Paul Fletcher

Paul Fletcher’s background

Paul believes the teamwork skills he learnt on the pitch are what has driven his success and shares this insight with audiences through his keynote speeches.

Aged 16, Paul joined his home town Club Bolton Wanderers. Three years later he became one of the country’s most expensive transfers when he joined Burnley Football Club for a Club record fee. During the next ten years he made over 400 appearances, mostly in the old First Division (now The Premiership). After gaining four England u23 International caps he was selected in Don Revie’s England squad, but a serious knee injury put paid to a full England call up. A second serious leg injury forced early retirement at the early age of 32.

Following a sixteen-year career as a professional footballer he has now become one of Europe’s leading Stadium experts (often referred to as a Stadiologist) joining a rare breed of ex professional footballers who have successfully made the transition from ‘teamsheet to balancesheet’. His commercial career in Football began at the infamous, Colne Dynamoes FC in the late 1980’s.

Since then he has had a meteoric rise starting as Chief Executive at Huddersfield Town where, over a six year period, he masterminded the award winning Alfred McAlpine Stadium voted the RIBA ‘Building of the Year’ in 1995. In 1996 he then returned to his old Club Bolton Wanderers as Chief Executive at the new £40 million Reebok Stadium the BCI Building of the Year in 1998. In 1999, after two years at the Reebok, he was invited by the FA to become Commercial Director of the new £500 million Wembley National Stadium. After eighteen months, as costs escalated, he controversially walked away from the project commenting that he ‘needed to spend more time with his wife and family in the Lancashire sunshine’. Within weeks he took up the position as Chief Executive at the £64 million Ricoh Arena Coventry, which has become one of the countries largest sports and leisure venues. This includes a 32,000 seater stadium for Coventry City FC, the largest Casino in the UK, 3 Hotels, Exhibition centre, Health & fitness Club, extensive office accommodation and wide range of community facilities.

On 1st January 2006 he was invited to join the Board of Coventry City Football Club as Managing Director. Two years later, on 1st Jan 2008 he returned to Burnley Football Club as Development Director and in July 2008 took up the position as Chief Executive and helped the club gain promotion back to the Premiership in 2009.

In 2005 he filed the first patent for StadiArena (a Football Stadium that converts to a covered Arena). The worldwide launch occurred in October 2007. StadiArena now have offices in London, New York, Sydney, Dubai, Capetown, Moscow, Beijing and Coventry UK and StadiArenas have continued to grow internationally.

Since 2016 he has been involved in the building of a stadium in Philadelphia. He has also recently been invited by Narendra Modi Prime Minister of India to oversee the building of a new stadium in Ahmedabad and is also in discussions to build 100 more football stadiums in the country.

In 2011 Paul was a founder and took up the role of Managing Director of University and College of Football Business (UCFB) and has since won a FA award for the “Most innovative use of a football stadium on non-match days.”

He still lives with his wife and family in the sun-drenched Rossendale valley in the heart of Lancashire close to Turf Moor Burnley where he is consultant for the new £30 million Cricket Field Stand re-development. He is an active member of the George Formby Appreciation Society and still trying to master the ukulele after 40 years of trying. In the 2007 New Years Honours list he was awarded the MBE for services to Football.