Craven Park, Hull

KC Lightstream Stadium

Former names	MS3 Craven Park
Location	Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, HU9 5HE, England
Coordinates	53°45′14″N 0°15′53″W / 53.75389°N 0.26472°W / 53.75389; -0.26472Coordinates: 53°45′14″N 0°15′53″W / 53.75389°N 0.26472°W / 53.75389; -0.26472
Operator	Hull Kingston Rovers
Capacity	12,225[1]
Surface	Grass
Opened	1989
Tenants
Hull Kingston Rovers (1989–present) Hull Vikings (1995–2005) Hull United (2015–2016)[2]

The KC Lightstream Stadium (formerly known as Craven Park) is the home of Hull Kingston Rovers RLFC. It is situated on Preston Road in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

History

The club moved to the new ground in 1989 from the "Old" Craven Park which was sited on Holderness Road.

The first match was played against Trafford Borough packing in a full capacity 8,500 crowd to watch. Rovers convincingly started the new era, and in that season were crowned Division Two champions.

The stadium was the former home to the Hull Vikings speedway team, but they left when the ground was refurbished for Hull Kingston Rovers use in the Super League.

In 2006 the ground and pitch were substantially improved as the club sought a return to the top flight of English rugby league.

Plans for Hull Kingston Rovers to move from Craven Park to a new purpose-built rugby league stadium to be constructed at a new, unconfirmed site were suggested in 2007, but shortly after this, Hull City Council, in partnership with Kingston Community Developments Limited and Hull Kingston Rovers, announced that terms for lease agreements had been reached to support the long-term future of Craven Park. These terms will enable investment and development of the stadium to move forward.

The initial phase of redeveloping Craven Park was the lease purchase of a temporary seated stand which replaced the use of the inadequate south terrace for visiting away fans. Hull Kingston Rovers' second season in Super League coincided with work beginning on the extension of the standing terraced East Stand. This extension increased the capacity of the stand by 1,120 bringing its overall capacity to 4,750. A similar extension to the opposite end of the stand was completed in 2009.

On 25 January 2014, Hull Kingston Rovers announced that it had secured a new stadium naming rights partnership with local communications provider, KC.^[3] Under a five-year agreement, Craven Park was renamed the KC Lightstream Stadium, not to be confused with the KC Stadium in the west of the city.

On 21 October 2015, it was announced that Non-League football team Hull United A.F.C. will play their home games at the stadium.^[2]

Redevelopment

Along with the extension to the East Stand, Hull Kingston Rovers intend to build a new purpose built stand at the north (Preston Road) end of the ground. Although official plans are yet to be completed or released, former CEO Paul Lakin suggested in interview that the stand is likely to be based on the recently constructed Carnegie Stand at Leeds' Headingley ground.

The aim of the construction, as well as providing better facilities and capacity for visiting supporters and increasing the number of seats for home supporters, is to modernise the KC Lightstream Stadium, become a main entrance to the stadium, and provide various public and private facilities contributing towards the planned regeneration of the area.

Other suggested ideas on the redevelopment of the KC Lightstream Stadium, include moving the temporary seated stand to the south end of the ground when work begins on the new north stand, and also developing the standing 'well' area of the Strata Holdings West Stand to create a new seated area. However, the club may well weigh up the costs of replacing the West Stand completely. Now that the North Stand is complete, Hull Kingston Rovers and now looking at option to improve the East stand and build a new, purpose built south stand. The East Stand is most likely to be extended at the South Stand corner so that it stretches the full length of the pitch. This would improve the stand's capacity to around 6,000, and it is planned for 2015.

A new purpose built South Stand is likely to house away supporters. This would allow the new North Stand to be used by home Fans. A new South Stand is likely to have a capacity of around 2500 with facilities that will take the club forward. Designs are yet to be announced, but it is likely to be a terraced stand. Construction is likely to begin by 2015, and be ready for the 2016 season. An extension to the East Stand and a new purpose built South Stand will take the grounds capacity to 14,500, which would see the Lightstream Stadium become the 7th largest Super League ground.

Colin Hutton North Stand

In 2013, the new £8 million Colin Hutton North Stand opened for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup game between Papua New Guinea and France.

The stand is an all-seater stand that has a capacity of 2,600. This brought the capacity up to 12,000.

The stand was jointly funded by Hull City Council and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the KC Lightstream North Stand will also deliver an Enterprise Business Centre and Training Centre. The Training Centre will be operated by Hull Training, who will deliver adult and apprenticeship training courses. The stand holds a large conference centre that will greatly improve income for the club.

The Enterprise Centre is run by Coast and Vale Community Action (also known as CaVCA Ventures). They were selected by Hull City Council to operate and run the Enterprise Units by Business Manager Allan Rookyard and Communications Officer Mike Young. There are 42 fully furnished offices which make up the Enterprise Units, all of which are located on different floors within the North Stand. The ground floor houses the largest units and is opposite to the onsite cafe. The first floor (known as the mezzanine floor) houses medium to large offices that over look the pitch and also a meeting room. And located on the top floor are the smallest offices that sit adjacent to the newly built boxes within the North Stand.

West Stand

This is currently the main stand; it has a capacity of around 5,000, which includes a large seating area with 4,500 seats and then a small terraced area below executive boxes, which holds around 500 fans. The stand houses the stadium's main changing rooms that were redeveloped prior to the 2014 season to improve the size and facilities of the changing room. Inside the stand there is the Robins Nest & Harry Poole bar for Home and away fans, both bars are sponsored by 706 Taxis and also the Cloughtons '10–5' suite. This is a restaurant with pitch side views and exclusive player and coach interviews after a match. The suite is named after Hull KR's famous win over Hull FC in the 1980 Challenge Cup Final. The stand houses media facilities, where television broadcaster Sky have a media box as well as a large commentators area. The stand does not cover the length of the pitch; however, it is the tallest stand in the ground by far.

International rugby league

Craven Park has hosted three rugby league internationals.^[4] The first was part of the 2012 Autumn International Series on 3 November 2012 where England thrashed France 44 - 6 with an attendance of 7,173.^[5] The next two were Papua New Guinea’s 2013 Rugby League World Cup matches. The first was a narrow 9 - 8 loss to France on 27 October 2013 with an attendance of 7,481 while the second was a bruising 38 - 4 loss to Samoa on 4 November 2013 with an attendance of 6,871.^[6]

References

External links

• New Craven Park stadium on Worldstadia.com