Gallagher Stadium

James Whatman Way, currently known as the Gallagher Stadium, is a 4,200 capacity football stadium in Maidstone, Kent, England. It is home to National League South club Maidstone United. Full construction of the stadium began in September 2011 and was completed in July 2012, with the stadium officially opening on 14 July 2012 when the club hosted Brighton & Hove Albion in a friendly.

History

Pre-construction

After reforming in 1992 (the original Maidstone United sold their stadium in 1988 and moved into Dartford's ground, a move that eventually saw the club go out of business), Maidstone played in the Kent County League Division 4 with their home games taking place where the original club's old training pitch had been situated, at London Road, near Allington. The club worked their way through the Kent County League and were promoted to the Kent League Premier Division in 2001; however the current ground was nowhere near Kent League standards – so the club elected to ground share with Sittingbourne (where they remained until 2009 when they opted to ground share with Ashford before, season) while they tried to engineer a move to their preferred site for a new stadium in Maidstone at James Whatman Way. Numerous legal disputes and even a colony of Great Crested Newts on the site delayed the clubs attempts to get permission to build a ground there, however in 2004 the club finally made its first steps towards returning to their home town when an application for planning permission to build a stadium at James Whatman Way was unanimously accepted.

However, no real work could begin until the lease to acquire the ground from its owners the Ministry of Defence was signed. After yet more red tape was surpassed the lease was finally signed in March 2006. Despite Maidstone now having the green light to start construction, there were questions over the clubs ability to finance the stadium and almost a year passed before some preliminary work took place in January 2007. No signific