Vitality Stadium

Vitality Stadium – the Premier League at its smallest

At around 11,300 seats the Vitality Stadium is among the smallest grounds in the Premier League — smaller than a good many second-tier stadiums elsewhere in Europe. That is exactly what makes it worth visiting: you sit closer to the game than anywhere else in this division, and when Manchester City or Liverpool come down, they play in front of a crowd television rarely shows.

A stadium that was turned around

The site has been Dean Court since 1910, and most people still call it that. Then in 2001 something unusual happened: the old ground was demolished and the new one rebuilt rotated by ninety degrees. The pitch has run across the old alignment ever since.

So if you are searching for Dean Court, you are in the right place — same site, different direction.

Kings Park, two kilometres from the sea

The ground sits in Kings Park, about two kilometres north-east of the town centre and a similar distance from the beach. The approach runs through residential streets and parkland; parking is tight, and on matchdays walking from the centre is quicker.

Bournemouth: seven miles of sand

Bournemouth is an English seaside town, and that is not incidental — it is why this trip looks different from a weekend in Manchester or Birmingham. The town has a continuous sandy beach around seven miles long, a Victorian pier, and a mild climate that makes it one of the warmest places in Britain.

West of the town lies the Jurassic Coast — a UNESCO World Heritage site, 150 kilometres of shoreline holding fossils from 185 million years of geology. A Premier League match and a coastal walk in the same weekend is not available anywhere else in this division.

Getting there

Trains from London Waterloo reach Bournemouth in about two hours. The nearest sizeable airport is Southampton, some forty kilometres away; Heathrow and Gatwick are the usual international arrival points, with a direct rail connection onward.