Riverside Stadium

The stadium was built to replace Ayresome Park following the publication of the Taylor Report, which required all top division football stadiums to be all-seater. After the report was delivered in January 1990, Middlesbrough needed an all-seater stadium by August 1994 but were unable to expand Ayresome Park outwards owing to its location in a residential area, and expanding the stadium upwards would have limited the club to a capacity of around 20,000 seats – the club wanted a considerably larger capacity. The decision was taken in 1993 by club officials to build a new stadium; Teesside Development Corporation offered them the Middlehaven site by the River Tees for development. The new…