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Adams Park is an
association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
stadium in
High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...
,
Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
, England. Built in 1990, it is the home ground of the local
Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their ho ...
in
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. It was also leased from 2002 to 2014 to the
rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
club
London Wasps Wasps Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022 the club entered administration, resulting in r ...
from
Aviva Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...
, and from 2016 to 2020 to the Reading F.C. Women football club. From the 2003/04 season to the 2005/06 season, the stadium was officially called Causeway Stadium, named after its sponsor Causeway Technologies.


History


Pre-construction

Wycombe Wanderers had sought to leave their home ground at
Loakes Park Loakes Park was the home of Wycombe Wanderers Football Club from 1895 to 1990. It was located next to Wycombe General Hospital in the centre of High Wycombe, England. The ground was donated to the club by Frank Adams, a former Wanderers player ...
since the 1960s as the site had been earmarked for the site of development of the adjacent
Wycombe Hospital Wycombe Hospital is located in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. It is one of two acute and five community hospitals managed by the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. History The original hospital built on Marlow Hill was the "High Wycombe War ...
. The club were able to sell the land to the health authority, which almost solely funded the construction of Adams Park.


Opening

The ground is located in a valley at the end of the Sands Industrial Estate, surrounded by green hills on three sides. Whereas Wycombe's previous
Loakes Park Loakes Park was the home of Wycombe Wanderers Football Club from 1895 to 1990. It was located next to Wycombe General Hospital in the centre of High Wycombe, England. The ground was donated to the club by Frank Adams, a former Wanderers player ...
ground was very close to the town centre, Adams Park is two miles due west of
High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...
and less easily accessible either by
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
or
private transport Private transport (as opposed to public transport) is the personal or individual use of transportation which are not available for use by the general public, where in theory the user can decide freely on the time and route of transit ('choice ...
. The stadium was opened in time for the 1990–91 season, and had a capacity of 6,000 with 1,267 seats in the Main Stand. The ground was named Adams Park in honour of benefactor and former captain Frank Adams. Adams had bought the former ground Loakes Park for the club, whose sale financed the move to the stadium named after him. The new stadium coincided with an upturn in the club's fortunes as, under manager
Martin O'Neill Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Starting his career in Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his playi ...
, they won the
FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...
at
Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
thanks to a 2–1 win over
Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team compete in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. Formed in ...
.


Renovations


1990s

The initial licensed capacity of Adams Park was 6,000. This gradually rose as Wycombe Wanderers improved the provision of crush barriers on the terraces. Shortly after entering the Football League for the first time in 1993, these upgrades were completed, taking the capacity to around 9,500. In the summer of 1996 the 4,990-seater Woodlands Stand was built on the hill behind the erstwhile Woodlands Terrace. The Hillbottom Road End, where the visiting fans are accommodated, was seated, reducing its capacity from 2,131 standing spaces to 1,049 seats. The latter development had created problems when large numbers of visiting fans came to the ground, outstripping the supply of seats in that end when sides like
Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...
,
Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...
and
Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...
visited. The capacity of the stadium was fixed at 10,000 to comply with council regulations, as the positioning of the stadium on a dead-end road was leading to problems when large crowds were leaving the ground, particularly with parking cars in the streets of the nearby residential suburb of Sands.


2001

In the summer of 2001 the Hillbottom Road End was extended by an extra 977 seats to take its capacity to 2,026. This was done mainly to be able to accommodate more away fans in one place when the need arose. However, the capacity was kept at 10,000 by reducing the official capacity of the standing areas at the Valley End and on the paddock in front of the Main Stand.


2002

In 2002, rugby union team
London Wasps Wasps Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022 the club entered administration, resulting in r ...
(later just known as Wasps), became tenants to Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park after losing their previous groundsharing agreement with
Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
at
Loftus Road Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...
.


2005

In July 2005, a capacity crowd of 10,000 was registered for the first time, when Premiership champions
Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
brought a team to play Wycombe in a pre-season friendly. It was during this season that the idea that Adams Park would be further expanded was mooted by senior figures at Wycombe Wanderers and Wasps so that it can comply to the
Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...
regulations for Premiership grounds in the future. These stipulated that stadiums would have a capacity of at least 12,000 by 2007/08. It was initially suggested that a stand identical to the Woodlands Stand be built where the Main Stand is currently situated, and options to add additional tiers to the Valley End of the ground were also discussed. These plans, however, never came to fruition, as the RFU's requirement to increase the capacity of the grounds was quietly dropped soon afterwards after a general decline in attendances, as well as the major difficulties that would have arisen from trying to add additional access routes to the stadium.


