Broadhall Way 3.81

Broadhall Way, known as the Lamex Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a small association football stadium in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. It has been the home ground of Stevenage (formerly Stevenage Borough and Stevenage Town) since the early 1960s, and has a capacity of 6,722 people, including 3,142 seats.HistoryThe club plays at Broadhall Way, previously home to Stevenage Town and Stevenage Athletic. Following the bankruptcy of the town's former club, the stadium was not used for three years. The newly formed Stevenage Borough had planned on playing Hitchin Town Youth at Broadhall Way in November 1976 as a "curtain-raiser" for the new venture. Volunteers prepared the pitch in anticipation, but their plans were scuppered when the ex-chairman of Stevenage Athletic — and stadium lease-holder — desecrated the playing surface at Broadhall Way by digging a trench across the full length of the pitch. However, the club eventually moved into Broadhall Way in 1980 as a result of the council re-purchasing the stadium, and allowed the football club to become its tenant.Following Stevenage's successful 1995 - 96 Conference National campaign, the Hertfordshire side were denied promotion to the Football League because of insufficient ground capacity and facilities. Consequently, in the early 2000s, the ground was upgraded, with a new £600,000 stand opening, and work on a £5million training facility was announced for nearby Shephalbury Park — which subsequently opened in Autumn 2002. In June 2011, the club secured a 40-acre former sports ground in Bragbury End — with the intention of developing the site into a new training complex. Work began on the development in the summer of 2011, and the staff began to use the complex towards the latter stages of the 2012 - 13 season.