Madejski Stadium

In January 1990, the Taylor Report made all-seater stadiums compulsory in the top two divisions of English football for the 1994-95 season. Having played in the second tier of the English league several times before, Reading were champions of Division Two in 1994, and were promoted to Division One. Reading became subject to the Taylor requirements. Converting Elm Park to an all-seater stadium was not practical, so a location in Smallmead (to the south of the town) was identified as the site for a new stadium.[4] The location of a closed landfill, the site was purchased for £1, on the condition that the team develop the A33 relief road.[5] Construction of the new stadium, which was undertaken by Birse Group,[6] was underway by 1997, and the last competitive match at Elm Park took place on 3 May 1998 against Norwich City, with Reading losing 1–0, having already been relegated to Division Two.[7]

Reading began the 1998–99 season at the Madejski Stadium.[4] It was opened on 22 August 1998 when Luton Town were beaten 3–0 with Grant Brebner having the honour of scoring the first ever goal at the stadium. Plans for the stadium had first been unveiled some three years previously, when chairman John Madejski had decided that Elm Park was unsuitable for redevelopment as an all-seater stadium and that relocation to a new site was necessary. Following the death of academy manager Eamonn Dolan in 2016, Reading announced that the North Stand would now be renamed The Eamonn Dolan Stand.[8]

The Madejski Stadium as viewed from the stadium's north stand.

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 £750,000.[3]

The Eamonn Dolan Stand capacity is said to be 4,946 including 25 spaces for wheelchairs.[9] Although in use for all Reading matches, the stand was normally closed for London Irish and only opened in exceptional circumstances where demand required.

The South Stand has a capacity of 4,350 including 29 wheelchair spaces and is where visiting supporters sit for Reading games. The initial allocation visiting teams receive is 2,327 and is the half of the stand joining onto the East Stand. Under the terms of their original lease, London Irish only utilised the South Stand for the most popular matches. However, with the original renegotiation and extension of the lease, the South Stand was used for all London Irish matches with an unreserved seating plan. London Irish sold season tickets for South Stand between 2008 and 2014-15. Since 2015, with falling attendance at London Irish, the South Stand remained closed for rugby and only opened if required.

The East Stand has a capacity of 7,286 including 18 spaces for wheelchairs.[9] The stand also contains the stadium's video screen which is located in the corner adjoining the South Stand. The stand was open for all London Irish fixtures only until the end of the 2015–16 season and again for the 2017-18 season and 2019-20 seasons.

Millennium Madejski Hotel

The West Stand, the stadium's main stand, has a capacity of 7,579 including 15 wheelchair spaces and contains a lower and an upper tier. The upper level does not overhang the lower tier and the executive boxes are located between the two tiers. The tunnel and dugouts are located in this stand. During the 2016-17 and 2018-19 seasons, the West Stand was the only stand in regular use for London Irish home games. The outside of the stand contains the Millennium Madejski Hotel.

For the first time in its history, Reading Football Club participated in the 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 its intention, in October 2006,[10] to make a planning application to extend the ground to between 37,000 and 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 reach the full proposed capacity.[11]

On 24 May 2007, it was announced that planning permission had been granted to extend the stadium to a capacity of 36,900.[12] The first phase will expand the East Stand by 6,600 seats. Work was set to start in mid-2008, after the initial plan of extending in 2007 was scrapped due to spectator seats being affected, during the work, already being sold to season ticket holders.

Reading's relegation from the Premier League in 2008 meant that all expansion plans were put on hold, but were revived when promotion was again achieved in 2012.[13]

Plans to expand the ground were again put on hold after Reading were relegated back to the Football League Championship at the end of the 2012–13 season after a goalless draw at home to QPR on 28 April 2013.

The stadium has hosted five England under-21 internationals. These were as follows.

Year	Date	Opponents	Result	Attendance	Part of
1999	3 September	Luxembourg	5–0	18,094	2000 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 5
2001	14 August	Netherlands	4–0	19,467	International friendly
2002	15 October	Macedonia	3–1	15,500	2004 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 7
2006	28 February	Norway	2–2	15,022	International friendly
2013	5 September	Moldova	1–0	5,268	2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 1

An England B match was also held at the stadium.

