Spotland Stadium, known as the Crown Oil Arena for sponsorship reasons, in the

Spotland Spotland ( ) is a district of Rochdale in Greater Manchester, England. The Rochdale ward name is Spotland and Falinge. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 10,805. It lies on the River Spodden, and is the home of Spotland Stadiu ...

area of

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Bor ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

, is home to

Rochdale A.F.C. Rochdale Association Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Rochdale, Lancashire, England. The team currently compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Dale', they ha ...

and Rochdale Hornets R.F.L.C. and has a capacity of 10,249.

History

Spotland was originally known as St Clement's Playing Fields, after the nearby St Clement's Church. Having previously been used for cricket, it became the home of St Clement's Rugby Club in 1878, until they disbanded in 1897. As well as staging local rugby competitions, the ground briefly hosted two short-lived football clubs – the original

from 1900 to 1901 and Rochdale Town from 1902 to 1903, but both folded. The present

was then formed to use the ground in 1907, later buying the freehold for £1,700 in 1914. By the time the club joined

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

in 1921, a low wooden grandstand had been built on the south side of the ground, once the location of the cricket pavilion. Also by this time, the name of the surrounding area of the town,

, had been adopted as the ground's name. In August 2016, Rochdale A.F.C. renamed Spotland Stadium the Crown Oil Arena as part of a sponsorship deal by the Bury-based fuel company Crown Oil. In 2018, due to the winter weather the pitch got into such a bad state that a number of games had to be postponed. Subsequently, Rochdale were drawn against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

and the Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino was quoted "not a pitch in a condition to play football" after seeing some pictures leading Rochdale to relay the surface in time for their game.

Structure and facilities

The ground has four stands: the David Kilpatrick Stand (or Main Stand), the Sandy Lane End, the Smith Metals Family Stand (Pearl Street End) and the Reside Estate Agency Stand (the Willbutts Lane Stand). All are fully seated, apart from the Sandy Lane End, which is a small terrace behind one of the goals. The Main Stand features a statue of a long-standing Rochdale fan, David Clough, situated where he watched matches as a season-ticket holder. He had helped the club raise funds and left £250,000 to the club in his will when he died in 2020. The statue was unveiled in September 2021.

Other uses

Apart from local football and rugby league, Spotland has in the past been used to host minor nations rugby league matches, such as

British Amateur Rugby League Association The British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) is an association for social and recreational rugby league. It works jointly with the Rugby Football League through the RFL Community Board. History BARLA was created in 1973 in Huddersfiel ...

(British Amateur Rugby League Association) matches, and also the

National League Cup The Championship Cup, (known as the Northern Rail Cup for sponsorship reasons), and previously known as the National League Cup, was a rugby league football competition for clubs in the United Kingdom's Rugby League Championships. Although the F ...

finals of 2003 and 2004.

Rugby League World Cup

Spotland Stadium was selected as a venue for the

2013 Rugby League World Cup The 2013 Rugby League World Cup was the fourteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup and took place in England, Wales, France and Ireland. between 26 October and 30 November 2013. It was the main event of the year's Festival of World ...

hosting a match between Fiji and Ireland. This was the first time that Rochdale has staged an event in a World Cup in any sport and the event was sold out with almost 9,000 people attending.

References

External links

Rivals.net: Spotland Guide
Rochdale A.F.C.
Hornets Stadium Information
{{2013 RLWC Venues Football venues in England Sports venues in Greater Manchester Rochdale A.F.C. Buildings and structures in Rochdale Sport in Rochdale Rochdale Hornets Rugby league stadiums in England Rugby League World Cup stadiums Sports venues completed in 1920 English Football League venues