King Power at the Belvoir Drive

The King Power at the Belvoir Drive sits on Filbert Way. The ground opened in the summer of 2002, a project completed when the club finally moved from the old Filbert Street. It was designed by The Miller Partnership and built by Birse Construction, a job that cost around £35 million at the time. The club sold the stadium to the American investment firm TIAA-CREF in 2004 as part of a wider financial reshuffle, before King Power International bought it back for £17 million in 2013. The structure is defined by its hybrid pitch, a Desso GrassMaster surface where natural grass is reinforced with artificial fibres to keep the playing conditions stable through the English winters. Heating under the turf is another layer added to prevent the surface from freezing solid. The capacity sits at 32,259, a number that has barely shifted since the day the gates first opened, though plans to expand to 40,000 were approved in late 2023. The stadium fell silent on October 27, 2018, when a helicopter carrying the club owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, crashed in a car park outside the ground shortly after takeoff. The memorial garden opened on the first anniversary of the crash, a quiet patch of ground acknowledging a heavy loss. Before that, the pitches here hosted matches for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, when the venue was briefly renamed the Leicester City Stadium for three Pool C fixtures involving Argentina and Tonga. The stands have also filled for concerts, including a Kasabian gig in 2016 that drew 54,000 people, and Andrea Bocelli performing on the pitch during the Premier League title celebrations. Recent updates include frictionless kiosks installed in August 2022 and safe standing rails fitted over the off-season.