Welford Road
Leicester, East Midlands, England
Welford Road, Leicester, England — opened 10 September 1892, 3 rugby league games hosted, home of the long-standing home of Leicester Tigers (rugby union); no rugby league club was ever a tenant — three one-off London Broncos "home" Super League fixtures relocated from London.
Sourcing caveat: Only the 2004 match is independently corroborated beyond Rugby League Project; the 1999 and 2001 matches rest on Rugby League Project alone. Floodlight and playing-surface details for the relevant era were not found.
Ground facts
| Opened | 10 September 1892 (Opened when Leicester (rugby union) played their first match there against a Leicestershire XV.) |
| Home club | the long-standing home of Leicester Tigers (rugby union); no rugby league club was ever a tenant — three one-off London Broncos "home" Super League fixtures relocated from London |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 3 |
| Top recorded crowd | 8,233 |
| Capacity | 25,849 today, following 2008 and 2016 redevelopments — a period-specific 1999-2004 figure was not found |
| Test matches hosted | 2 |
| First rugby league match | 28 July 1999 — London Broncos 16-19 Bradford Bulls, Super League 1999, Round 20 (attendance 8,233, our recorded top crowd) |
| Years used | 1999–2004 |
| Location | Leicester, East Midlands |
Name history
- Welford Road — 1892–present, no other name found for the rugby league era described here (a later sponsorship name is not relevant to these matches)
Rugby league history
London Broncos relocated three separate "home" Super League fixtures to Welford Road across 1999, 2001 and 2004, explicitly to "showcase and develop rugby league in the Midlands," a region with no rugby league heritage — using a major rugby union stadium for the promotional exercise. Attendances declined at each successive fixture (8,233 to 5,259 to 3,589), suggesting diminishing novelty value, and London lost all three games.
The long-standing home of Leicester Tigers (rugby union).
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 16 June 2001 — London Broncos 0-42 Bradford Bulls, Super League 2001, Round 15 (5,259)
- 20 June 2004 — London Broncos 26-42 Hull FC, Super League 2004, Round 15 (3,589) — independently corroborated by Wikipedia's Welford Road Stadium article
Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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