Sandy 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 its m ...

stadium and conference and banqueting centre in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is the home ground of

Exeter Chiefs Exeter Chiefs (officially Exeter Rugby Club) is an England, English professional rugby union club based in Exeter, Devon. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1871 and since 2006 has played i ...

, who from the 2010–11 season have been playing in the Gallagher Premiership, the top flight of the English rugby union league system. The club relocated there from their former stadium at the County Ground in 2006. The stadium can hold 15,600 spectators and is located adjacent to M5 junction 30, which is around 5 miles from Exeter City Centre. Sandy Park played host to the

England Saxons England A is England's men's second national rugby union team. The team has previously been known by a number of names, such as England B, Emerging England and, most recently, England Saxons. England A play a key role in the development of emer ...

Ireland Wolfhounds The Ireland Wolfhounds (formerly Ireland A and Ireland B) are the second national rugby union team of Ireland, behind the Ireland national team. They previously competed in the Churchill Cup together with the England Saxons, the national teams ...

on 28 January 2012; the England Saxons won 23–17.

Expansion

In the summer of 2012 the club announced a five-year plan to redevelop the ground to hold 20,600, which will be carried out in phases, starting with the existing west stand to provide a much larger bar area and extending the grandstand the full length of the pitch (in place of the existing temporary seating). The second phase (subject to finance) will involve building a large conference centre to the south and then extending the main grandstand around the corner and along the south end of the ground. The proposed stands behind each of the goal posts will be much larger than the existing main grandstand, but the proposed east stand will be similar in size to the main stand, due to its proximity adjacent the M5 motorway restricting its size. The first phase of the redevelopment (costing £10million) was carried out over the summer of 2014 and Sandy Park reopened in September that year with an increased capacity of 12,500, the capacity that the stadium will have when it hosts matches at the

2015 Rugby World Cup The 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was onl ...

. The Conference & Banqueting facilities of Sandy Park were also increased, doubling the capacity for conferences and other events. The second phase was announced in July 2021 and involves expansion of the East stand to create a further 1,948 seats and taking capacity to 15,600.

2015 Rugby World Cup matches

Sandy Park was one of thirteen venues in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

that hosted

games.

Gallery

File:Sandy Park 3 - geograph-376587.jpg, Main stand File:Sandy Park 2 - geograph-376606.jpg, Terrace stand

References

External links

Sandy Park
Rugby union stadiums in England Exeter Chiefs Sports venues completed in 2006 Sports venues in Devon {{England-sports-venue-stub