Riverside Stadium, formerly the YMCA Grounds, was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Drumahoe Drumahoe () is a village and townland in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It lies to the east of Derry. It was home to Institute F.C., an NIFL Championship football club. The busy A6 road from Belfast to Derry passes through the townland ...

County Londonderry County Londonderry (Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry (), is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland, count ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. It is the former home ground of Institute F.C. of the

NIFL Championship The Northern Ireland Football League Championship (known as the Playr-Fit Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the second level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national football league in Northern Ireland. Clubs in the Championsh ...

. The stadium held 3,000 people with 1,540 seated. It was opened in the 1980s but has been abandoned and closed since 2017 following the flooding of the ground.

History

In 1980, a site at Drumahoe was purchased jointly by the Presbyterian Working Men's Institute (of which Institute was the football team) and the Londonderry YMCA with Institute being granted an initial 25 year lease. The new football grounds were not opened officially until January 1985, but Institute had been playing at the YMCA Grounds since 1980. When it was opened, it was considered as being just a pitch with a rope around it. The development of a stadium began in 1995 when the club established a committee to plan its development with a view to gaining entry to the

Irish League B Division The NIFL Premier Intermediate League (Known as the Playr-Fit NIFL Premier Intermediate League for sponsorship reasons) is the third level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national association football league in Northern Ireland, and th ...

, the top level of intermediate football. The ground was enclosed by a new security fence, and new changing rooms, toilets, facilities for disabled fans, rooms for hospitality and a shop, and two new turnstiles were added and admission to the B Division was achieved in 1996. A second phase of development resulted in the erection of a new 300-seater stand and floodlights. This was enough to gain senior status with admission to the Irish League First Division in 1999. In May 2008, the club secured £800,000 worth of funding for improvements to the ground. In May 2009, the club installed new floodlights at each corner of the ground, and in November 2010, more ground development began, involving the building of a new 800-seater stand at one of the goal-mouths. This work was completed in August 2011.

Flooding and closure

Severe flooding through the North-West of Northern Ireland on the evening of 22 August 2017 led to the

River Faughan The River Faughan (; ) is a river in northwest Northern Ireland. Legend According to ''Lebor Gabála Érenn'' (11th century), Fochain was a daughter of Partholón, an ancient settler of Ireland. In the ''Táin Bó Cúailnge'', Cúchulainn me ...

bursting its banks and destroyed the pitch, with water reaching as high as 7 foot inside changing rooms and with 5 foot of sediment piled on top of what was left of the playing surface (which would later develop

Japanese Knotweed ''Reynoutria japonica'', synonyms ''Fallopia japonica'' and ''Polygonum cuspidatum'', is a species of herbaceous perennial plant in the knotweed and buckwheat family Polygonaceae. Common names include Japanese knotweed and Asian knotweed. It is ...

). The perimeter fence was ripped out and nearby trees were uprooted, some of which were washed onto the pitch. This resulted in the closure of the stadium and

Institute An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

's relocation to their current temporary home of the

Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium The Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium () is a municipal football stadium in Derry, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of League of Ireland team Derry City F.C., (temporarily) NIFL Championship team Institute, and also to NIWFA Championshi ...

. Due to the flooding, it was noted that it would be difficult for Institute to get flood insurance for the stadium in the future. In 2022, Institute were granted planning permission to demolish the stadium and return it to a greenfield site. They stated they would be looking to replace the Riverside Stadium with a new ground in Waterside.

References

{{coord, 54, 58, 34.04, N, 7, 16, 42.21, W, type:landmark_scale:2000, display=title Association football venues in Northern Ireland Sports venues in County Londonderry Institute F.C. Sports venues completed in 1980 2017 disestablishments in Northern Ireland