Kassam Stadium

Story

The Kassam Stadium is the home of Oxford United Football Club, and is named after the ground's owner and former chairman of the football club, Firoz Kassam.The Kassam Stadium currently hosts League One games although Oxford were relegated to Division Three the season before the new stadium was built and were further relegated to the Conference National in 2005–06. Oxford were promoted in the 2015–16 season. The club was previously based at The Manor Ground from 1925 up until the opening of The Kassam Stadium in 2001.ConstructionOn 7 June 1995, directors of Oxford United Football Club announced that the cramped and outdated Manor Ground would be replaced by a new 16,000-seat stadium, situated in the Blackbird Leys area of the city, by the end of the decade.Construction of the new stadium was begun in the summer of 1996 by Taylor Woodrow, but was suspended in December 1997 after financial problems meant the contractors weren't paid. The stadium was originally known by its location, Minchery Farm. At this time, United's chairman was Robin Herd, and the club's chief executive was Keith Cox.Ongoing money problems meant that no further work was done on the site until February 2000. This followed Firoz Kassam's purchase of the club in April 1999, and then many legal problems involving Oxford City Council, Nick Pentith, Thames Water, Morrells of Oxford, and local landowner Les Wells. By this time, the contractors had changed to Birse Construction, with Taylor Woodrow having had their debt settled by a Company Voluntary Arrangement, by which Firoz Kassam reduced most of the football club's unsecured debt by 90 per cent.