Walkers Stadium

Lore & Background

Leicester City's previous stadium was at nearby Filbert Street from 1891 to 2002, located less than 300 yards away from the current site. The new stadium was built at Freeman's Wharf, alongside the River Soar, and opened in 2002. The stadium cost £35-37 million to build and was designed by architects The Miller Partnership. It was originally branded as Walkers Stadium.

In Their Own Story

Saturday, November 1998. The floodlights buzz to life over the Walkers Stadium and the November chill bites at the exposed concrete of the away end. A man in a faded Foxes scarf — the one his father bought him in '74 at Filbert Street — presses his face close to the turnstile barrier, watching the players jog out in their white and blue. The away crowd, maybe two thousand strong, is already singing, a ragged, off-key chorus that somehow fills the whole bowl. The ball is kicked out. For ninety minutes the ground is a single living thing: the thud of the ball, the crack of a header, the collective gasp when the keeper spills one, the eruption that follows when the striker buries it in the corner. And then, full time, 2-1. The man in the old scarf doesn't cheer. He just exhales, long and slow, and mouths the words to no one in particular: *'That's our lot.'* The Walkers sign glows above the main stand, indifferent and eternal, while the crowd trickles out into the Leicester dark, already arguing about next week.

Reader's Guide

The stadium opened in 2002 as the Walkers Stadium. The first match was a friendly against Athletic Bilbao on 4 August 2002, finishing 1–1. The first competitive match was a 2–0 win against Watford on 10 August 2002. The stadium's ownership was purchased by King Power on 1 March 2013 for £17 million. Plans to expand capacity to 40,000 were provisionally approved in September 2022, and formal approval was received on 14 December 2023.

Did You Know?

• The stadium was officially opened by former Leicester striker Gary Lineker on 23 July 2002.
• The first goal at the stadium was scored by Tiko of Athletic Bilbao in a friendly.
• The stadium became the first in Europe to operate a frictionless kiosk for food and drink purchases in August 2022.
• A helicopter crash on 27 October 2018 killed club chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four others in a car park outside the stadium.