Football club considers legal action after contractor admits £113m Ricoh Arena will be too late for season openers

Laing O’Rourke may be sued for thousands of pounds in damages by Coventry City FC after the contractor admitted the club’s new stadium is running almost three weeks behind schedule.

The delays mean that the £113m Ricoh Arena stadium will open on 20 August, missing the first two or three games of the football season. Coventry City says it will consider suing Laing O’Rourke to recover costs if it has to find an alternative venue for its early home matches.

The revelation comes as a further blow to the UK’s stadium building programmes a week after Multiplex announced it would lose £45m on Wembley and could face further delays on the project.

The Football League was due to meet to discuss Coventry’s fixtures as Building went to press on Wednesday. If it does not agree to make all of Coventry’s opening games away matches, the club will have to use its old Highfield Road site or rent a ground from another club.

A Coventry City spokesperson said: “We have asked for the first games to be played away from home, but if the Football League says we have to play at home, it will cost the club more money as we will need to find a venue. In that scenario, an option would be to reclaim money from the contractor or from Coventry council, which is the client on the project.”

Laing O’Rourke attributed the delays to factors beyond its control, including poor weather. Richard Pike, its project manager, said: “We have had particular challenges during the building of the Ricoh Arena, including bad weather last summer and a fire at the site earlier this year.”

However, a source at Coventry City questioned the justification. He said: “I can’t remember any bad weather since the project began.

It seems likely that Laing O’Rourke miscalculated the requirements of the project. There is little we can do at the moment as we’re the tenants on the scheme rather than the direct client. But the club isn’t happy with the situation. We’re not just talking a few days late, we’re talking 19 days, which is a considerable amount of time.”

Laing O’Rourke refuted any suggestion that the project would exceed its budget. In a statement, the company said:

“Laing O’Rourke has agreed the new completion date of 19 August and confirms the overall scheme is within budget.”