Rodney Parade is a stadium in the city of Newport, South Wales, owned and operated by Dragons RFC. It is located on the east bank of the River Usk in Newport city centre. The ground is on Rodney Road, a short walk from the city's central bus and railway stations via Newport Bridge or Newport City footbridge. There is no spectator car park at the ground but a number of multi-storey car parks are nearby.
Rodney Parade is the home ground of the Dragons regional rugby union team. It is also the home ground of Newport County football club, and is the second-oldest sports venue in the Football League, after Deepdale. Stadium capacity is reduced from rugby levels for football matches. In 2021 the rugby union club Newport RFC, the former owners of Rodney Parade, relocated their home matches to Newport Stadium, agreeing with the Rodney Parade owners at the time (Welsh Rugby Union) to play two home matches per season at Rodney Parade.
Newport Squash Rackets Club has four courts at Rodney Parade.
Layout
Rodney Parade has two covered stands: the two-tier Compeed Stand (west) and the Bisley Stand (east) which are along the touchlines of the pitch. The upper tier of the west stand is seated with 1,996 seats, including 40 Press seats and the lower tier is a standing terrace. The east stand is all-seated with a 2,526 capacity including 144 seats in 13 hospitality boxes, food/drink outlets and a gantry for television cameras. The TV cameras are therefore pointing westward and often show the sun setting over Newport city centre.
The North Terrace is uncovered standing and adjoins a small uncovered standing terrace on the west touchline alongside the west stand. The South End of the stadium houses players' changing rooms, a media centre, large video screen and the small uncovered stand with 222 seats for away football fans. Away football fans are also sited in block F of the east stand giving a total capacity of 1,300 for away football fans. Capacity been increased on big match occasions with the addition of temporary stands at the north and south ends.
The hospitality suite is located in the North End of the East Stand on the upper level.
The rugby ticket office and club shop is located at the north end of the East Stand accessed via the main gate to the ground (Gate 4) off Grafton Road. The Newport County ticket office is a separate building just inside Gate 4.
To the north of the North Terrace is a tented fanzone for pre and post match entertainment, floodlit grass training area. Further north, parallel to Grafton Road, is the rugby clubhouse/office facilities including Rodney Hall.
History
In 1875, the Newport Athletic Club was created, and two years later they secured the use of land at Rodney Parade from Godfrey Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar, for their cricket, tennis, rugby and athletics teams. In October 1879, Newport RFC played Cardiff RFC in a floodlit game at Rodney Parade. It was the first ground in Wales to have floodlights installed.
Newport rugby club enjoyed six highly successful seasons, being unbeaten during that time. The team sustained their first defeat in the 1870s, but were again unbeaten in seasons 1891-2 and 1922-3. Monmouthshire County Cricket Club played at Rodney Parade from 1901 to 1934. Newport RFC provided internationals for every one of the four home countries at Rodney Parade, as well as South Africa. Newport were once scheduled for a regular fixture, against Bristol – a team drawn from Welsh, English, Irish and Scottish internationals. The powerful All Blacks of 1924, and the strong Springboks of 1960, were considered fortunate to evade defeat at Rodney Parade.
The cricket ground, which was on the south side of the stadium, no longer exists, because the new Maindee primary school was built on the site in 1993. Newport Cricket Club relocated to the Newport International Sports Village.
Following the introduction of regional rugby union teams in Wales, the Newport Gwent Dragons regional team was formed on 1 April 2003 and shared Rodney Parade with Newport RFC from then onwards.