Riverside Stadium

The Riverside Stadium is a football stadium in Middlesbrough,England. The stadium is the homeground of Middlesbrough F.C. since its opening. Its present capacity is 34,742 all seated. There is provisional permission to expand the stadium to 42,000 if it is needed.

Riverside Stadium

Entrance to the Riverside Stadium with the gates of the former Ayresome Park, and statues of George Hardwick and Wilf Mannion
Location	Middlesbrough, England
Coordinates	54°34′42″N 1°13′1″W
Owner	Middlesbrough Borough Council
Operator	Middlesbrough F.C.
Capacity	34,742
Field size	115 x 75 yards (105 x 69 m)
Surface	grass
Construction
Built	1994-95
Opened	26 August 1995
Construction cost	16 millions pounds
Tenants
Middlesbrough F.C.

Riverside stadium interior view

History

The stadium was built in 1994/95. It replaced Ayresome Park. After the Taylor Report from 1990 all top league clubs must have all seater stadiums. Because the space was limited to enlarge Ayresome Park the club decided to built a new stadium. This stadium was built in only 32 weeks on the Middlehaven site by the River Tees.

The building had 30 000 seats but was enlarged to its present capacity in 1998. 4 900 seats were built in the north and west corners.

International matches

During the construction of the new Wembley stadium the English nationalteam toured the country. The Riverside was chosen to host the Euro 2004 qualifying match against Slovakia on 11 June 2003. But also some U21 matches were held.

Date		Result		Competition
31 August 2000	England	6–1	Georgia	Under-21 Friendly
4 September 2001	England	5–0	Albania	2002 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification
11 June 2003	England	2–1	Slovakia	2004 UEFA European Football Championship qualification
7 August 2004	England	3–1	Ukraine	Under-21 Friendly
29 March 2005	England	2–0	Azerbaijan	2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification

Records

• Record Attendance (All teams): 35,000 England v Slovakia, 11 June 2003, (Euro 2004 qualifier)
• Record Attendance (Middlesbrough): 34,836 v Norwich City, 28 December 2004 (FA Premier League)

Other websites

• Riverside Stadium
• Riverside Stadium on the Official Homepage MFC Archived 2014-02-26 at the Wayback Machine