Football Ground Map
Football Ground Map
As one of the founding members of the football league, Stoke City has a long history in the English game. Part of that history is where the club has played its home games. Nowadays, that means the famous Bet365 Stadium, named after the globally renowned online betting company Bet365. If you're not already a customer, you can check out the special bonus codes and learn more about offerings.
In this post, we will examine how the Bet365 Stadium was named and the history of Stoke City's football grounds over the years. But first, let's learn more about this famous and historic club.
Stoke City is nicknamed The Potters due to its extensive pottery heritage. Stoke-on-Trent is home to Wedgwood, Moorcroft, Aynsley, Portmeirion, Spode, and Royal Doulton, to name but a few, and Stoke is officially the World Capital of the Ceramics industry.
Strange as it may seem, Stoke City did not exist at the beginning of the club's lengthy history. Stoke Ramblers FC was founded in 1863 and played its first recorded match five years later. In 1878, the club changed its name to Stoke before eventually becoming Stoke City in 1925.
Their home colours are red and white striped shirts, white shorts, and socks. The design is also replicated on the official Stoke City badge.
On two occasions, they have been Champions of the current Championship (1932-33 and 1962-63) and League One (1926-27, 1992-93). Arguably, their biggest success was winning the League Cup in 1971-72. They also finished as FA Cup Runners-up in 2010-11.
Narcis Pelach is the current manager of Stoke City, but he is one of a long line of managers who have served the club with distinction. Some of the most famous include:
The current crop of Stoke City players features players such as Ben Gibson, Lynden Gooch, Enda Stevens and Tatsuki Seko. However, some of the most famous players to have donned the famous red and white striped shirt include:-
The club's first home ground was the Victoria Ground, which Stoke City occupied from 1878 until 1997.
Originally a stadium capable of holding 56,000, that capacity had dwindled to around 25,000 by the mid-1990s. By then, it was the oldest ground still functioning in the football league and Stoke initially developed plans to turn the Victoria Ground into an all-seater stadium, ostensibly to comply with the requirements of the Taylor Report.
However, estimates for redeveloping the ground proved prohibitive, so Stoke City's then-owners opted to develop and build a brand new ground. The work took two years to complete.
And by the 1997-98 season, the Britannia Stadium would become the new home of Stoke City FC.
By modern standards, the £14.7 million spent to build the Britannia Stadium is a paltry sum. In 1997, though, the 28,384-seater stadium was one of the most modern grounds in the country.
It was also one of the first grounds to have naming rights sold, with the Britannia Building Society purchasing those rights to name the ground the Britannia Stadium for 10 years, through to June 2016.
However, that didn't help the team who struggled in their first season in the new stadium, suffering relegation to League One at the end of the 1997-98 season.
Then chairman Peter Coates, who had been in the post since buying the club 1986, resigned following the demotion after protests following the club's final game of the season - a 5-2 home defeat to Manchester City.
A consortium of Icelandic businesspeople, led by Gunnar Gislason, then bought the club in November 1999, paying £3.5m to buy out Peter Coates's' majority shareholding.
However, it would not be the end of the Coates family's dealings with the Stoke City.
Peter Coates was more than just the chairman of Stoke City at that time. He was a successful local businessman who initially made his money in catering at football grounds, then used the profits to buy several local betting shops. He called these shops Provincial Racing.
Then, in 1983, he founded the local radio station for Stoke-on-Trent, Signal 1.
By the 2000s, the development of the Internet was changing how people bet. In 2000, Coates' daughter Denise led a family operation to set up a new internet-based betting site. Bet365 Sport started life in a Portakabin in Stoke-on-Trent in early 2001.
Using £15m worth of loans levied against her father's betting shops, bet365 quickly established itself as a top online betting site and, by 2005, had repaid all the loans to start the business. Since then, the company has grown into one of the biggest online gambling companies in the world.
And by the end of 2005, Stoke City's current owners were considering selling their stakes in the club.
Under its Icelandic owners, Stoke had been promoted from League One, but struggled to get back into the Premier League. Several managers had tried, and in the 2005/06 season, a mid-table finish in the Championship was enough for the Icelandic owners to pull the plug on their time in the Potteries.
2006 would be a pivotal year for both bet365 and Stoke City. The two became one when bet365 completed a £1.7m purchase of Stoke City F.C. from the club's Icelandic owners.
They also renamed the new stadium, calling it the bet365 Stadium.
Promotion to the Premier League followed, as did an FA Cup Final appearance in 2011. After several years in the top flight, Stoke was relegated back to the Championship following the 2017/18 season.
However, before this relegation, the owners had expanded the capacity of the bet365 Stadium to 30,089 in 2017.
Since then, they have battled to make Stoke a Premier League club once again. In September 2020, John Coates, Peter's son, was appointed joint-chairman. He is the current chairman of the club, with Peter now occupying a Director role.
In 2022, Stoke's owners began a five-year refurbishment project on the stadium including replacing seats, adding corporate boxes and upgrading facilities such as Delilah's Bar being renamed "Ricardos".
Before the 2023-24 season, Stoke updated the floodlights to new LED lights. This enables the club to put on colourful lighting displays for evening games.
Currently, the bet365 Stadium is the 34th largest stadium in the U.K.
Stoke City play their home matches at the bet365 Stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
England's U21, U20, and U19 teams have also played matches at the stadium.
The ground also hosts music concerts outside of the football season. Elton John, Bryan Adams, and Rod Stewart are among those who have played at the bet365 Stadium.
Stoke City Holdings own both Stoke City football club and the bet365 Stadium. Stoke City Holdings is owned by bet365.
The current capacity of the stadium is 30,089.
From 1997 to 2006, the bet365 Stadium was previously known as the Britannia Stadium.
Yes, from 1997 to 2006, the bet365 Stadium was known as the Britannia Stadium. Stoke City also played home matches at the Victoria Ground from 1878 to 1997.
The first game at the Bet365 Stadium was on August 27, 1997. It was a League Cup game against Rochdale, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
The first league game at the stadium was on August 30, 1997, against Swindon Town, with the visitors earning a 2-1 victory.
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