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The Britannia Stadium first opened on the 30th August 1997 in a ceremony conducted by club icon Sir Stanley Matthews. Known famously as the “Wizard of Dribble”, Matthews made over 259 first class appearance for Stoke, and it was only fitting that the local lad was chosen to help usher in a new era at the club.

Previously the club played their home matches at the 1878 built Victoria Ground, however in the wake of the Hillsborough Disaster and subsequent publication of the Taylor Report in 1990 the landscape of English Football changed. Terracing was now banned for teams in the top two divisions, and for many clubs like Stoke this meant either conversion or relocation.

Costing £15 million to build, the decision to relocate to new facilities was made official in 1996, after the club engaged in a lengthy two year consultation period. The club receive a grant of £3 million by the Football Trust, and raised a further £1 million by selling the naming rights to the stadium to Britannia Building Society on an initial 10 year deal.

After a construction period of around 18 months, the inaugural competitive fixture came against Swindon Town on 27th August 1997. Attracting an impressive 23,859 capacity crowd, the first match didn’t quite go to plan as fans encountered mass congestion due to stadium planners neglecting to improve the surrounding infrastructure.

When Sir Stanley Matthews died in February 2000 his ashes were buried inside the stadium’s centre circle, and Stoke erected a statue outside of the ground in his honour. Currently equipped with a respectable 27,743 capacity, there are no current plans to expand the stadium in the near future.

The stadium was renamed the bet365 stadium at the start of the 2017/18 season

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Stanley Matthews Way, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 4EG