King Power Stadium

Leicester City

• Games of Leicester City

The King Power Stadium is a football stadium in the English city of Leicester in the East Midlands, where the football club Leicester City plays its home games. By mid-2011, the stadium was called Walkers Stadium after the food manufacturer Walkers. In July 2011, we named the venue after the owner of the club and shirt sponsor, the Thai tour operator King Power International Co., Ltd. ..

History

The stadium was built in 2002 and has a capacity of 32,500 spectators. The former venue of Leicester City was the nearby Filbert Street, with 22,500 seats. Due to the success of the club in the 1990s and the growing popularity of football, the stadium was too small; besides, it was partly out of date. After a failed attempt to build a stadium with 40,000 seats at Bede Iceland South, the club turned its attention to the site of the former power station Freemans Wharf. Planning permission was granted in November 2000 and on 23 July 2002 was the official opening of the stadium by the former Leicester player Gary Lineker. The first game was against Athletic Bilbao on 4 August 2002. The stadium at 200 meters northerly Filbert Street was demolished, in its place was a college dorm.

The Rugby Club Leicester Tigers in 2005 expressed the intention to give up his own stadium at Welford Road and to share with Leicester City almost twice as large King Power Stadium. However, the two clubs could not agree, so the plan was abandoned. However, the Tigers occasionally rent the stadium for games in which a high number of spectators is to be expected, especially in encounters in the Heineken Cup.