Kassam Stadium

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The interior of Kassum stadium.

The Kassam Stadium is the home of Oxford United F.C., and is named after the ground's owner and the football club's former chairman, Firoz Kassam. The ground currently has a capacity of about 12,500, and consists of three stands.

The North Stand (also known as the Manor Hospital Stand) is divided for use by both home and away supporters and has a capacity of 5,026.
The East Stand (formerly sponsored by the Oxford Mail newspaper) is home to the more vocal home supporters and can hold 2,879 spectators.
The South Stand (currently without a sponsor) is the main structure of the stadium, housing the Quadrangle conference centre, the Exhibition Bar, the club offices and changing rooms, and a row of 28 glass-fronted executive boxes. The South Stand is divided into two tiers, the lower tier including the ground's Family Section, and in total has a capacity of 4,495.

The stadium's address is Grenoble Road, Oxford OX4 4XP. To date, the Kassam Stadium has staged nothing higher than fourth-tier league football, as Oxford were relegated to Division Three the season before the new stadium was built and were further relegated to the Conference National in 2005–06. United's old home, the Manor Ground, had staged top-flight football for three seasons during the 1980s and had even seen the League Cup in its boardroom.

[edit] Construction

The building of the Kassam Stadium commenced in the summer of 1996 by Taylor Woodrow, but construction ceased in December after financial problems meant the contractors weren't paid. At this time United's chairman was Robin Herd, and the club's Chief Executive was Keith Cox. Ongoing money problems meant that no further work was done on the site until February 2001. This followed Kassam's purchase of the club in April 1999, and then many legal problems involving Oxford City Council, Nick Pentith, Thames Water, Morrells of Oxford, and local landowner Les Wells. By this time the contractors had changed to Birse Construction, with Taylor Woodrow having had their debt settled by a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), by which Firoz Kassam reduced most of the football club's unsecured debt by 90 per cent.

In March 2006 the Oxford United Supporters' Trust OxVox unofficially renamed the ground "The United Stadium". They urged everyone to use this name, which they claimed signified the crisis at the club, with the Chairman failing to choose the right option to take the club forward, and which also symbolised the unity of the fans.

[edit] Usage

The stadium is officially owned by one of Kassam's Firoka Group companies, and hosted its first game on 4 August 2001, a friendly match against Crystal Palace, which United won on penalties following a 1-1 draw, Paul Powell scoring the club's first goal at the ground. The first competitive match at the ground took place one week later, on 11 August, against Rochdale, in the Football League Third Division (now Football League Two). United lost this match 2-1 in front of 7,842, Jamie Brooks scoring for Oxford. Since then, the ground has hosted rugby union games, as well as an under-17 International football tournament in 2002.

The attendance record at the Kassam Stadium is 12,243, for United's final match of the 2005-06 League Two season, a 3-2 defeat by Leyton Orient, beating the previous record of 12,177 for a 3-0 League Cup defeat by Aston Villa on 6 November 2002. This match saw Oxford United relegated to the Conference after 44 years in the Football League. During the summer of 2006, the U's entertained Manchester United in a sell-out friendly, and on Boxing Day 2006 the ground held a record attendance of 11,065 for a Conference game, a 0-0 draw against Woking.