Colchester Community Stadium

Full name	Weston Homes Community Stadium
Location	Colchester, England
Coordinates	51°52′36″N 0°52′58″E / 51.876744°N 0.882751°E / 51.876744; 0.882751Coordinates: 51°52′36″N 0°52′58″E / 51.876744°N 0.882751°E / 51.876744; 0.882751
Opened	July 2008
Owner	Colchester Borough Council
Surface	Seeded Grass
Construction cost	£14 million
Capacity	10,000
Tenants
Colchester United F.C.

The Colchester Community Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as the Weston Homes Community Stadium, is an all-seater football stadium, the home of Colchester United. The stadium was built at Cuckoo Farm, on the northern outskirts of Colchester, with work beginning in July 2007, ready for the 2008-09 season.^[1] The stadium has a capacity of about 10,000, with potential to increase to 18,000, and cost £14 million, largely paid for by Colchester Borough Council and Colchester United, with additional grants from the Football Foundation, the Communities and Local Government and the East of England Development Agency.^[2] It was named overall winner in the 2009 RICS East of England Awards. ^[3]

The site contains more than 600 parking spaces and two synthetic surface football pitches, for use by the Colchester United Community Sports Trust. The complex encompasses a variety of sporting, leisure and business facilities, including hospitality suites. The catering facilities are managed by Lindley Catering, also caterers to Manchester City and Derby County. It sits in an area that is subject to huge future development as well as where a bypass onto the A12 will be built.

On 12 June 2008, Colchester United revealed a ten year sponsorship deal with Weston Homes,^[4][5] worth up to £2 million to sponsor the new stadium. The deal included sponsorship of Colchester United's shirts for the 2008-09 and 2009/2010 season.

The football club took possession of the stadium in July 2008. Colchester United's first game at the stadium was a 2-1 loss against Athletic Bilbao on 4 August 2008. The first goal at the stadium was scored by Bilbao's Aritz Aduriz. Colchester's first goal at the new stadium was the equaliser, scored by Scott Vernon which was also the first penalty awarded at the stadium. The first red card in the stadium was also shown in that game, Athletic Bilbao's Ander Murillo was sent off an hour into the match. Near the end of the game David López Moreno scored to give Bilbao a 2-1 victory.

The first competitive match played at the ground was a 0-0 draw between Colchester United and Huddersfield Town in Football League One, before an attendance of 5,340.

The stadium hosted its first international match on 18 November 2008. England U19 beat Germany U19 1-0 in front of a record U19 and Community Stadium attendance of 9,692.

Colchester United had a stadium record attendance for a competitive match of 9,559 versus Leeds United in League One on 4 April 2009.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Photos of the new stadium ColchesterUnited.com