2013

On 6 March 2013, Adams Park hosted rugby league for the first time after London Broncos were forced to move their game against
Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
to High Wycombe due to pitch problems at their usual home ground the
Twickenham Stoop Twickenham Stoop Stadium (informally referred to as The Stoop) is a sports stadium located in south-west London, England. The stadium is home to Harlequins rugby union team, who play in the Gallagher Premiership. The stadium has a capacity ...
. On 21 March 2013, it hosted an
England national under-21 football team The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the calen ...
international friendly against Romania's under-21s with the hosts beat the visitors 3–0 goals from
Wilfried Zaha Dazet Wilfried Armel Zaha (born 10 November 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Crystal Palace and the Ivory Coast national team. Zaha advanced into the Crystal Palace first team from their academy, in 2010. In ...
,
Jack Robinson Jack Robinson may refer to: Sportspeople *Jack Robinson (catcher) (1880–1921), American baseball player *Jack Robinson (footballer, born 1870) (1870–1931), England, Derby County and Southampton football goalkeeper * Jack Robinson (footballer, ...
and
Nathan Delfouneso Nathan Abayomi Delfouneso (born 2 February 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for League One club Accrington Stanley. Having graduated from Aston Villa's academy Delfouneso broke into their first team in 2008, m ...
with 6,354 in attendance.


2014

On 8 October 2014, it was announced that
Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...
would leave Adams Park by December 2014, ending their 12-year ground-share with Wycombe Wanderers. They purchased and moved to the larger
Ricoh Arena The Coventry Building Society Arena (often shortened to the CBS Arena or just simply Coventry Arena, and formerly known as the Ricoh Arena) is a complex in Coventry, England. It includes a 32,609-seater stadium which is currently home to footb ...
in
Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
.


New name

In 2003 the stadium was renamed the ''Causeway Stadium''. For £100,000 over three years, local technology company Causeway bought the
naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...
to the ground. This caused some anger amongst fans as the ground was named Adams Park in honour of benefactor and former captain Frank Adams. Adams had bought the former ground Loakes Park for the club, whose sale financed the move to the stadium named after him. The Causeway Technologies sponsorship expired at the end of the 2005–06 season and the ground name has reverted to Adams Park.


New development plans

There have been a number of plans to either extend the capacity of Adams Park beyond the current permitted maximum of 10,000 on the current site since Adams Park was opened, or to build a new stadium elsewhere in High Wycombe.


2005

Wycombe District Council outlined long-term plans for the regeneration of the Abbey Barn area of the town. These included a possible 20,000 capacity stadium near the site of the since-closed Wycombe Heights dry ski slope.


2006

Plans were drawn up for a new access route to the ground through land owned by the wealthy Dashwood family to the north and west of Adams Park, allowing the expansion of its capacity up to 15,000. Wasps announced proposals to build an additional two tiers of seating on the back of the existing Valley End terrace, with this structure filling in the corner round to the large Woodlands Stand, enclosing that section of the ground. 2006 saw the construction of new club shop and offices.


2007

At a Wycombe Wanderers supporters' forum, CEO and minority shareholder of Wycombe Wanderers, and owner of London Wasps Steve Hayes announced plans to build a new stadium in the High Wycombe area, with a capacity of 17,000 – 20,000 and being the first UK stadium in modern times to have terracing. The new stadium would be jointly owned by WWFC, London Wasps and Wycombe District Council. The plans included retail outlets, a hotel and conference facilities. Steve Hayes would later become 100% owner of Wycombe Wanderers in 2008.


2008

The stadium land was taken out of the
Green Belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...
by a Government inspector, meaning the land value rose from £4,000 per acre to £1,000,000 per acre, giving a better resale value if required. The move would also allow additional stands, permanent or temporary, to be constructed to gain the 12,500 capacity required by
London Wasps Wasps Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022 the club entered administration, resulting in r ...
under
Guinness Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...
regulations for the coming season. However, the main problem of access still remained, which meant that London Wasps would still be looking to move to a larger stadium.


2011

Steve Hayes, who owned both Wycombe Wanderers F.C. and London Wasps R.U.F.C. at the time, announced his intentions to build a new stadium for both clubs on the site of
Wycombe Air Park Wycombe Air Park, also known as Booker Airfield , is an operational general aviation aerodrome located in Booker, Buckinghamshire, south-west of High Wycombe, England. The airfield celebrated its 50th year of opening on 25 April 2015. It orig ...
in Booker, 2½ miles away from Adams Park. His plans encountered large-scale opposition from community groups and Wycombe Wanderers supporters, with concerns ranging from the loss of aeronautical activity at the air park to inappropriate
green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...
development. There were also objections by many Wycombe Wanderers supporters and Wycombe Wanderers Supporters' Trust who believed the club would not receive the proceeds of the sale of Adams Park (which it owned 100%), but that these would go to Steve Hayes to help finance a 20,000-capacity stadium in conjunction with
Wycombe District Council Wycombe may refer to the following places: Australia *Wycombe, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa REgion *High Wycombe, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth United Kingdom *High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England **Wycombe District, a local ...
that would then be rented to Wycombe Wanderers.
The plans were abandoned in July 2011 when Wycombe District Council decided to end its support of the project in the face of increased scepticism about the viability of the project.


Structure


PreSonus PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc. (often known and styled as PreSonus) is an American manufacturer of professional audio equipment and software, used to create, record, Audio mixing, mix, and Audio mastering, master music and other audio. This inc ...
Stand (North)

Built in 1990, the stand has a capacity of 1,267, all seated (but spectators may stand in the paddock at the front of this stand if they already have a valid seat ticket). The stand also contains the club offices, changing rooms, club shop and catering facilities.


