Balmoral Stadium is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

ground located in the Cove Bay area of

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

, Scotland. Opened in 2018, it is the home ground of club

Cove Rangers Cove Rangers Football Club is a senior Scottish football club currently playing in the Scottish Championship. They are based in the Cove Bay area of Aberdeen and play their football at Balmoral Stadium, having left their former home at Allan ...

. From 2021, it is being shared by

Scottish Women's Premier League The Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) is the highest level of league competition in women's football in Scotland. Its two divisions are SWPL 1 and SWPL 2. The league was formed when the Premier Division of the Scottish Women's Football Leag ...

team

History

Cove Rangers started planning to move from their old Allan Park ground in the mid-2000s, as this formed part of their unsuccessful pitch for

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km sout ...

membership in 2008. Initially, the move was tied in with the New Aberdeen Stadium proposals, as Calder Park would also have served as a training facility for Aberdeen FC. Planning permission for this project was refused in August 2012, as Aberdeen City Council opted to examine other possibilities for development in the area. Cove Rangers then decided to press ahead with a new stadium by themselves, as Allan Park did not meet

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility f ...

licensing criteria. Aberdeen City Council accepted the first stages of planning permission for Calder Park in November 2014. The new stadium was originally planned to be ready for the start of the 2016–17 season. Cove Rangers left Allan Park in April 2015, having sold the ground to a housing developer. The club reached agreements to ground-share with four other clubs during the 2015–16 season. The club submitted a planning application in March 2016. The plans included a stand with 312 seats, an "all-weather" 3G (artificial) pitch and 110 car parking spaces. A sponsorship deal with the Aberdeen-based Balmoral Group in December 2016 included naming rights for the Calder Park ground, which will be known as the Balmoral Stadium. Construction work was being undertaken in October 2017, with a target date for completion of February to March 2018. Cove continued to ground-share during the 2017–18 season, with their

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had ...

and

SPFL The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As w ...

promotion playoff matches being played at Harlaw Park in

Inverurie Inverurie (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Uraidh'' or ''Inbhir Uaraidh'', 'mouth of the River Ury') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland at the confluence of the rivers Ury and Don, about north-west of Aberdeen. Geography Inverurie is in the va ...

. Balmoral Stadium was officially opened in July 2018, with a friendly match between Cove Rangers and

which had to be abandoned after Cove player Jordon Brown suffered a serious injury. From the 2021–22 season,

team

are also playing their home matches at the stadium.

References

{{Football in Aberdeen, state=collapsed Sports venues in Aberdeen Cove Rangers F.C. Highland Football League venues Sports venues completed in 2018 Scottish Professional Football League venues Football venues in Aberdeen Scottish Women's Premier League venues