Year	Date	Home	Result	Away	Attendance	Part of
2006	25 May	England B	1–2	Belarus	22,032	International Friendly

Other international matches.

Year	Date	Team 1	Result	Team 2	Attendance	Part of
2003	7 September	Australia	2–1	Jamaica	8,050	International Friendly
2013	7 September	Reading	0–2	Oman		International Friendly

London Irish playing London Wasps in August 2011

Although a designated football stadium, Madejski was used regularly since opening for Rugby Union. Richmond were the first rugby team to become tenants of the Madejski, using the stadium from its opening season in 1998 after outgrowing their original home of Richmond Athletic Ground. This tenancy lasted only one season as Richmond went into administration and were nominally merged into London Irish.

London Irish moved into the Madejski in 2000 after a year of ground sharing at the Stoop Memorial Ground in Twickenham. On 11 January 2008, it was announced that London Irish had reached an agreement to continue playing home games at the Madejski Stadium until 2026.[14] However, they were to leave after the 2019–20 season.[15] Irish played their last game at Madejski on 1 March, 2020 when they were defeated by Wasps. The COVID-19 pandemic had truncated the season causing a premature end to their tenancy.

Irish saw their average crowds grow to more than 11,100 after moving to Reading in 2000, holding the record for the biggest rugby union Premiership attendance at a club ground, when 23,709 people saw Irish play London Wasps on 16 March 2008.[16] This record stood until 19 Sep 2009, when Leicester Tigers opened their new stand to increase capacity to 24,000.

In addition to London Irish home matches, the stadium has also hosted several knock out phases of European cup rugby where a neutral ground was required or where teams were required to play at a larger capacity ground.

Year	Date	Home	Score	Away	Attendance	Competition
2000	20 May	NEC Harlequins	42–33	Narbonne	11,211	2000–01 European Challenge Cup Final
2003	25 May	Bath	30–48	London Wasps	18,074	2002–03 Parker Pen Challenge Cup Final
2004	22 May	Montferrand	26–27	NEC Harlequins	13,123	2003–04 Parker Pen Challenge Cup Final
2016	23 April	Saracens	24–17	Wasps	16,820	2015–16 European Champions Cup Semi-final

The Madejski was selected as the venue for a charity friendly football match on 3 May 2006, featuring celebrities and football legends from England and Germany. The Match, named England vs Germany: The Legends was held to raise money for the Bobby Moore Fund and the British Red Cross and to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of England winning the 1966 World Cup. The German team won the match 4–2, in an exact reversal of the score from 1966, in front of a crowd of 20,000.[17]

The stadium is also the final venue for the Reading Senior Cup.[18]

Runners finishing the Reading Half Marathon cross the finish line inside the stadium. The stadium is also used as a hub for pre- and post-event services e.g. public transport terminus and bag drop during the day of the event.

A match from the 2000 Rugby League World Cup was also held here.

Year	Date	Team 1	Score	Team 2	Attendance	Part of
2000	2 November	New Zealand	84–10	Cook Islands	3,982	2000 Rugby League World Cup Group 2

The highest attendance at the stadium was 24,184 (apparently exceeding the stadium's stated capacity) on 17 November 2012 for the Premier League game with Everton beating the previous record of 24,160 set on 16 September 2012 for the Premier League game with Tottenham Hotspur. The highest attendance for a cup match at the stadium was 24,107 on 3 December 2003 for the Football League Cup match with Chelsea.[19]

