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The Swansea.com Stadium (Welsh: Stadiwm Swansea.com; formerly Liberty Stadium) is an all-seated sports stadium and conferencing venue located in the Landore area of Swansea, Wales. The stadium opened in 2005 and was named the Liberty Stadium. It had an opening capacity of 20,750, making it the largest purpose-built venue in Swansea; minor layout changes have since increased this to 21,088.

It is the home stadium of EFL Championship club Swansea City, who took full operational control of the stadium in 2018,[5] and the Ospreys rugby team. As a result of Swansea City's promotion in 2011, the stadium became the first Premier League ground in Wales. It is the third largest stadium in Wales – after the Millennium Stadium and the Cardiff City Stadium. In European competitions, the stadium is known as Swansea Stadium due to advertising rules.
With Swansea City's Vetch Field, and Ospreys' St Helen's and The Gnoll no longer being up-to-date venues to play at, and both the Swans and the Ospreys not having the necessary capital to invest into a new stadium, Swansea council and a developer-led consortia submitted a proposal for a sustainable 'bowl' venue for 20,520 seats on a site to the west of the River Tawe on the site of the Morfa Stadium, an athletics stadium owned by the City and County of Swansea council. It was funded by a 355,000 ft retail park on land to the east of the river. The final value of the development was in excess of £50m.[6]

On 10 July 2005, the stadium was opened and became the home to Swansea City and Ospreys. On 23 July 2005, it was officially opened as Swansea City faced Fulham, (then managed by former Swansea player Chris Coleman) in a friendly match.[7] The match ended in a 1–1 draw with the first goal being scored by Fulham's Steed Malbranque. Swansea's Marc Goodfellow scored during the game to level the match.[8] The first league game was held on 6 August, with Swansea defeating Tranmere Rovers through a single goal by debutant Adebayo Akinfenwa.[9]

Before a league match between Swansea City and Oldham Athletic in October 2005, a statue of Ivor Allchurch was unveiled to commemorate the Swansea-born star who during two spells for the club scored a record 164 goals in 445 appearances.[10]

The first capacity crowd recorded at Liberty Stadium was on the 1 November 2006 when The Ospreys beat Australia A 24–16.[11] The stadium has hosted multiple Wales football internationals, listed below.

Seating at Liberty Stadium is often sold out during Swansea City football matches. Swansea City have expressed a desire to have the capacity of the stadium increased and have held talks with Swansea Council during the 2011–2012 season for the future expansion of the Liberty Stadium which would be completed in a number of phases beginning with expansion or redevelopment of the east stand.[12] Plans for a new McDonald's fast food restaurant to be opened near the stadium threw expansion plans into doubt.[13] However, the planning application was withdrawn.[14]

In December 2013, it was reported by BBC News that the European Commission had requested details of the funding of the stadium, as part of a wider inquiry into state aid for sports clubs.[15]

At the start of the 2014–15 Premier League season, a number of changes were made to the stadium. These included two new 'Jumbotron' screens inside the north and south stands, measuring approximately 200 inches. Due to sponsorship by LG all televisions in food outlets and concourse were replaced by 50" LG TV screens and the south stand renamed The LG Stand. New advertising boards with a crowd facing side were also added.

Expansions planned would expand the stadium to 33,000, with another expansion upgrading the stadium to above the 40,000 mark. This would make Wales national football matches a possibility.

In July 2018, Swansea City AFC took full ownership of the stadium, after reaching an agreement with Swansea City Council. It was agreed that Ospreys RFC could continue to share the stadium.

LAST TIME OUT



FORM GUIDE

SWANSEA 7 PNE 10

Famous from Swansea

Edwin Stuart Gomer Evans (20 October 1934 – 1994) was a Swansea-born Welsh novelist and poet, raised in Ystalyfera in Glamorgan.[1]

He read English at Jesus College, Oxford, before serving in the Royal Navy. He then taught at Brunel College of Advanced Technology. From the mid-1960s, he was employed by BBC Radio, London, to produce programmes for the Schools Broadcasting Department.[1]

His novels include Meritocrats (1974), The Gardens of the Casino (1976), The Caves of Alienation (1977), and the Windmill Hill Sequence of five novels which included Centres of Ritual, Occupational Debris, Temporary Hearths, Houses on the Site, and Seasonal Tribal Feasts. Prior to concentrating on novel writing, Evans had won the Newdigate Prize in 1955 for his poem "Elegy for a Dead Clown".[2] He also published two collections of poetry, Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads (1972) and The Function of the Fool (1997). For his thrillers co-written with Kay Evans, he used the pseudonym Hugh Tracy.[3]

Norman Shrapnel, in The Guardian, wrote of Evans' debut novel Meritocrats, that "I can scarcely recall a more ambitious first novel ... and few more interesting ones".[4] Philip Howard, writing in The Times, described Evans as "my candidate for the Juvenal, I dare not say the Martial, of our generation."[5] Peter Lewis, in The Times Literary Supplement, described Evans' Windmill Hill Sequence as "probably the most ambitious fictional work in progress by a British writer".[6]

Until the late 2000s much of his work was out of print, but two of his poems were included in the anthology Poetry 1900–2000,[1] published by the Library of Wales. The Library of Wales has also re-published his novel The Caves of Alienation,[7] described by Anthony Brockway as "One of the most ambitious Welsh novels of the twentieth century".[This quote needs a citation] This is his most widely held book; according to WorldCat, it is held in 151 libraries. Evans was married to Kathleen Bridget Snelling, née Treacy (1932–1993), her second marriage.[8]

Stuart won't be attending as sadly he is no longer with us

Swansea music



Badfinger were a Welsh rock band formed in Swansea, who were active from the 1960s to the 1980s. Their best-known lineup consisted of Pete Ham, Mike Gibbins, Tom Evans, and Joey Molland. They are recognised for their influence on the 1970s power pop genre. It is estimated that the band sold 14 million albums.[1][2]

The band evolved from an earlier group called the Iveys, formed in 1961, which became the first group signed by the Beatles' Apple label in 1968. The band renamed themselves Badfinger, after the working title for the Beatles' 1967 song "With a Little Help from My Friends" ("Bad Finger Boogie"). From 1968 to 1973, Badfinger recorded five albums for Apple and toured extensively, before they became embroiled in the chaos of Apple's dissolution.

Badfinger had four consecutive worldwide hits from 1970 to 1972: "Come and Get It" (written and produced by Paul McCartney, 1970), "No Matter What" (produced by Mal Evans, 1970), "Day After Day" (produced by George Harrison, 1971), and "Baby Blue" (produced by Todd Rundgren, 1972). Their song "Without You" (1970) has been recorded many times, and became a US and UK number-one hit for Harry Nilsson and, two decades later, a UK number-one for Mariah Carey.

After Apple Records folded in 1973, Badfinger struggled with a host of legal, managerial, and financial problems, leading to Ham's suicide in 1975. The surviving members struggled to rebuild their personal and professional lives against a backdrop of lawsuits, which tied up the songwriters' royalty payments for years. Their subsequent albums floundered, as Molland and Evans alternated between co-operation and conflict in their attempts to revive and capitalise on the Badfinger legacy. Evans died by suicide in 1983, and Gibbins died from a brain aneurysm in 2005, leaving Molland as the group's only surviving member.