Rugby stand concern at Headingley

Yorkshire will be able to play host to day/night matches this season with the installation of floodlights but a lower-than-capacity crowd may be there to watch.

Four 56-metre floodlights, complete with innovative "white rose" head frames, are being installed but the Rugby Stand may have seen its final spectators after concerns were raised over safety.

Part of the stand, built in 1932, has been condemned due to corrosion and a structural engineer is due to report on the remainder of the somewhat iconic stand which doubles up to provide accommodation for spectators watching both the cricket and rugby on the opposite side.

Rugby fans are unaffected by the corrosion because they use a separate entrance.

If the stand was forced to be closed, Headingley's capacity would reduce to around 14,000, around 3500 lower than present, and lost ticket sales could see the club lose around £130,000.

The rugby stand was due to be developed anyway from 2017 and if the cost of repairs is too high, that side of the ground could remain empty until the renovations are completed in 2019.

"If it's going to cost over £100,000, we're not going to spend that money and throw good money after bad," Mark Arthur, Yorkshire chief executive, told the Yorkshire Post. "It's a blow, but only potentially for two days of the year, which is for the one-day international and the T20 match against Lancashire, which are the only days that we really sell out.

"It might be possible to just use the ground floor of the stand, the bottom tier, but when you get people in stands you get what's known as vibration. It's not just a question of roping an area off.

"If you've got a lot of vibration, and suddenly a great lump of concrete comes off the front and bangs on somebody's head…We simply wouldn't open the stand unless it was absolutely safe to do so."