A new stadium is supposed to give a football club a fresh start. For Coventry City and Brighton & Hove Albion, the road to a settled home involved years of uncertainty, journeys to other towns and supporters fighting to keep their clubs rooted in their communities.
In Part 5 of our UK football stadium series, we visit Coventry Building Society Arena and Brighton’s American Express Stadium, better known as the Amex. Both opened in the 21st century, but their stories reach far beyond the construction of a new ground.
Following Part 4’s look at London Stadium and Stadium MK, this pairing explores what it takes for a modern stadium to become a lasting home.
Coventry Building Society Arena: Coventry City
Opened: 2005
Capacity: 32,609
Location: Coventry
Previously known as: Ricoh Arena
Leaving Highfield Road
For generations of Coventry supporters, Highfield Road was home. The club spent 106 years there before playing its final match at the ground on 30 April 2005. Moving to a larger venue offered room for a different kind of football business, with facilities serving far more than the Saturday afternoon crowd.
The new ground made an encouraging start. Coventry beat Queens Park Rangers 3–0 in their first match at the Ricoh Arena on 20 August 2005, dates recorded in the club’s official first-time visitor’s guide. A new stadium and an opening victory should have been the beginning of a straightforward chapter.
Instead, the relationship between the club and its home became one of the defining issues of the following two decades.
Two spells away from Coventry
Moving into the arena did not mean owning it. Disputes over the stadium left the Sky Blues playing home fixtures at Northampton Town’s Sixfields in 2013, before returning to Coventry in 2014. Another period away followed at Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s between 2019 and 2021.
These were not ordinary away trips. Supporters were being asked to travel outside Coventry to watch fixtures that should have belonged to their own city. The distinction between having a large modern stadium and having a secure home could hardly have been clearer.
The return in 2021 also brought the name used today: Coventry Building Society Arena. Then came a more fundamental change. On 23 August 2025, Coventry City announced that it had bought the arena from Frasers Group. The purchase brought club and stadium under the same ownership for the first time since the ground opened.
Ownership cannot decide what happens on the pitch, but it changed the basis on which Coventry could plan for the future. After the repeated moves, simply knowing where the club belonged carried considerable weight.
A modern venue with links to the past
The arena is also an events venue, hosting exhibitions, conferences, music and other live entertainment. Its official website reflects that wider role: this is a complex intended to be used throughout the year.
Outside, statues connect the modern building to Coventry’s football history. Jimmy Hill is commemorated alongside George Curtis and John Sillett, the management partnership associated with the 1987 FA Cup triumph.
The Premier League’s 2026/27 stadium guide lists the capacity at 32,609 and marks another milestone: the arena’s first season hosting Premier League football, following Coventry’s return after 25 years away. The stadium has finally acquired a top-flight chapter of its own.
The Amex: Brighton & Hove Albion
Opened: 2011
Capacity: approximately 32,000
Location: Falmer, Brighton
Official name: American Express Stadium
From the Goldstone to Gillingham and Withdean
Brighton’s move to Falmer came after a much longer wait for a permanent home. Leaving the Goldstone Ground in 1997 was followed by two seasons sharing Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium, a journey into Kent for what were nominally home games.
Withdean brought the club back to Brighton in 1999. It was an athletics stadium adapted for football, with temporary accommodation and obvious limitations, but it restored something important: Albion were playing in their own city again.
The club’s account of the loss of the Goldstone captures the uncertainty behind those moves. A return to Brighton did not end the search for a permanent ground; the campaign for a stadium at Falmer still had to be won.
That background explains why the Amex’s arrival meant so much. It offered covered stands, proper facilities and space to grow after years in which the club’s home arrangements had restricted what was possible.
A stadium shaped by its surroundings
Designed by KSS, the Amex has a distinctive curved roof and a form influenced by the rolling landscape around Falmer. The architect’s account of the project describes a stadium designed to sit within its surroundings, with expansion planned into the original scheme.
That ability to grow mattered. Additional seating followed the opening, and the ground has continued to evolve as Brighton’s support and ambitions have developed. Its shape gives it a recognisable identity, while the scale of the stands makes the leap from Withdean immediately apparent.
Will Buckley gives the Amex its first great memory
Tottenham visited for the official opening on 30 July 2011. The first competitive first-team fixture followed on 6 August, when Doncaster Rovers arrived in the Championship.
There was a neat connection with the past: Doncaster had also been Brighton’s final opponents at the Goldstone. This time, Albion fell behind before substitute Will Buckley scored twice to secure a 2–1 victory. His recollection of that afternoon remains a reminder of how quickly a new building can gain its own football history.
The Amex later became the setting for another landmark. A 1–1 draw with Manchester City in May 2023 secured sixth place and Europa League qualification, taking Brighton into European competition for the first time.
The Amex continues to grow
Recent work has changed the matchday experience again. Safe standing in the North Stand, The Terrace fan zone and a new club superstore formed part of the improvements outlined by Brighton in 2025.
Further North Stand redevelopment and the new 1901 Pub added seats ahead of the club’s 125th anniversary celebrations. Brighton reported a stadium-record attendance of 31,944 on 19 September 2026. The club describes the venue as holding around 32,000; attendance for an individual match is a separate figure from the stadium’s overall capacity.
For supporters who remember the journeys to Gillingham or the temporary stands at Withdean, those developments belong to a transformation that began well before the first ball was kicked at Falmer.
Two grounds, one shared question
Coventry and Brighton show how much lies behind a stadium’s opening date. Brighton spent years trying to secure a permanent ground before reaching Falmer. Coventry moved into its new arena first, then spent years trying to secure its relationship with it.
The buildings provide the seats, roofs and facilities. The clubs and their supporters give those places continuity, identity and memories. At the CBS Arena and the Amex, the struggle to establish a lasting home is an essential part of the stadium story.
Stadium details checked in October 2026.
More in our UK football stadium series
- Part 1: Tottenham and the Etihad Stadium
- Part 2: King Power Stadium and Stadium of Light
- Part 3: Emirates Stadium and Pride Park
- Part 4: London Stadium and Stadium MK
Explore the complete UK football stadium series.
Further Reading
