Kassam Stadium

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Kassam Stadium

Location	Grenoble Road, Oxford, England, OX4 4XP
Built	1997
Opened	2001
Owner	Firoka Group
Operator	Oxford United
Construction cost	£15m
Tenants	Oxford United
Capacity	12,500

The Kassam Stadium is the home of Oxford United Football Club, and is named after the ground's owner, and former chairman of the club, Firoz Kassam.

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. Oxford 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.

1 History
- 1.1 Records
2 Construction
- 2.1 Structure and facilities
3 Transport
4 Other uses
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

The stadium is officially owned by one of Kassam's Firoka Group companies, and hosted its first game on 4 August 2001. The game was a friendly match against Crystal Palace, which Oxford won on penalties following a 1-1 draw, and Paul Powell scored 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 a crowd of 7,842 people; Jamie Brooks scored for Oxford. Since then, the ground has hosted rugby union games, as well as an under-17 International football tournament in 2002.

In March 2006, the Oxford United Supporters' Trust 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. Despite the unofficial renaming of the stadium, it seems most fans and local press still refer to the home ground as the Kassam Stadium.

On 25 October 2007, it was reported by BBC South News during a lunchtime bulletin that Oxford United Football Club had submitted a bid to the former club owner Firoz Kassam to buy the Kassam Stadium on the morning of the 25th. It is understood that the asking price of £13m has been met. This story was only run once during the lunchtime bulletin, and there has been no official statement from the club.

At the 2008 Annual general meeting Nick Merry said "The price is agreed for the stadium at £13 million. That is not negotiable but the valuation of the stadium is some way short of that so funding that deficit needs to make commercial sense. We are not prepared to put the future of Oxford United at risk. Any deal has to make sense for both the short term and long term future of this club."^[1]

[edit] Records

The attendance record at the Kassam Stadium is 12,243. This was for Oxford's final match of the 2005-06 League Two season, a 3-2 defeat by Leyton Orient^[2]. It beat the previous record of 12,177 for a 3-0 League Cup defeat by Aston Villa on 6 November 2002^[3]. During the summer of 2006, Oxford United entertained Manchester United in a friendly game that attracted 11,463 people^[4], and on Boxing Day, 2006, the ground held a Blue Square Premier record attendance of 11,065 for the 0-0 draw against Woking^[5].

On 24th July 2006, Sir Elton John played a concert to a sold-out 17,500 crowd.

[edit] Construction

The bronze Ox outside the stadium.

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, by which Firoz Kassam reduced most of the football club's unsecured debt by 90 per cent.

In March 2008 a bronze statue of a bronze Ox was erected outside the stadium. The unveiling was attended by the boardroom staff and a few fans. The club released a statement saying the reason for the unveiling not being more publicised was because of health and safety concerns if the unveiling took place on a match day.

[edit] Structure and facilities

A distinctive feature of the stadium is a reflective glass panelling that makes up the main entrance. Sections of the panelling have been subject to vandalism.

The stadium offerers a number of conference rooms to host corporate and non corporate events. The stadium's South Stand is host to 28 private hospitality boxes with each box capable of holding up to 20 people. The use of the boxes are generally used on Oxford United's home games and there are many advantages including half time tea and biscuits .

The ground currently 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, and still commonly known as the Oxford Mail stand) 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, with the lower tier including the ground's Family Section. It has a total capacity of 4,495.

[edit] Transport

The car park at the stadium is limited as it is shared with the local Vue cinema and other attractions but a nearby over flow car park is ready to compensate for busier times.

The Oxford Bus Company offer special match day buses to and from the stadium at selected points around the city at various times before and after Kick-off ^[6].

[edit] Other uses

John Kelly, County Emergency Planning Officer for Oxfordshire, confirmed in an interview with BBC News 24 that the stadium would be used under emergency powers which exist under contingency plans for the partial evacuation of London.^[7] The stadium provided accommodation for those having to be evacuated from Abingdon during floods in 2007.^[8] Each year the stadium plays host to the Oxfordshire Senior Cup final run by the Oxfordshire Football Association.^[9] The stadium has also hosted Rugby Union matches, an Under-17 international football tournament and an Elton John music concert. ^[10]