Kingsmeadow, Kingston upon Thames
Football stadium in Kingston upon Thames, UK From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Football stadium in Kingston upon Thames, UK From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kingsmeadow is a football stadium in Norbiton, Kingston upon Thames, London, which is used for home matches by Chelsea Women and Chelsea Development Squad. It was formerly the home of Kingstonian and AFC Wimbledon and has a capacity of 4,850 with 2,265 seats.[1]
Full name | Kingsmeadow |
---|---|
Location | Jack Goodchild Way, Kingston upon Thames, London, England |
Public transit | Norbiton |
Owner | Chelsea |
Operator | Chelsea |
Capacity | 4,850 (2,265 seated) |
Field size | 110 × 75 yards |
Surface | Grass |
Construction | |
Built | 1989 |
Opened | 1989 |
Tenants | |
Kingstonian (1989–2017) AFC Wimbledon (2002–2020) Chelsea Women (2017–) Chelsea Development Squad (2020–) |
The stadium was the home of Kingstonian from 1989, when they built the entire complex on the site following the sale of their former Richmond Road ground. Kingstonian opened the ground with a friendly against Queens Park Rangers. Following relegation from the Conference, Kingstonian went into financial administration and both the club and ground were purchased by Rajesh Khosla and his son Anup.
AFC Wimbledon played at the stadium from their foundation in 2002 until their move to a new stadium on Plough Lane in 2020; Wimbledon having moved to Milton Keynes in September 2003, becoming Milton Keynes Dons in June 2004. AFC Wimbledon were in the Combined Counties League at this time, but reached Football League One in 2016.
After one season as tenants of the Khoslas, AFC Wimbledon undertook to buy the leasehold of the ground. The club's owners, the Dons Trust, launched a share issue to finance the purchase, which was closed the following summer. The club subsequently arranged for a commercial loan to clear the remaining debt to the Khoslas. Upon taking over the ground, its name was changed to the Fans' Stadium which remains the nickname of the ground today.
In November 2015, AFC Wimbledon supporters backed a proposal to sell the ground to Chelsea, who were interested in using the ground for its youth teams and women's team.[2][3] The sale was hugely detrimental to Kingstonian, with them unable to play in a ground that was now too big and expensive for a non-league side and over which they no longer had any control.[4][5][6][7] Kingstonian started a groundshare with Leatherhead in 2017–8,[8][9] and then moved to King George's Field in Tolworth, sharing with Corinthian Casuals from the 2018–19 season.[10]
Kingsmeadow became the new home of Chelsea Women, beginning with the 2017–18 FA WSL season.[11] AFC Wimbledon departed Kingsmeadow for the new Plough Lane stadium in May 2020.[12]
The freehold of the site is owned by Kingston Council. The leasehold, which safeguards the site for the borough's football team, was originally held by Kingstonian. After Kingstonian entered administration to avoid bankruptcy and lost the Kingsmeadow lease in October 2001, it was assigned in April 2002 by the administrators to a property developer, Rajesh Khosla, who was also by then owner of the club. In June 2003, he sold the lease to AFC Wimbledon, who at the time were already sub-tenants at the ground. Kingstonian secured a 25-year sub-tenancy agreement with AFC Wimbledon, with customary break clauses. The two clubs then operated a ground-sharing arrangement until 2017, with Kingstonian receiving preferentially cheap rental terms. The ground underwent various structural improvements and expansion during this period.
The ground's lease is currently owned by Chelsea, having purchased it from AFC Wimbledon in 2015, in order to use it for their women's and youth sides.[13] Chelsea Women moved in for the start of the 2017–18 FA WSL 1 season.[14]
Kingsmeadow comprises the following stands (as they were named under AFC Wimbledon sponsorship):
As of October 2012, the stadium had a capacity of 4,850. It originally was designated to have a 6,299 capacity before modern safety requirements and ground improvements (such as re-profiling the Athletics End terrace and replacing the original terraced paddock in front of the main stand with seats) required the capacity to be reduced. Kingstonian's highest attendance at Kingsmeadow was 4,582 for a friendly against Chelsea on 22 July 1995. AFC Wimbledon's highest attendance at Kingsmeadow and the ground's overall record attendance was 4,870 against Accrington Stanley on 14 May 2016.[17]
The stadium is adjacent to an athletics stadium used by Kingston Athletic Club and Polytechnic Harriers.
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