For many, local football on a Saturday afternoon provides the opportunity for hard-working members of a community to gather together, socialise and unwind at their nearest club after a hectic week at work.
Unfortunately, the camaraderie and togetherness instilled into British football culture has been limited for the fans of Gloucester City for years after they witnessed their home get washed away and crumble before their own eyes.
The tigers are a club with an unusual history, having moved between football grounds eight times since the birth of the club in 1883 until 1986, when they eventually moved to Meadow Park.
At last it appeared as though the club’s search for a stadium they could call home had concluded. The ground had a total capacity of 4,500 with a 560-seat stand and it looked as though the foundations were in place to support the club going forward. However, it seemed the foundations weren’t quite strong enough to prevent what happened 21 years later…
Following mass floods across the UK in the summer of 2007, Meadow Park was completely submerged under 8ft of water. The stadium became contaminated by sewerage water, the changing rooms and bars were wrecked and, to make matters worse, the ground was uninsurable following two previous floodings prior to 2007. The club had no choice but to abandon the ground for the foreseeable future.
During their exile from Meadow Park, Forest Green Rovers agreed to groundshare with the Southern Premier Division side at the New Lawn in Nailsworth for a season, meaning supporters had to venture 30 minutes south to watch their home games. A laborious task for the fans, but they still travelled down every other week in their hundreds to support their beloved team.
The following two seasons were played at the Corinium Stadium in Cirencester. The club gained promotion to the National League North at the end of the 2008/09 campaign, however the Tigers still had a burning desire to relocate back to their own city.
Gloucester Rugby Club's Kingsholm stadium was deemed too expensive to groundshare with and Northern Senior League Division Two side Quedgeley Wanderers, who played around four miles outside the city in Quedgeley, rejected City’s proposal to share in November 2007.
Following the club’s promotion to National League North, City were forced out of Cirencester as their ground wasn’t of a high enough standard for the division, so they agreed with Cheltenham Town to groundshare at Whaddon Road.
The partnership with Cheltenham lasted for seven years whilst the club were continually denied planning permission to build a new stadium at Meadow Park by Gloucester City Council. For the fourth time since the flooding, the Tigers moved again to groundshare with Evesham United in 2017. It was a unique situation as it was the first time the club planned to play their home fixtures outside of Gloucestershire.
Finally, to the fans’ and players’ delight, Gloucester City Council eventually approved the amended plans for the construction of a new stadium in May 2019, and work on the stadium began on January 6th 2020.
Club co-chairman, Alex Petheram, joined City’s board in September 2018 and says moving back to Meadow Park and building a new stadium was his number one priority upon arrival.
“When I came here it was pretty obvious that nothing was going to happen unless somebody stepped up and did something about it.
Petheram also discussed the financial ramifications of the construction process and how much he had to contribute himself.
“We had to personally, privately fund the works here with a £3 million price tag overall, there’s over £1 million that has been pumped in by myself personally and over £1 million that’s been put in by Eamonn McGurk (the other co-chairman) and then we’ve got some funding from the FSIA, which we’re very grateful for.”
The new stadium will have an artificial, all-weather pitch which has been raised four metres above ground level to prepare for future flooding scares and includes two 350-seated stands either side of the ‘T-Hut’ with an overall capacity of up to 3,000.
The club are hoping to play their first home game of the 2020/21 season at the newly refurbished Meadow Park, and Petheram says he can’t wait to repay the loyal fans who have continued to support the club throughout the years.
“Every supporter has to travel 40 miles north to Evesham at the moment which is obviously not ideal but we have a fantastic, loyal core of fans who would travel to watch us if we had to ground share in Newcastle! We’re very grateful for the ones who can and do make it and can’t wait to repay them with this stadium.”
It’ll be a race to the finish in order to build the stadium in time for the beginning of next season, but what is for sure is that once it’s completed, Gloucester City will have a stadium they can call home for good.
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