Overview
The stadium is the home of
Reading Football Club and was opened on
22 August 1998 when
Luton Town were beaten 3-0 with
Grant Brebner having the honour of scoring the first goal at the stadium. The
rugby union club,
London Irish, also play their home games there as tenants, although
London is some 40 miles to the east. It also provides the finish for the
Reading Half Marathon.
It is an all-seater bowl stadium with a capacity of 24,250 and is located close to the
M4 motorway. It was built on the site of a former household waste dump and the stadium is surrounded by
methane vents. The stadium cost more than £50m to build and the pitch incorporates a system of synthetic fibres interwoven with natural grass, installed at a cost of more than £750,000.
The site used to be a landfill, and Reading Borough Council sold the land to the club for £1.
The stadium is named after Reading's chairman
John Madejski but it is owned by the football club.
For the first time in their history, Reading Football Club participated in the
Premier League in the
2006-07 season. As a result of the sell-out crowds for their first few fixtures of the season, the club announced their intention, in October 2006
[1], to make a planning application to extend the ground to between 37,000 to 38,000 seats. The application was made on 24 January 2007, proposing initially the extension of the East Stand with a further 6,000 seats (raising capacity to around 30,000) and subsequently extension of the North and South Stands to reach the full proposed capacity.
[2] On Thursday 24th May 2007 it was announced that planning permission had been granted to extend the stadium to a capacity of 36,900.
[3] The first phase will expand the East Stand by 6,600 seats. Work was set to start in mid 2008, after the initial plan of extending in 2007 was scrapped due to spectator seats being affected, during the work, already being sold to season ticket holders. Work will not happen in summer 2008, to extend the stadium, due to Reading's second season in the Premiership not being as good as the first, and so there has been a fall in attendances..
- Ground improvements at English football Stadia
Stands
North Stand
Home end stand.
South Stand
The South Stand has a capacity up to 2,327 for away fans. For the
Premier League season
2006-07, half of the South Stand (that which meets the East Stand) is designated for away supporters, whilst the half which meets the West Stand is for ticket-only home supporters. For cup games, away fans are usually allocated the whole stand.
East Stand
Opposite the tunnel and director's box. This stand also has the majority of the singing supporters.
West Stand
This stand contains a lower and an upper tier, but the upper level does not overhang the lower tier. Executive boxes are found between the two tiers. The tunnel and
dugouts are on this side of the stadium.
The outside of the stand contains the
Millennium Madejski Hotel.
Attendance
FAPL
Average:
Total:
- 2006-07: 452758 - Ranked #14 in Premier League
Highest:
- 2006-07: 24,135 - 19th of January, 2008 vs Manchester United
Guinness Premiership
Highest
- 2007-08: 23,709 - 16th of March, 2008 vs London Wasps [4]
Rugby Supporters
On
11 January 2008 it was announced that London Irish reached an agreement to continue playing home games at the Madejski Stadium until 2026. Irish have seen their average crowds grow to more than 11,100 since moving to Reading in 2000, holding the record for the biggest
Premiership attendance at a club ground, when 23,709 people saw Irish play
Wasps on March 16, 2008.
[5]
References
- Royals ready to extend Madejski
- Plans for stadium expansion will be submitted to the Council later this week
- Committee Report by the Director of Environment Culture & Sport
- london-irish.com 15th of March, 2008: Sold out!
- Title Unavailable