The Raymond McEnhill Stadium is a purpose-built 5,000 capacity football stadium in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England. It is the home of Salisbury Football Club and Salisbury F.C. Women.

History

In 1997, Salisbury City moved to the stadium which was built at

Old Sarum Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the now ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest r ...

and was named after the then chairman, Raymond McEnhill. The stadium capacity is officially 4,000, although it is technically able to hold 5,000 with covered accommodation for 2,247 fans. The stadium has achieved the ground 'B' grade standard. A then record crowd of 2,570 saw 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 competi ...

first round 2–0 defeat by

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

in 1998."Salisbury City FC"
''

Salisbury Journal The ''Salisbury Journal'' is the local newspaper for the Salisbury area of England. Founded in 1729, it was revived by William Collins in 1736, who used it to oppose the government of Sir Robert Walpole. Benjamin Collins took over the publicatio ...

''. Retrieved 5 February 2012. This figure was beaten twice in the

2006–07 FA Cup The 2006–07 FA Cup (known as The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON for sponsorship reasons) was the 126th staging of the world's oldest football knockout competition; the FA Cup. This season's edition was the first to be sponsored by E.ON. The competi ...

. On 11 November 2006 a crowd of 2,684 saw Salisbury beat Fleetwood Town 3–0 in the

first round proper First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number 1 (number), one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, D ...

. Then in the

second round proper The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

a crowd of 3,100 saw Salisbury draw 1–1 with Football League One club,

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

. The record league attendance at the stadium was set on 28 December 2009 when a crowd of 2,677 saw Salisbury draw 1–1 with

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 t ...

in a

Conference Premier The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-professi ...

match. On 12 May 2013, a new record attendance at the stadium was set when 3,408 spectators turned up to watch Salisbury beat Dover Athletic 3–2 in the Conference South play-off final. This win earned them promotion back to the Conference Premier, after two seasons in the Conference South. With Salisbury City F.C. folding in 2014 following a failure to pay debts, a new phoenix club Salisbury F.C. took over the lease at the stadium in early 2015, after overcoming a proposal by the estate of Raymond McEnhill to sell the land for development. The record attendance for the stadium was superseded by the new club on 19 March 2016, when a crowd of 3,450 saw Salisbury lose 2–1 to Hereford in the semi-final of the FA Vase competition. On 23 October 2022, the stadium became the home of Salisbury F.C. Women.https://www.salisburyfc.co.uk/salisbury-fc-women-move-to-the-ray-mac/

References

Football venues in England Sports venues completed in 1997 Buildings and structures in Salisbury {{England-sports-venue-stub