£40m Emerald Headingley Stadium re-development to pause for first game of the season
Leeds Rhinos fans will get their first glimpse of the extensive renovations at Emerald Headingley Stadium tonight, as the £40m re-development of the ground pauses for tonight’s first game of the season.
Fans have been urged to allow more time than usual to arrive for this first game of the season at Emerald Headingley Stadium as the new look South Stand and the Temporary North Stand will be used for the first time.
The stadium is in the middle of a £40m redevelopment of both the rugby and cricket facilities and will tonight welcome Hull FC for the first major event at the stadium since work began last September.
Steve Pitts, project manager at lead contractor, Caddick Construction, said: “Fans at the match on Thursday will notice that the South Stand is well on its way. By the end of the season it will be fully completed and fitted inside and out.
“Meanwhile we began erecting the steel frame on the new, permanent North Stand last week so throughout the season fans will see that take shape week by week.
“I’ll be here on Thursday purely to observe from a safety point of view and ensure the construction site remains secure. However there is certainly a number of Rhinos supporters working on the site and I know plenty of them will be cheering from the sidelines.”
Getting ready for the big kick off has been a logistical challenge for the stadium’s Head of Customer Experience Sian Jones. Jones, who has been at the club for over a decade, added: “Ever since the final home game of last season, we have been preparing for Thursday night and making sure everything has been done to make the process go as smoothly as possible.
“We had a bit of a false start last week when the Catalans game was called off because of the snow, but we are ready to go and looking forward to opening the doors on Thursday.”
Leeds Rhinos CEO Gary Hetherington said: “This is the biggest construction exercise at the stadium since it first opened way back in 1890 so there has been painstaking plans put in place to try and think through of every eventuality.
“The fans can help us massively if they arrive early, especially those going into the new North Stand.
“Naturally fans will need to find their new seats and get used to their new surroundings and if people leave that until just before kick off, it will lead to congestion and potentially them missing the start of the game.
“We will have lots of staff on hand to help out and point them in the right direction and we are confident the night will go well and we can cheer the boys on to a win back here at Emerald Headingley.”
To date, the construction of the South Stand has seen the installation of 700 tonnes of steel and the placement of 1200 individual pre-cast concrete units. Meanwhile at the North Stand more than 2300 tonnes of concrete have been poured into the foundations, and 1200 tonnes of steel will be erected over the coming months.
