St Mary’s Stadium

Capacity: 32,505
Record Crowd: 32,363 – Southampton vs Coventry City (April 28^th, 2012)
Home Team: Southampton FC (Premier League)

St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton, England, has been the home stadium of Premier League club Southampton F.C (the Saints) since 2001. The stadium has a capacity of 32,505.

Since the 1980s, when Southampton regularly challenged the best sides in the English league (particularly in 1984 when they were league runners-up), there had been talk of the club relocating to a new stadium to replace The Dell due to the old stadium’s cramped location, which made it unsuitable for major expansion work. After much consideration and an unsuccessful attempt to build a new stadium in Stoneham on the outskirts of Southampton, the city council offered a chance to build a new stadium on the disused gas work site in the heart of the city, about one and half miles from The Dell.

Construction started in December 1999 and was completed at the end of July 2001, with work on the stadium itself and improvements to local infrastructure cost a total of £32 million.

The stadium is a complete bowl, with all stands of equal height. There are two large screens at either end that can be seen from any seat.

The stadium has four stands, which are named after the areas of Southampton they face. The main (east) stand is the Itchen Stand, and faces the River Itchen. The opposite stand is called the Kingsland Stand. Behind the south goal is the Chapel Stand, and to the north is the Northam Stand.

At the rear of the Chapel, Kingsland and Northam Stands, there is a continuous, translucent ‘panel’ that is designed to allow light to access the pitch. A large section of the roof at the Chapel Stand, at the southern end of the stadium is also translucent, for the same reason.

At the rear of the Itchen Stand, there are 42 executive boxes, and a police control room. The stand also houses the club’s offices, changing rooms, press facilities and corporate hospitality suites. The Northam Stand is home to the majority of the more vocal supporters, as well as visiting fans. Visitors can be given up to 4,250 seats (15 per cent of the capacity) for cup games, and up to 3,200 for league matches.

The current record attendance was for the Football League Championship match between Southampton and Coventry City on 28 April 2012, when 32,363 spectators attended. The lowest league record was Southampton versus Sheffield United, with just 13,257 spectators.