LEICESTER supporters attending this Sunday’s (Jan 28) Season Ticket Day will get an early preview of the upgrade taking place at the stadium this winter.
The Pidcock Motorcycles Arena, Beaumont Park, will be open from 10am-1pm for supporters to purchase Season Tickets in person for the upcoming campaign.
Work commenced prior to Christmas on building a mini-track on the centre-green with the club placing a major focus on youth development, and Workington promoters Steve Lawson and Andrew Bain – who launched the impressive Northside facility last year – have been heavily involved in the construction.
Improvements are also being carried out to the main track as the Watling JCB Lions prepare for the launch of the 2024 season, which gets underway on Thursday March 14 when they host Belle Vue.
Promoter Stewart Dickson said: “The mini-track is a really exciting project, and we must give credit to our owner Paul Cairns because whilst we’ve spoken about this before, it was his idea to re-visit it and finally get it over the line.
“I saw Neil Vatcher’s recent statement regarding the British Youth Championship, where they already have 21 riders at 125cc level coming through this season, which is fantastic.
“This really matches with Paul’s vision which he spoke about when he first took the club on, and again it’s why we wanted to get this work done.
“Our thanks to JB Tool & Plant Hire, who have supplied the plant to do the necessary work on both tracks, and also there has been a donation to help us from Speedway Nut, which came to us through Darren Thomspon, which is very much appreciated.
“We’re also very grateful to Steve and Andrew who have been down here to assist me, and the mini-track is mostly being left to them, it’s their baby so to speak!
“On the main track, we’ve certainly broken the back of what we need to do. In particular, we’ve done work to fix the levels where surface water was lying, and we now don’t have that problem.
“Now we just need the weather to turn and then we can do a bit more on it, and I’m looking to get down there this weekend and hopefully get working again on the track.”
Season tickets cost £242 for adults (£220 concessions) and cover all 12 regular Premiership home fixtures.
They also include a centre green experience, a personalised signed team photograph, and entitle the holder to reduced admission of £6 to Lion Cubs matches in the National Development League.
Car parking on Sunday will be at the Shires car park as normal, with entry to the stadium via the main gates.
Photo credit: RICHARD BOETTCHER
