Barnet Copthall is a sports venue on the

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Gre ...

Mill Hill Mill Hill is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is situated around northwest of Charing Cross. Mill Hill was in the historic county of Middlesex until 1965, when it became part of Greater London. Its population counted 18,4 ...

borders in

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, which houses several complexes, including a

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-owned swimming pool and gymnasium facilities, a golf-driving range with 9 hole pitch and putt run by Metro Golf. The main stadium is a multi-use venue which is home of

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 it ...

Premiership side

Saracens upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia ...

. The stadium is currently known as StoneX Stadium for sponsorship reasons and has also previously been the home field of the

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

as well as hosting

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events such as the BritBowl.

History

Stadium

Prior to the involvement of Saracens, the stadium, then primarily an underdeveloped track and field athletics arena, achieved its greatest fame when London Crusaders (now the

) made it their home for three seasons of second division professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

between 1993 and 1995. The much improved stadium today is also home to two athletics clubs, Barnet & District AC and Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers. Before Saracens took over the stadium, it was also home to non-league football club Kentish Town. In November 2010, Saracens, searching for a new home after their landlord Watford F.C. activated a break clause in their groundshare agreement, revealed they were in discussions with Barnet Borough Council about a move to the stadium. Under the plan, Saracens would redevelop the stadium into a modern facility with 3,000 permanent seats. De-mountable stands would allow a capacity of 10,000 for rugby matches while retaining the stadium's ability to host athletics events. Finally, the plans called for the use of an artificial pitch, the first in English rugby union. Since final approval from Barnet Council was still required in May 2011, Saracens and Watford agreed to a one-season extension of the groundshare agreement. The project was approved in February 2012. The stadium opened in January 2013, after Saracens began the 2012–13 season as a nomadic club, using six different venues for home matches across all competitions (

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boro ...

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, Vicarage Road, Stadium MK, Goldington Road and King Baudouin Stadium). On 25 January 2013, the newly renovated ground had its "soft opening", hosting its first

match against the

Cardiff Blues Cardiff Rugby ( cy, Rygbi Caerdydd) are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby competitions. Based in Cardiff, the team play at Cardiff Arm ...

with Saracens winning 19–11 in the LV=Cup before a crowd limited to 3,500. The new artificial pitch was reported to be very good after the game. The full opening came on 16 February, with Saracens defeating Exeter Chiefs 31–11 in a Premiership match before a capacity crowd of 10,000. On 15 March 2015, it hosted the start and finish of the first edition of the North London Half Marathon, which ran to

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

and back. On 25 June 2016, it hosted the gold medal matches for the Men's, Women's and Mixed divisions, and the bronze match for the Men's division, of the World Ultimate and Guts Championship. The preceding week of competition, and finals for Men's and Women's Masters, and Guts, was held at Watford FC's training ground. On 2 April 2017 the stadium's capacity was expanded to 15,000 to meet capacity requirements for Saracens' European Champions' Cup quarter final match against

Glasgow Warriors Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and became ...

. Due to major refurbishments designed to increase permanent base capacity to 10,500, the west stand was mostly closed for the 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

and 2021–22 seasons, reducing the base capacity of the stadium to 8500. During COVID-19 the stadium was used as a vaccination centre. The new completed west stand was named the 1876 Stand in November 2022.

Stadium naming rights

A sponsorship deal with German financial services company

Allianz Allianz ( , ) is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. The company is one of the world's largest insurers and financial services groups. Th ...

that included stadium

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 ...

, worth £8 million over six years, was announced on 24 July 2012. The deal which saw the stadium renamed Allianz Park was subsequently extended and scheduled to end in 2021. However, due to a serious breach of financial fair play rules by Saracens, in February 2020 Allianz announced its withdrawal from the arrangement and hence naming rights for the stadium and shirt sponsorship with Saracens would be terminated early. The stadium officially reverted to its original name of Copthall Stadium on 26 October 2020. In January 2021, Saracens announced a new four-year partnership with

StoneX Group StoneX Group Inc. (previously INTL FCStone) is an American financial services company. The company operates in six areas: commercial hedging, global payments, securities, physical commodities, foreign exchange and clearing and execution serv ...

which would see Copthall Stadium renamed StoneX Stadium.

Transport

To arrive by public transport at Barnet Copthall the nearest Underground station is Mill Hill East which is on the

Northern line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, t ...

. On match days, a Saracens' Shuttle Bus runs from

Edgware Edgware () is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with small parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow and in the London Borough of Brent. Edgware is centred north-northwest of Charing Cros ...

, Mill Hill East and Mill Hill Broadway stations to within walking distance of the stadium. An east-west bus service, the

221 __NOTOC__ Year 221 ( CCXXI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Gratus and Vitellius (or, less frequently, year 974 ''Ab ...

, stops at the same stop near the stadium (Pursley Road) and the north-south bus service, the 113, stops a short walking distance away from the stadium (Fiveways Corner).

References

External links

Barnet Copthall Stadium
UK Running Track Directory {{London Broncos Rugby union stadiums in London Saracens F.C. Football venues in London Athletics venues in London Sport in the London Borough of Barnet Defunct rugby league venues in England London Broncos American football venues in the United Kingdom