The Brentford Community Stadium, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Gtech Community Stadium, is a stadium in

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North London ...

that is the home of

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

, with

Premiership Rugby 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 ...

club

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

also tenants. The stadium has a capacity of 17,250 and is suitable for use for both

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 ...

and

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 ...

matches. Opened in 2020, the stadium is at the heart of plans to regenerate the surrounding area, including new homes and commercial opportunities. It was used during the

UEFA Women's Euro 2022 The 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2022 or simply Euro 2022, was the 13th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEF ...

(Euros), which was held in England.

History

Background

Brentford Community Stadium under construction, September 2018

In October 2002, following several years of speculation about a possible relocation, Brentford Football Club announced plans to move to a 20,000-capacity stadium near

Kew Bridge Kew Bridge is a wide-span bridge over the Tideway (upper estuary of the Thames) linking the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow. The present bridge, which was opened in 1903 as King Edward VII Bridge by King Edward VII and Quee ...

. This included an ambitious monorail proposal, which was later dropped from the scheme. After several years of uncertainty, the project was suddenly brought back to public attention in late 2007 when the club announced that it had secured an option on the site. This was followed up in February 2008 when a partnership deal with Barratt Homes to develop the site was announced. The club's plan to move to a new community stadium took a massive step forward when, on 28 June 2012, the club bought the site in Lionel Road, Brentford, from Barratt Homes who had originally acquired the site in January 2008. The club aimed to build a 20,000-capacity stadium on the land in time for the 2016–17 season, with the option of extending to 25,000 seats. In December 2013 the club was given approval for the new stadium by

Hounslow Council Hounslow London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Hounslow in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. History There have previously been a number ...

with further approval sought and received from the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

and the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

in December 2013. Attention then shifted to acquiring the remaining land, required for the enabling development of flats, and completing the development agreement. A Compulsory Purchase Order was approved for the remaining land in the summer of 2014 and although negotiations continued, a number of objections to the CPO resulted in a further hearing in September 2015. The development agreement was signed with

Willmott Dixon Willmott Dixon is a privately owned contracting, residential development and property support business. History The company was founded in 1852, by John Willmott. On 15 August 2016,

club

announced that discussions were ongoing with the borough for a move to the new stadium as tenants of Brentford. Irish played in

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, but were hoping to move back to the capital. An amended application to use the stadium for rugby in addition to its main purpose of hosting football was passed on 9 February 2017, effectively allowing London Irish to play at the stadium from its opening season. It was later confirmed they would move to Brentford from its opening season. Work on the new stadium officially started on 24 March 2017 with site clearance and preliminary works. The main works began in spring 2018.

Opening

On 30 August 2020, Brentford confirmed that the stadium was complete and ready to host football matches. The first football match at the stadium took place on 1 September 2020 when Brentford drew 2–2 against

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

in a

pre-season friendly An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

. Sergi Canos scored both Brentford goals to give the home side a 2–0 lead before Oxford United staged a late comeback. The first competitive match took place on 6 September when Brentford hosted

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 home ...

in the first round of the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

. The match finished 1–1 after normal time, with Brentford's

Ethan Pinnock Ethan Rupert Pinnock (born 29 May 1993) is a professional Association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Brentford F.C., Brentford and the Jamaica national football team, Jamaica national team. Pinnock began his career in ...

opening the scoring. It took a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

to decide the match, which Brentford won 4–2. The first

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

game to take place at the stadium was a 3–0 win over

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. The ...

on 19 September, with goals coming from Josh Dasilva,

Bryan Mbeumo Bryan Tetsadong Marceau Mbeumo (born 7 August 1999) is a professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Winger (association football), right winger or Forward (association football), forward for club Brentford F.C., Brentford and t ...

and

Marcus Forss Marcus Forss (born 18 June 1999) is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Middlesbrough and the Finland national team. Forss is a graduate of the West Bromwich Albion academy and after transferring to Brentford B i ...

. London Irish played their inaugural match at the stadium on 29 November 2020, when they beat

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its hom ...

22–9. The first

try Try or TRY may refer to: Music Albums * ''Try!'', an album by the John Mayer Trio * ''Try'' (Bebo Norman album) (2014) Songs * "Try" (Blue Rodeo song) (1987) * "Try" (Colbie Caillat song) (2014) * "Try" (Nelly Furtado song) (2004) * " Try (Ju ...

was scored by

Curtis Rona Curtis Rona (born 26 May 1992) is a former Australian international rugby union footballer who recently played for London Irish in the English Premiership. He now plays for Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Sagamihara Dynaboars. He has previously pla ...

of London Irish.

Further development

During the summer of 2022 the entire West Stand and the north east corner of the stadium were converted to rail-seating to allow safe-standing during matches. This was made possible following a change by the government to allow licensed safe-standing after a successful government-commissioned trial held during the previous season.

Sponsorship and naming rights

On 28 July 2022, Brentford announced a 10-year partnership with British technology manufacturer Gtech, which included naming rights to the stadium, which immediately became the Gtech Community Stadium.

Location

The stadium is located on a site off Lionel Road, adjacent to

Kew Bridge railway station Kew Bridge railway station is a railway station in Brentford, the London Borough of Hounslow, and is in Travelcard Zone 3. The station and all trains serving it are operated by South Western Railway. The station was named after the nearby Kew ...

. It stands in the middle of a triangle of railway lines, predominantly used for freight.

has been pushing a proposal for an extension of

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...

Hounslow Hounslow () is a large suburban district of West London, west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 12 metropolitan centres in Gr ...

via Kew Bridge, using one of these freight lines. The outline document suggested a station could be built to serve the Lionel Road site. The proposal is unlikely to make it into the first phase of the Crossrail project, but might be a later addition to the route. The nearest railway station is

Gunnersbury Gunnersbury is an area of West London, England. Toponymy The name "Gunnersbury" means "Manor house of a woman called Gunnhildr", and is from an old Scandinavian personal name + Middle English -''bury'', manor or manor house. Development Gunne ...

, owned by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

and served by the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited servic ...

and the

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...

North London Line The North London line (NLL) is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of west, north-west, north, and east London, England between Richmond in the south-west and Stratford in the east, avoiding central London. Its route is a rou ...

International football

UEFA Women's Euro 2022

The stadium was selected as one of several venues for the

tournament. It hosted Group B fixtures

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

(8 July 2022), Germany vs

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

(12 July 2022) and Denmark vs Spain (16 July 2022) as well as Germany vs

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

in the quarter-final (21 July 2022).

References

External links

* {{coord, 51, 29, 26.97, N, 0, 17, 19.32, W, type:landmark, display=title 2020 establishments in England Brentford F.C. Football venues in London London Irish Premier League venues Sport in the London Borough of Hounslow Sports venues completed in 2020 Sports venues in London UEFA Women's Euro 2022 stadiums