Sitting on the site of the former Foleshill gasworks in Coventry, West Midlands, the Coventry Building Society Arena – commonly known as the CBS Arena – is one of the more versatile sports and entertainment complexes in the English Midlands. The stadium itself holds 32,609 spectators and is currently the home ground of Coventry City, who play in the Premier League. Alongside the football pitch, the wider complex takes in a 6,000 square metre exhibition hall, a hotel, a casino, and the Arena Park Shopping Centre, which contains one of the UK’s largest Tesco Extra hypermarkets.
A Stadium With a Complicated Past
The arena was originally built to replace Coventry City’s old Highfield Road ground, with the decision taken in 1997 by then-chairman Bryan Richardson. Planning permission for a 45,000-seat venue was granted in spring 1999, though construction ran four years behind schedule and the finished stadium was more modest than originally envisaged. Initially owned and operated by Arena Coventry Limited (ACL) – jointly held by Coventry City Council and the Alan Edward Higgs Charity – the ground saw Coventry City depart in 2013 following a protracted rent dispute. The club played home fixtures in Northampton for over a year before returning in September 2014. Within two months, both ACL shareholders sold to rugby union’s Wasps, who relocated from Adams Park in High Wycombe. A further falling-out ahead of the 2019-20 season pushed Coventry City out again for two more seasons. In March 2021, the club and Wasps reached a ten-year agreement, though that arrangement was voided when Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group bought the arena. A five-year deal was confirmed in April 2023, and on 23 August 2025, Coventry City announced they had completed the acquisition of the arena from Frasers Group, becoming its landlords.
Naming Rights and Notable Events
The arena carries the name of its sponsor, Coventry Building Society, which entered a ten-year naming deal in 2021. Previously the ground was widely known as the Ricoh Arena. When stadium naming sponsorship was prohibited during major international competitions, it was referred to as the City of Coventry Stadium for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Coventry Stadium for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The venue also holds a small but genuine footnote in British retail history: it was the first cashless stadium in the United Kingdom, operating a prepay smartcard system in its bars and shops – a cashless approach the concourse has maintained ever since.