Troo Stand (East)

Originally called the Hillbottom Road End, the east end of the stadium was originally a terrace with a capacity of 2,131 when Adams Park was opened in 1990, almost identical to the Valley End at the opposite end of the ground. Along with the construction of the new Woodlands stand in 1996, 1,047 seats were installed in the Hillbottom Road End. In 2002, the capacity was increased in size to the current 2,053 all-seated capacity, with a space for 10 wheelchairs. Supporters of the visiting team are allocated this stand for Wycombe Wanderers matches. After a number of crowd disturbances from supporters of visiting clubs who had sold out the full allocation of tickets, the licensed capacity of the stand has been reduced to 1,800. The stand has been renamed a number of times after commercial deals – the current official name is the Troo Stand.


Frank Adams Stand (South)

Originally a single level terrace, this stand was expanded into a two-tier unit in 1996. When redeveloped in 1996, the stand had a capacity of 4,990 (2,842 in the upper tier, 1,738 plus 50 wheelchair spaces in the lower tier) the South Stand contains boxes for corporate hospitality, with the lower tier designated as the stadium's Family Stand. This side of the ground is also known as the Woodlands side of the ground, but was renamed to its current official name, Frank Adams Stand, to ensure that at least some of stadium would still be named in honour of the former Wycombe Wanderers' captain and benefactor when the stadium was renamed Causeway Stadium between 2003 and 2006. Since the stadium changed its name back to Adams Park, the stand has officially retained the Frank Adams name. In the summer of 2017, the end blocks of the lower tier had a total of 163 seats removed, replaced with a tarpaulin bearing an advertisement for a club sponsor. However, in 2018, the club installed 68 '20/20' seats at the empty block nearest to the Valley End. These were installed to showcase a new type of seating accommodation that would allow spectators to stand in front of their seat without blocking someone sitting behind them. The capacity of the stand has been reduced to 4,895 following these changes.


The Bill Turnbull Gantry

The gantry at the back of the Frank Adams Stand was renamed in September 2022 in honour of the late broadcaster
Bill Turnbull William Robert Jolyon Turnbull (25 January 1956 – 31 August 2022) was an English television and radio presenter and journalist, whose broadcasting career spanned over four decades. He began his career working for radio stations including Rad ...
, who had supported Wycombe and previously used to commentate on fixtures from the position.


BMI Healthcare Terrace (West)

Originally called the Valley End, the BMI Healthcare Terrace is the home supporters' end for football matches, and the only remaining standing accommodation in the stadium. The original licensed capacity of the terrace was 2,136; however, this was reduced by the club to 1,717 to maintain a total licensed capacity for the whole stadium of 10,000 after the extension of the Hillbottom Road end by 1,000 seats in 2001. After the
Sports Grounds Safety Authority The Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Until 2011 it was known as the Football Licensing Authority, having been set up under ...
re-evaluated the extent of the viewing area on the Valley End that was permitted to be included in the total capacity calculation in October 2015, the terrace's maximum capacity was provisionally reduced from 2,131 (officially licensed 1,717) to 1,494 pending remedial work to be carried out by the club in the near future.


Facilities

The stadium contains two hospitality suites, the Caledonian Suite, located behind the Beechdean Stand, and the Woodlands Suite, situated on the Executive Box level of the Frank Adams Stand. The ground also contains a bar, called Monty's (named after late club president Monty Seymour), and since 2006 a club shop in the corner of the ground between the PreSonus and Troo stands.


Significant matches

*17 November 1992 – England U19s 2–1 Turkey U19s *16 November 2005 – England U19s 2–0 Switzerland U19s *6 March 2006 – FA Women's Premier League Cup final (
Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
1–2
Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...
) *13 May 2006 – League Two play-off semi-final first leg (Wycombe 1–2
Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league sy ...
) *10 January 2007 – League Cup semi-final first leg (Wycombe 1–1
Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
) *2 May 2009 – Wycombe promoted to Football League One (Wycombe 1–2
Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...
) *7 May 2011 – Wycombe promoted to Football League One (Wycombe 3–1
Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...
) *21 March 2013 – England U21s 3–0 Romania U21s *6 April 2013 – First
Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...
match at Adams Park ( London Broncos 20–46
Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
) *5 May 2018 – Wycombe's last match in League Two as Wycombe were promoted the week before (Wycombe 1–0 Stevenage) *19 November 2019 – England U20s 3–0 Iceland U20s


See also

*
Development of stadiums in English football A large number of English football clubs have ongoing schemes to redevelop existing grounds, or to move to newly constructed stadiums. A trend towards all-seater stadiums was initially prescribed by the Taylor Report, and was originally a conditi ...


References


External links


Wycombe Wanderers FC
{{EFL League One venues Football venues in England Sports venues in Buckinghamshire English Football League venues Women's Super League venues High Wycombe Wycombe Wanderers F.C. Sports venues completed in 1990