History of Walkers Stadium

Stadium Overview

The Walkers Stadium is a football stadium which hosts home matches of English football team Leicester City F.C. The all-seater stadium, inaugurated in July 2002, holds 32,500 is named in a ten year deal after sponsors local snack foods firm Walkers, a former shirt sponsor of Leicester. It offers unobstructed views from every seat. On a national scale it is the 19th largest stadium in England.

Stadium History

Leicester's previous stadium was at nearby Filbert Street. As a result of the success of Leicester during the late 1990s and the increasing popularity of football, the club outgrew Filbert Street to the extent that nearly every home game was a 21,500 sell-out. Some parts of the ground—the East and North Stands in particular—were also somewhat outdated, which led the manager, Martin O'Neill to joke that when he showed Filbert Street to new signings he led them backwards out of the players tunnel to prevent them from seeing the East Stand. The stadium was officially opened by former Leicester striker Gary Lineker on 23 July 2002. He used a giant pair of scissors to cut a ribbon on the pitch after arriving at the stadium in a Walkers lorry. The first game at the new stadium was a friendly against Spanish team Athletic Bilbao, on 4 August 2002. The game finished 1-1, with Tiko scoring the first goal at the stadium, and Jordan Stewart scoring Leicester's first goal. The attendance was approximately 24,000 (no official figure was recorded due to a computer problem). The first competitive match took place six days later and Leicester beat Watford 2-0 in front of a near capacity crowd of 31,022.

Seating Chart

Getting There

Map

City Information

Area Pubs

Travel Tips

Important Links

References