Riverside Stadium
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Middlesbrough vs Sheffield WedsThu 26 Dec 2024 15:00
Established
1994 (30 years old)
Capacity
34,742
Build Cost
£16 million
Architect
Country
England
Location
Middlesbrough, England
Timezone
Coordinates
54°34′42″N 1°13′1″W
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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 34,742 all seated, although there is provisional planning permission in place to expand that to 42,000 if required.
The stadium was built to replace Ayresome Park after the Taylor Report, which required all top division football stadia to be all-seater. After the report was delivered in January 1990, Middlesbrough needed an all-seater stadium by August 1994, and were unable to expand Ayresome Park outwards owing to its location in a residential area, and expanding the stadium upwards would have limited the club to a capacity of around 20,000 seats – the club wanted a considerably larger capacity. The decision was taken by club officials to build a new stadium; Teesside Development Corporation offered them the Middlehaven site by the River Tees for development.
The new 30,000 seater stadium was constructed by Taylor Woodrow Construction for £16 million, taking 32 weeks to complete after work began in the autumn of 1994. The name of the stadium was chosen by the club's 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 (and then BT Cellnet Riverside Stadium) as part of a £3 million 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 26 August 1995. Middlesbrough won the game 2–0, with Craig Hignett taking the honour of scoring the first ever goal at the stadium, Jan Åge Fjørtoft scoring the second. Their first season at their new stadium was also their first back in the FA Premier League following promotion after two seasons away.
In their second season at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough were runners-up in both of the domestic cups but a points deduction in the league meant that they were relegated from the Premier League.
In 1998 – when Middlesbrough were promoted back to the Premier League at the first attempt – the capacity was increased by 5,000 by filling in the north and south-west corners at a cost of £5 million. This expansion gave the stadium its current 35,000 capacity.
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