I can tell you living in Leics that local services as regards, cleaning, litter, landscaping, road maintenance etc are all appalling and nothing like they were 20 years ago.Much of that was infrastructure and site decontamination. They also had things like an underground casino that added significantly to the cost, but which were externally funded anyway.
It was built on the cheap - the materials pallete was bargain basement - the cheapest of cheap cladding and it all needs replacing.
The concourse was just exposed concrete all round - the finish around the main stadium bowl was really poor - but some of the internal areas and the atrium were done well tbh. Needs a lot of money spending on it though.
Yes, the rejection of the hotel was a blatant political decision, based purely on the fact they knew Wasps were sitting on a planning app of their own. Corruption, pure and simple.
Doesn't excuse the utter neglect of the area around the arena though. They only do a litter sweep once every six months - even when they cut the grass ahead of the CG, they didn't bother to clean up the litter it exposed. When the City Council have no civic pride you're fucked.
I think it’s endemic all over the UK and I suspect so much money is now being spent caring for an ageing population that other budgets are trashed.