''Parc y Scarlets'' (, en, Scarlets Park) is a

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 ...

stadium in

Llanelli Llanelli ("St Elli's Parish"; ) is a market town and the largest community in Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is located on the Loughor estuary north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carma ...

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

, that opened in November 2008 as the new home of the

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup (which ...

and

Llanelli RFC Llanelli Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Llanelli) is a Welsh rugby union club founded on 30 March 1872. The club's historic home ground was Stradey Park in Llanelli, but they moved in 2008 to the new Parc y Scarlets in adjacent Pember ...

. The ground replaced

Stradey Park Stradey Park (Welsh: ''Parc y Strade'') was a rugby union stadium located near the centre of the town of Llanelli in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It was the home of the Scarlets region and Llanelli RFC rugby teams. The stadium was a combination o ...

, the home of Llanelli's rugby teams for almost 130 years. The stadium complex includes facilities for matchday supporters and for non-matchday revenue generation, as well as a training barn and a training pitch with athletics track. The stadium also occasionally hosts some matches of the Wales national under-21 and

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

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 ...

teams, as well as Llanelli Town A.F.C.'s matches in European competitions. Swansea City A.F.C. Reserve Team played all of their home fixtures at the stadium in the 2011/2012 season. In 2020 the venue was used for

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

home games during the

Autumn Nations Cup The Autumn Nations Cup was a rugby union competition held in November and December 2020 in place of the usual Autumn internationals series typically held in the same period each year, as many teams were avoiding extended travel due to the COVID ...

due to the

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm y Mileniwm), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm Principality) for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it is the home of the Wales national r ...

being used as a backup Covid venue to Dragon's Heart hospital during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Design and construction

The ground was built by Port Talbot-based Andrew Scott on a site owned by

Carmarthenshire County Council Carmarthenshire County Council ( cy, Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin) is the local authority for the county of Carmarthenshire, Wales. It provides a range of services including education, planning, transport, social services and public safety. The coun ...

, next to a new retail park. The stadium was designed by specialist sports stadia architects, The Miller Partnership, whose designs include

Murrayfield Stadium Murrayfield Stadium (known as BT Murrayfield Stadium for sponsorship reasons, or popularly as Murrayfield) is a Rugby stadium located in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has a seating capacity of 67,144 making it the largest sta ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. The stands have a slight curvature to allow for better views. The stadium's main stand, on the south side of the ground, contain the club's shop and museum, the ticket office, a large sports bar (called "The Heart and Soul"), the players' gym and changing rooms on the ground floor, while the upper floors is provided with eating and drinking areas. Having previously been known by the provisional title of "Pemberton Stadium", the stadium's official name – ''Parc y Scarlets'' – was announced on 20 May 2008. The approach to the main stand is known as the "

Ray Gravell Raymond William Robert Gravell (12 September 1951 – 31 October 2007) was a Welsh rugby union centre who played club rugby for Llanelli RFC. At international level, Gravell earned 23 caps for Wales and was selected for the 1980 British Lions t ...

Legends Walkway" paved with bricks naming each Llanelli RFC and

player to have played for

. A statue of Ray Gravell is erected outside the stadium, while other Llanelli legends are honoured in the naming of other of the stadium's facilities, with the museum known as the " Ken Jones Museum", while the various executive lounges are named after Carwyn James,

Phil Bennett Philip Bennett (24 October 1948 – 12 June 2022) was a Welsh rugby union player who played as a fly-half for Llanelli RFC and the Wales national rugby union team, Wales national team. He began his career in 1966, and a year later he had taken ...

and the Quinnell family.

Opening

Parc y Scarlets officially opened on 15 November 2008 to

who played the first match at the stadium in a 32–3 win over

Cardiff RFC Cardiff Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Caerdydd) is a rugby union club based in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The club was founded in 1876Parry-Jones (1989), pg 59 and played their first few matches at Sophia Gardens, shortly afte ...

in the

Principality Premiership The Welsh Premier Division, () known for sponsorship reasons as the Indigo Group Premiership, (''Uwch Gynghrair grŵp indigo'') is a rugby union league in Wales first implemented by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) for the 1990–91 season. Compet ...

. The match was held before a crowd limited to a maximum of 4,000 due to laws that require a stadium to host three events at restricted capacity before it can be authorised for its full capacity. The Scarlets hosted their first match at Parc y Scarlets on 28 November 2008 against

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following t ...

in the

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organisation, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places part ...

with capacity limited to 9,000. The Scarlets' first

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

match in the new stadium was on 12 December 2008 against

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

, with a capacity limit of 11,000. The official opening ceremony was held on 31 January 2009 when the Scarlets hosted the

Barbarians A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be les ...

, defeating them 40–24.

Football

As well as being the new home of the

, Parc y Scarlets has also hosted three

international football friendlies, against Estonia in 2009, Luxembourg in 2010, and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2012. It has also acted as home stadium for Llanelli Town A.F.C. when the facilities at their

Stebonheath Park Stebonheath Park ('' Welsh: Parc Stebonheath'') is a multi-use stadium in Llanelli, West Wales with a capacity of 3,700. It is primarily used as a football ground and is the home of Llanelli Town A.F.C. It was also used for athletics and Llanell ...

ground have not been sufficient, such as in European competitions. For example, the second leg of their 2009–10 UEFA Europa League qualifier against

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lana ...

and the first leg of their 2011–12 Europa League qualifier against

Dinamo Tbilisi Dinamo Tbilisi is a sports club from Tbilisi, Georgia. It was founded in 1925. Among its highest honors, is the European trophy earned by its football team which won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1981, beating FC Carl Zeiss Jena of East Germany 2� ...

were both played at Parc y Scarlets as

failed to meet UEFA criteria.

Gallery

File:0407 Stadium 1.jpg, Work 7 April 2008 File:0512Stadium1.jpg, Work 12 May 2008 File:0512Stadium2.jpg, Work 12 May 2008 File:0913 ParcYScarlets.jpg, Work 13 September 2008 File:Parc y Scarlets.jpg, Outside the stadium

References

External links