Champ Rugby club unveils 5,000-seater stadium plans
Chinnor RFC says it is looking to redevelop its current home at the end of next season.
Chinnor, who are captained by Luke Carter [front row, third from the left], are currently sixth in Champ Rugby [Getty Images] A championship rugby club has revealed plans to build a new 5,000-seater stadium to replace its current ground. Chinnor RFC, whose men's first team are in the second-tier of English rugby, currently play at Kingsey Road in Thame, Oxfordshire - where the capacity is mostly made up of pitchside standing. The club announced on Tuesday that it was seeking to redevelop the site into a new covered stadium at the end of next season - subject to planning permission.
Under the proposals, the ground would become one of Oxfordshire's largest - exceeded in capacity only by Oxford United's soon-to-be-former home, the Kassam Stadium. Chinnor's chief executive Simon Vickers explained that the proposals allowed the club to "further our ambitions to always operate at the top level of the league that we are in". "This may possibly be the most significant infrastructure improvement the Champ has seen for many decades, particularly from a debutant side," he added.
Former England international Nick Easter is the club's director of rugby [Getty Images] Nick Stainton, the club's chairman, said a "family benefactor" had underwritten the "whole cost" of the new stadium scheme. He also explained that the new ground would be available for community use, alongside its rugby commitments. "We remain committed to being a whole-community club at all levels at the club that we have developed over the last 20 years," he said.
"We are particularly proud that we are enhancing our community side to make further outreaches and overwhelmed that the community have embraced our ambitions. " The stadium announcement comes just days after the club revealed that former England international Nick Easter had re-signed as its director of rugby - a position he first took on four years ago. Reacting to the extension, Easter said the club had "ambition", which had "shone through on and off the field".