#4 Southampton – St Mary’s – Capacity 32,505
The Saint’s as they are called, have only been in their new stadium a relatively short time, compared with others on this list. However, the reason for their move and also the stadium name is no less intriguing.
Back in the 80’s when Southampton were challenging for the First Division title on several occasions (runners-up in 1984) The club’s owners were keen to look at other options to allow an increase in capacity.
The location of their previous stadium, ‘The Dell’ made it difficult to look at expanding any areas of the ground and so a new location was sought. Coupled with this, the Taylor report that was released in 1990, in response to the Hillsborough Disaster, required all First and Second Division sides to ensure that their grounds were converted to all-seater stadiums by August 1994.
The owners of the Dell duly obliged and the new Dell, an all-seater stadium, was completed in 1993. The trouble was that this made the capacity just 15,000.
The local City Council offered the club a disused gasworks site with which to begin work on a new stadium. With it only being a short journey away from the Dell and still in the heart of Southampton, the club agreed and work was started.
Not only was this move seen as a new and exciting opportunity, it was also seen as the club returning ‘home’. Originally, Southampton FC was formed by members of the local St. Mary’s Church (called St Mary’s Church Young Men’s association, but eventually changed to Southampton FC.)
The club duly named the stadium ‘St Mary’s’ and moved into their new home at the start of the 2001 season.
