WORCESTER Warriors' owner Jason Whittingham has outlined plans for the redevelopment of the current Sixways site.

The co-owner spoke to the Worcester News to offer an update on the ongoing plans to build a hotel next to the stadium, as well as other additions to the plot of land surrounding Sixways.

The hotel proposal was one previous owners have had at the club in the last decade, without ever coming to fruition.

"There has long been a plan for a hotel to be here, the previous owners did a feasibility study on it 10 years ago but they never did anything with it," said Whittingham.

"The first thing to say is that we haven't sat idly through Covid, we are actually in the final stages of our feasibility study for the hotel now.

"That study is now about one or two weeks away from completion, which has been going on for four months and it looks like it will stack up feasibly.

"So as soon as you have that, you can set up the application and at the moment we are three or four weeks away from submitting a full planning application.

"We have to ensure that this will all make money so there have to be tweaks to the hotel slightly but all looks good.

"Once that is all done, we go into pre-planning which can take up to six to eight months and then as long as that goes through smoothly, we could have phase one underway with building on the site in eight months."

It is now just a hotel that Whittingham and co-owner Colin Goldring have planned for the site at Sixways.

They include:

  • 150 room hotel
  • Private medical facility; including MRI, CT scans and ultrasound
  • North Stand development: increasing Sixways capacity to 15,500 to meet minimum requirements to hold European Champions Cup fixtures
  • Indoor events arena - capacity of around 5,000
  • 'Duckworth Plaza' in honour of Cecil Duckworth CBE

Whittingham said it was important that the late Cecil Duckworth was honoured in any developments made around the club.

Duckworth, the former director and owner of Worcester Warriors, died of cancer in October 2020 and was solely responsible for the club's progression from amateur to professional rugby, leading them to the Premiership for the first time in 2004.

"We want to create a plaza for him, which we were fortunate enough to discuss with Cecil before he passed away," said Whittingham

"We want to make sure that everything here honours Cecil, for all he did for this club. He is the history and this place will be his legacy. I won't be remembered here in ten years, but Cecil will, so it is important that we honour him.

"As soon as we can put all these plans in the public domain properly, we will."