Funding partner for Headingley Stadium redevelopment revealed
Legal & General has been announced as the funding partner for the £35m redevelopment of Headingley Stadium.
The agreement was announced in March but the identity of the investor involved was confirmed today.
Headingley is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Yorkshire Carnegie Rugby Union Football Club and Leeds Rhinos Rugby League Club.
The redeveloped stand will be let to Leeds City Council on a 42-year lease and under-let to the cricket and rugby clubs.
Legal & General is financing the redevelopment on behalf of Legal & General Retirement.
The capacity of the cricket ground will increase from 17,000 to 20,000 in the redevelopment.
Doubt was thrown over the future of the stadium earlier this year after the Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s AGM heard that no new deal had been completed for the stadium.
The council says the redevelopment will secure “top level international sport at Headingley” – it is due to host four matches at the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
The council estimates that once the new stands are finished, a predicted £107.3m will be made in revenues between 2017 and 2023.
Pete Gladwell, head of public sector partnerships at LGIM Real Assets, said: “When institutions such as Legal & General were created in the early 1800s we were the original crowd-funding platforms; investing society’s capital for society’s benefit. This investment is the latest example of our rediscovering that ethos, investing at pace in the social fabric of Yorkshire, as part of a wider partnership with a proactive and collaborative local authority.
“This investment is in line with our desire to transform and reshape Britain’s landscape by improving and better utilising our existing infrastructure. There is significant economic benefit that maintaining ‘Test’ status for Headingley will bring to the city and the wider region, which makes this redevelopment another important investment in the city, improving wellbeing and contributing to the growth of the local economy.”
Leeds City Council leader Judith Blake said: “We were determined to find to a way to ensure that top-class sport could continue to be played at Headingley through the redevelopment of the stadium. I am delighted to say that in Legal & General we met an organisation who very much shared this ambition.”
