£4.8 millon sports arena to open in January

A £4.8 million new sports arena is on its way to being finished by the end of January.

The centre, in Charter Street, near Abbey Park, will primarily be used by the Leicester Riders basketball team, but will also be used by Leicester College and Leicester Cobras wheelchair basketball club.

Work started on the 2,300-seat community sports centre earlier this year.

Kevin Routledge, project director for the arena, said: "We are contracted to complete at the end of January.

"There are three Leicester Riders home games that have been booked for the start of the year to take place in the arena".

"One is January 2, which I don't think the arena will be ready for, the second is January 30, which I'm 80 per cent sure it will be ready for, and the third is February 20, which we are confident it will be ready for".

"We don't want it to be 90 per cent finished when it opens, we want everything to be ready."

The city council owns the site at Charter Street and will provide a 125-year lease of the site to a new company, Leicester Community Sports Arena Limited, owned by the Riders' charity Leicester Riders Foundation.

Leicester City Council is a partner in the arena, along with the basketball team and Leicester College.

Funding partners also include Sport England and the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership.

Kevin said the search is also on for a new managing director for the company.

He said: "We've had applicants from all over, including Canada, South Africa, the UK and, of course, Leicestershire".

"It's fantastic. We're now in the final interviewing stages and we're hoping to have appointed someone by the end of November.

"Once we have appointed someone, we can start planning the opening event for the arena. I have some ideas of what I would like to do, but I can't reveal anything yet.

"It's going to be a huge celebration."

Kevin said that the arena is also still looking for an official sponsor.

"We have had a number of inquiries and but are still on the lookout for one. We're not worried about this though as sponsors tend to stay with us for a very long time.

"We're all excited to get things going at the arena, and we're so pleased the building work has gone so well."

(Source and Image: Leicester Mercury)