EMIRATES STADIUM

The Emirates Stadium formerly Ashburton Grove, is a football stadium located in London and is the current home of Arsenal FC. The stadium opened in July 2006 and has an all seated capacity of 60,355, making it the second largest football club stadium in England behind Manchester United's Old Trafford, and the third largest stadium of any kind in London, after Wembley and Twickenham, and overall the fifth largest football stadium in the United Kingdom. It was initially known as Ashburton Grove after the road it was located on, before a naming rights deal with the airline Emirates was struck in October 2004. The project cost £390 million, including the cost of the associated infrastructure.


It was announced on 5 October 2004 that Emirates Airline had signed a 15-year deal for naming right of the stadium, worth £100M. This sum also includes payments for an eight-year shirt sponsorship by Emirates, starting in the 2006–07 season. The stadium name is often colloquially shortened from "Emirates Stadium" to "The Emirates", although some supporters continue to use the former name "Ashburton Grove" or even "The Grove" for the new stadium, especially those who object to the concept of corporate sponsorship of stadium names. This discrepancy between official and unofficial names is similar to the manner in which Arsenal's former ground, Arsenal Stadium, was almost universally referred to as "Highbury" by supporters, the media and the club itself.

Due to UEFA regulations on stadium sponsors, during UEFA Champions League matches the stadium is not officially referred to as Emirates Stadium, as Emirates are not an official sponsor of the Champions League competition; other stadia, such as the Allianz Arena in Munich, have fallen foul of this rule before. UEFA refer to the stadium as Arsenal Stadium, which was the official name of the stadium at Highbury.