Riverside Stadium

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This article is about a football stadium. For the baseball stadium now under a different name, see Commerce Bank Park.

Riverside Stadium
Riverside Stadum entrance gates
Full Name	Riverside Stadium
Location	Middlesbrough, England
Built	1994
Opened	August 26, 1995
Owner	Middlesbrough F.C.
Operator	Middlesbrough F.C.
Surface	Grass
Construction cost	£16 million^[1]
Tenants
Middlesbrough FC
Capacity
35,100^[2]
Dimensions
115 x 75 m

The Riverside Stadium is a football stadium in Middlesbrough, England, which has been the home of Middlesbrough F.C. since it opened in 1995. Its current capacity is 35,100^[2] all seated, although there is provisional planning permission in place to expand that to 42,000 if required.^[1]. It was the first stadium designed and constructed to comply with the Taylor Report and at the time, was the biggest new arena to be built in England since World War II.

1 History
2 Details
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

The stadium was built to replace Ayresome Park following the Taylor Report, which required all top division football stadia to be all-seater. Middlesbrough were unable to expand the current stadium outwards due to it being located in the middle of a residential area, and expanding the stadium upwards would have limited the club to a capacity of 20,000 seats. The decision was taken by club officials to build a new stadium and Teesside Development Corporation offered them the Middlehaven site by the River Tees for development.

It was originally constructed with a 30,000 capacity for a modest £16 million, and took only 32 weeks to complete. The name of the stadium was chosen by the clubs fans, following a vote during the final game at Ayresome Park. The other choices available were Middlehaven Stadium, Erimus Stadium and Teesside Stadium. When first opened, the name was amended to Cellnet Riverside Stadium as part of a sponsorship deal with Cellnet, but this deal ended after the 2001-02 season.

The first game was played against Chelsea in front of a 28,286 crowd (the highest home attendance in 14 years) on August 26, 1995. Middlesbrough won the game 2-0, with Craig Hignett taking the honour of scoring the first ever goal at the stadium, Jan Aage Fjortoft scoring the second.

In 2005 the club resurrected the old Ayresome Park gates which were famously locked when the club went in to liquidation. They were erected outside the Riverside Stadium as a new entrance and a reminder of the past.