Madejski Stadium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Madejski Stadium
The Mad Stad
Location	Reading, England
Opened	22 August 1998
Owner	Reading Football Club
Surface	Desso GrassMaster
Construction cost	>£50m
Tenants
London Irish
Capacity
24,250
Dimensions
102m x 68m

The Madejski Stadium is a football stadium in Reading, England. It 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. It also provides the finish for the Reading Half Marathon.

The stadium 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 £250,000.

Madejski Stadium has also held various music concerts, including the Summer XS festival series. Performers at the Madejski Stadium have included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blue, Busted, Craig David, Elton John, Girls Aloud, Lulu, McFly and Rachel Stevens.

The stadium is named after Reading F.C.'s chairman John Madejski but it is owned by the football club.

For the first time in their history, Reading Football Club are participating in the elite 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 to reach the full proposed capacity.^[2]

1 Stands
2 Attendance
- 2.1 FAPL
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Stands

Madejski Stadium plan

[edit] North Stand

Home end stand.

[edit] 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.

[edit] East Stand

The home crowd's favourite stand.^{[citation needed]} Opposite the tunnel and director's box, chants of "There's only one John Madejski" are often heard emanating from this stand.

[edit] 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.