plans were set for a more basic 32,500-seat stadium.
The arena's first name, 'The Ricoh Arena' came from a multi-year sponsorship deal, reported to be worth £10 million with camera and photocopier manufacturer Ricoh. During construction the stadium was variously referred to as the Jaguar Arena, Arena Coventry and Arena 2000.
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Coventry Building Society Arena
The Coventry Building Society Arena (often shortened to the CBS Arena or just simply Coventry Arena, and formerly known as the Ricoh Arena) is a complex in Coventry, West Midlands, England. It includes a 32,609-seater stadium which is currently home to football team, Championship club Coventry City, along with facilities which include 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 and 2022 Commonwealth Games, where stadium naming sponsorship was forbidden, the stadium was respectively known as the City of Coventry Stadium and 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 Alan Edward 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 deal became null and void with Mike Ashley's Frasers Group's purchase of the arena. In April 2023, it was announced Coventry City and Frasers Group had agreed a five-year deal for Coventry City to continue to play at the Arena, and on 23 August 2025, Coventry City announced they had become the landlords of the Arena following the completion of an acquisition deal from Frasers Group.
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. Following this, the stadium concourse and bars have remained cashless.
The decision to move Coventry City from Highfield Road to a new stadium – with a larger capacity and better road links and parking facilities – was made in 1997 by the club's then-chairman Bryan Richardson. It was anticipated that the new stadium would be ready for the 2000–01 season. Permission for the construction of a 45,000-seater stadium was given in the spring of 1999, with a targeted completion date of August 2001. However, the stadium was delivered four years behind schedule, and was more basic than anticipated in the original plans.
Coventry were one out of three cities to bid for England's new national stadium along with London and Birmingham. In 2001, Nick Nolan, the leader of Coventry City Council, claimed that their proposal was always the strongest as the construction could be completed within three years. The council's plan was to build a 90,000 all-seater stadium for an estimated cost of £250 million. However, it was decided that Wembley, London would remain the location for the national stadium.
The original design for the arena was for a state-of-the-art stadium with a retractable roof and a pitch that could slide out to reveal a hard floor for concerts. After Coventry City's relegation from the Premiership in May 2001, a number of contractor/financier withdrawals, and England's bid to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup ending in failure, the plans were significantly downsized. By the summer of 2002 plans were set for a more basic 32,500-seat stadium.
The arena's first name, 'The Ricoh Arena' came from a multi-year sponsorship deal, reported to be worth £10 million with camera and photocopier manufacturer Ricoh. During construction the stadium was variously referred to as the Jaguar Arena, Arena Coventry and Arena 2000.