Attendances by season

Season	Reading[20]						Richmond[21][22]
	Average attendance[lower-alpha 1]		Highest attendance				Average attendance[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]		Highest attendance[lower-alpha 2]
	Division	Ave.	Date	Opponent	Competition	Att.[23]	Division	Ave.	Date	Opponent	Competition	Att.
1998–99	Division Two	11,262 (16%)	27 March	Manchester City	Division Two	20,055	Premiership	7,205 ()	26 December	London Irish	Premiership	9,621
1999–2000	Division Two	8,985 (20%)	7 August	Bristol City	Division Two	13,348	London Irish
2000–01	Division Two	12,647 (41%)	16 May	Wigan Athletic	Division Two play-offs	22,034	Premiership	6,305 ()	17 March	Northampton Saints	Premiership	12,037
2001–02	Division Two	14,115 (12%)	13 April	Peterborough United	Division Two	22,151	Premiership	7,254 ()	16 March	Bristol	Premiership	12,873
2002–03	Division One	16,011 (13%)	14 May	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Division One play-offs	24,060	Premiership	9,916 ()	15 March	Harlequins	Premiership	18,585
2003–04	Division One	15,095 (6%)	3 December	Chelsea	League Cup	24,107	Premiership	10,571 ()	21 March	Bath	Premiership	20,840
2004–05	Championship	17,169 (14%)	22 January	Ipswich Town	Championship	23,203	Premiership	10,312 ()	26 March	Gloucester	Premiership	17,111
2005–06	Championship	20,207 (18%)	10 February	Southampton	Championship	23,845	Premiership	10,953 ()	25 March	Sale Sharks	Premiership	19,884
2006–07	Premier League	23,829 (18%)	10 February	Aston Villa	Premiership	24,122	Premiership	10,731 ()	18 March	London Wasps	Premiership	22,648
2007–08	Premier League	23,585 (1%)	19 January	Manchester United	Premier League	24,135	Premiership	9,950 ()	16 March	London Wasps	Premiership	23,709
2008–09	Championship	19,936 (16%)	3 May	Birmingham City	Championship	23,879	Premiership	11,378 ()	22 March	Northampton Saints	Premiership	21,295
2009–10	Championship	17,408 (13%)	2 January	Liverpool	FA Cup	23,656	Premiership	14,303 ()	28 March	Sale Sharks	Premiership	21,535
2010–11	Championship	17,682 (2%)	27 November	Leeds United	Championship	23,677	Premiership	10,339 ()	26 March	Exeter Chiefs	Premiership	20,011
2011–12	Championship	19,219 (9%)	10 December	West Ham United	Championship	24,026	Premiership	10,398 ()	25 March	Leicester Tigers	Premiership	20,905
2012–13	Premier League	23,862 (24%)	17 November	Everton	Premier League	24,184	Premiership	9,471 ()	23 March	Worcester Warriors	Premiership	19,523
2013–14	Championship	19,171 (20%)	3 May	Burnley	Championship	23,335	Premiership	9,243 ()	22 March	Bath	Premiership	22,361
2014–15	Championship	17,022 (11%)	16 March	Bradford City	FA Cup	22,908	Premiership	8,943 ()	28 March	Newcastle Falcons	Premiership	15,731
2015–16	Championship	17,285 (2%)	11 March	Crystal Palace	FA Cup	23,110	Premiership	8,749 ()	20 March	Gloucester	Premiership	17,752
2016–17	Championship	17,505 (1%)	1 April	Leeds United	Championship	23,055	Championship	4,005 ()	18 March	Cornish Pirates	Championship	11,671
2017–18	Championship	16,656 (5%)	23 December	Burton Albion	Championship	21,771	Premiership	7,748 ()	24 March	Gloucester	Premiership	15,274
2018–19	Championship	14,991 (10%)	22 April	West Bromwich Albion	Championship	17,255	Championship	3,770 ()	23 March	Doncaster Knights	Championship	10,106

Notes

1. The average attendance figure includes league matches only.
2. Since 2004, London Irish have played a Premiership home match at Twickenham Stadium, London as part of the London Double Header. These matches are removed from the highest and average attendance figures to show only the highest and average attendances at the Madejski Stadium.

On Reading match days, the stadium is served by a network of special bus services provided by Reading Buses and Stagecoach Buses. Two of these (Reading Buses F1 and F2) provide regular shuttle services from Reading railway station and from a park and ride site at Shinfield Park respectively. Fourteen further Reading Bus services provide links from various Reading suburbs and nearby towns and villages, including Newbury and Henley on Thames. Stagecoach services provide links from Basingstoke, Farnborough, Wokingham and Bracknell.[24][25]

When no matches are taking place, the stadium can be reached from Reading town centre using Reading Buses Greenwave services.[26][27]

The planned Green Park railway station, which will serve both the stadium and the adjacent Green Park Business Park, is set to open by the end of 2021.[28] The new station will be just under a 1-mile (1.6 km) walk from the stadium.

Notes

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Madejski Stadium.

• Stadium information from Reading FC official website