Kingsmeadow Stadium

Kingsmeadow (once known as the Cherry Red Records Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is an association football stadium in the area of Norbiton, Kingston upon Thames, London, which is used for the home matches of Chelsea Women and Chelsea U23. Until 22 April 2017 it was the home of Kingstonian, and until May 2020 home to AFC Wimbledon. It has a capacity of 4,850 with 2,265 seats.

History

The stadium was the home of Kingstonian from 1989, when they built the entire complex on the site following the sale of their traditional Richmond Road ground. Kingstonian opened the ground with a friendly against Queens Park Rangers. Following relegation from the Conference, Kingstonian went into financial administration and both the club and ground were purchased by Rajesh Khosla and his son Anup.

AFC Wimbledon have played at the stadium since they were founded in 2002; Wimbledon F.C. having moved to Milton Keynes in September 2003, becoming Milton Keynes Dons in June 2004. AFC Wimbledon were in the Combined Counties League at this time, but reached Football League One in 2016.

After one season as tenants of the Khoslas, AFC Wimbledon undertook to buy the leasehold to the ground. The club's owners, the Dons Trust, launched a share issue to finance the purchase, which was closed the following summer. The club subsequently arranged for a commercial loan to clear the remaining debt to the Khoslas. Upon taking over the ground, its name was changed to the Fans' Stadium which remains the nickname of the ground today.

In November 2015 AFC Wimbledon supporters backed a proposal to sell the ground to Chelsea F.C., who were interested to use the ground for its youth teams and women's team. Despite being gifted £1 million by AFC Wimbledon from the money paid by Chelsea, the sale was hugely detrimental to Kingstonian, with them unable to play in a ground that was now too big and expensive for a non-league side and one which they no longer had any decision over. Kingstonian started a groundshare with Leat