Football clubs who shared a stadium with another sport

When is a football ground not a football ground? In more cases than you might have imagined, actually.

Here, we take a look at some of the clubs who shared a stadium with another sport – or, in some cases, multiple other sports.

Did you, for instance, know that cricket was played at the home of a Champions League-winning side…?

Though they were an established Premier League club for a number of years, Wigan Athletic rarely sold out their home games.

Part of the reason will have been the Lancashire town’s history as a hotbed of rugby league – whose hugely decorated Wigan Warriors have groundshared with the Latics since their stadium’s completion in 1999.

Shared by fellow London football clubs Fulham and Wimbledon in the early 2000s and early 2020s respectively, QPR’s Loftus Road has also seen an oval ball chased around its pitch.

Rugby Union side Wasps – who have also played at the grounds of two other football clubs in their history, Wycombe Wanderers and Coventry – were tenants from 1996 to 2002.

Berlin’s Olympiastadion is one of the most iconic sporting venues in Europe, built for the 1936 Olympics in the German capital.

Home to Hertha Berlin between 1963 and 1986 and again from 1988 (as well as being used by Union Berlin for European matches), it staged the 2009 World Championships in Athletics – where Usain Bolt famously broke the 100m and 200m world records.

The USA is full of architecturally stunning stadia, and Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium might just be the best of the lot.

Featuring a spectacular closing roof and an enormous video screen running all the way around its inside, the impressive arena is home to Atlanta United of MLS and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.

The first Canadian side to win the MLS title, Toronto FC play at BMO Field – a venue for the 2026 World Cup which is also used by Canada’s national team.

BMO Field has been home to the Toronto Argonauts Canadian football team since 2016, as well as briefly hosting the Hamilton Nationals of Major League Lacrosse.

Bolton’s eye-catching current ground was the Trotters’ home during one of their most glorious eras: the years of sustained top-half Premier League finishes and European football under Sam Allardyce.

The stadium (ok, the hotel that’s part of it) has also been the venue for two sports about as far removed from football as you can get: snooker and, most notably, darts – staging the UK Open between 2003 and 2013.

A-League champions on numerous occasions, Melbourne Victory are one of the most decorated football clubs in Australia.

They’ve held home games at a number of venues over the years, including the Docklands Stadium – whose massive oval playing area allows it to facilitate cricket, rugby and, predominantly, Aussie rules football action.

Belgian outfit RFC Liege used to be based at the Stade Velodrome de Rocourt – and there’s a rather big clue in the name as to what other sport that arena hosted…

The Track Cycling World Championships took place there on four occasions, with the last of those coming in 1975.

New York City FC were founded more than a century after iconic baseball franchise the New York Yankees, but the two came to share a stadium.

And with the MLS and MLB’s (Major League Baseball) seasons coinciding, the result is one of the stranger-looking pitches in world football: the trademark dirt from the baseball diamond partly remains beside one touchline.

Another MLS outfit who groundshare with an NFL team (in this case, the new England Patriots), the New England Revolution have played at Gillette Stadium since 2002.

As well as being home to the serial Super Bowl-winning Patriots, the stadium – which features a bridge and a lighthouse (!) at one end – has hosted ice hockey in the NHL’s (National Hockey League) outdoor Winter Classic.

Stockholm-based AIK are among the most successful clubs in Sweden, playing at the Nationalarenan.

In addition to football and concerts, the stadium – which is also home to the Swedish national team – once drew a crowd of almost 40,000 for the 2013 Swedish Bandy Championship Final (bandy being something akin to a hybrid of football and ice hockey – sounds like chaos!).

Built for Spurs on the site of the old White Hart Lane, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium boasts an incredibly snazzy retractable pitch – which makes way for an artificial surface used for some of the NFL’s annual London games.

In addition to that, the largest club stadium in London has staged heavyweight boxing bouts, including Anthony Joshua’s 2021 victory over Oleksandr Usyk.

Northampton Town played at Northamptonshire County Cricket Club’s Country Ground for almost 100 years, before moving to their current Sixfields Stadium in 1994.

In football mode, the ground looked normal enough on three sides – but the fourth had no stand but simply hoardings separating it from the rest of the vast expanse of grass required for cricket.

Fortuna Dusseldorf’s 54,600-capacity stadium was purpose-built for football – but that doesn’t mean it can’t host other sports…

In 2010, the Race of Champions was held there, with the annual motorsport event – which brings together stars from Formula One, rallying and more – taking place on a circuit constructed on top of what would ordinarily be the pitch. Quite a sight!

Owing to the mountainous Gangwon province of South Korea lacking a settlement large enough to support a top-level club, Gangwon FC have played at a number of stadiums over the past decade or so – including the most bizarre groundshare we’ve ever seen…

In 2017, they held their home fixtures at the Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre – built in 2008 and used for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Stamford Bridge is where Chelsea play – you know that – but did you also know that it’s played host to cricket, both forms of rugby, American football, baseball, speedway and greyhound racing? Wow.

The latter took place at the Bridge until 1968, with the Blues trying (unsuccessfully) to bring it back in 1976 to help with their financial difficulties.