Stebonheath Park

Stebonheath Park (Welsh: Parc Stebonheath) is a multi-use stadium in Llanelli, West Wales with a capacity of 3,700. It is primarily used as a football ground and is the home of Llanelli Town A.F.C. It was also used for athletics and Llanelli Amateur Athletic Club (Llanelli AAC) were based at the stadium. It is owned by Llanelli Town Council. From 2015 Raiders RL club used the stadium for their debut season in the Conference League South but are now based at the park on a permanent basis as they compete in the RFL professional tier as the only professional Rugby League team in South Wales.

History

Stebonheath Park has been used as a football ground since 1920. It almost hosted League football in the 1930s but the club lost out coming second in the vote. At the time the ground had a large wooden grandstand, a covered end terrace and a large bank on the south side, and it could easily have been developed into a Third Division ground. The stand was subsequently demolished and the ground re-shaped to allow the building of an adjacent by-pass road.

Stebonheath Park was home to the Wales national rugby league team in the 1930s. Here Wales were crowned European Champions, after defeating England 17–9, on 10 November 1938. Frank Whitcombe made his debut for Wales in this game.

The stadium has been owned by Llanelli Town Council since 1977. The council undertook major redevelopments of the stadium which included floodlighting, a new 700 seater main stand, new terracing, a function room social club as well as all-weather training facilities for the athletics club. In July 2008, a new open seated stand was built on existing terracing along one side of the ground with about 300 seats.

Around the pitch is a narrow 400-metre running track with four lanes on each straight. It is the narrowest 400m track in the United Kingdom.

On 28 February 2006 the stadium hosted an international match between Wales Under-21s and Northern Ireland Under-21s, with the Northern Irish side winning 1–0.