Colchester Community Stadium

Weston Homes Community Stadium

Weston Homes Community Stadium
Location	United Way, Colchester, Essex, England
Coordinates	51°55′24″N 0°53′52″E / 51.923394°N 0.897703°E / 51.923394; 0.897703Coordinates: 51°55′24″N 0°53′52″E / 51.923394°N 0.897703°E / 51.923394; 0.897703
Owner	Colchester Borough Council
Operator	Colchester United F.C.
Executive suites	24
Capacity	10,105
Record attendance	10,064 (Colchester United vs Norwich City, 16 January 2010)
Field size	101 × 64 metres
Surface	Seeded grass
Construction
Broke ground	July 2007
Opened	August 2008
Construction cost	£ 14 million
Architect	Barr Construction
Structural engineer	Barr Construction
Services engineer	Barr Construction
Main contractors	Barr Construction
Tenants
Colchester United F.C.

Colchester Community Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as the Weston Homes Community Stadium, is a football stadium in Colchester, England. It is the home of Colchester United Football Club. It has a capacity of 10,105 and opened in August 2008 in time for the 2008–09 season.

A stadium working party was first set up by Colchester Borough Council in 1976 in order to assess the feasibility and possible location for a new stadium for Colchester United. After 30 years of discussions and various site suggestions, a location in the north of Colchester called Cuckoo Farm on land owned by Colchester Borough Council was settled on. Detailed planning permission was fully granted in June 2007 on the stadium which would cost £14 million, replacing the club's Layer Road ground, which had been their home since Colchester United's foundation in 1937. Work began in July 2007 and construction was completed in August 2008 ahead of Colchester United's first match at the stadium.

Colchester United's previous ground, Layer Road, was built in 1910, homing United's predecessors Colchester Town. Town were an amateur club and were wound down in 1937 to begin a professional club for Colchester that would be known Colchester United, as the new club moved into Town's Layer Road ground. With an ageing stadium, throughout the 1970s to the mid-2000s, Colchester United and Colchester Borough Council had been looking to re-home the club. Attention was first brought to the idea of relocation during the 1970s, when club chairman Maurice Cadman announced that Layer Road required £280,000 of basic improvements to meet the required safety legislation of the time. When the ground was purchased from the Council in 1971, a covenant was placed on Layer Road that the site could not be sold to be developed as housing. Potential resolutions for the problem included moving the pitch and building a new main stand, but proved to be too expensive for the club's ailing finances. The plans would have created an 'adequately' sized stadium with an 18,000 capacity, though the season ended with an average of just 3,818 in attendance.