Stevenage FC's ground became SPORTA Arena from the 22 August game. Neither side states a deal length, despite the 10 years widely reported. Capacity 7,318.
Stevenage FC’s ground has a new name. It is now the SPORTA Arena, after the club and a financial services company called SPORTA announced a partnership on 20 August. The name was first used three days later, at the Oxford United game on Saturday 22 August, the club’s first home League One fixture of the season.
The joint announcement was published on SPORTA’s website on 20 August. It makes Stevenage the company’s “flagship football partner”. The club published its own version the same day.
What the announcement actually says
The two organisations set out three areas of work alongside the name:
- Club and operational insight, across the club’s financial, operational and digital environments.
- Storytelling, described as joint content about the people and decisions behind the club during its 50th year.
- Community support, described as “exploring how long-term infrastructure can support the club, Stevenage Academy, community activities and facilities”.
Phil Wallace, the club’s chairman, is quoted saying it is “far more than a naming rights agreement” and that “from our very first conversations it was clear that SPORTA shared our vision, our ambition and our desire to make a positive impact beyond football”.
The announcement does not say how long the deal runs. It calls the partnership “long-term” repeatedly and never puts a number of years on it. It also does not give a value. If you have seen a figure quoted elsewhere, it did not come from either party’s published statement.
SPORTA is not a bank yet, and says so
This is the part worth reading carefully, because the sponsor’s name is going on a building in the town.
SPORTA was founded by Andrew Smith, a co-founder of ClearBank, and its stated aim is to become “the UK’s first fully authorised bank dedicated to sporting communities”. It is not one today. The company’s own wording, on the announcement and repeated across its website, is blunt about it:
SPORTA is not yet an authorised bank and does not currently offer banking services. Our mission is to become the UK’s first dedicated bank built for sport and we are currently seeking authorisation from the Bank of England.
The announcement adds a second line to the same effect: “No regulated banking products or services are being announced as part of the partnership.”
What the company does sell today is insurance, through regulated partners, plus a funding hub for businesses. Everything else on its website is labelled “Coming Soon”.
Where SPORTA Arena is, and what still calls it Lamex
Nothing about the location has changed. SPORTA Arena is the ground on Broadhall Way, Stevenage, SG2 8RH, off the A602 south of the town centre, where Stevenage FC have played since 1980. Its recorded capacity is 7,318, the figure carried both by OpenStreetMap’s record of the ground and by Wikipedia’s Broadhall Way entry.
The renaming has not reached the maps yet. Checked on 4 September 2026, a fortnight after the announcement, OpenStreetMap still records the ground as Lamex Stadium, with Broadhall Way as its alternative name and no mention of SPORTA. That is the point made further down this page: signage changes on a matchday, but the databases behind sat navs and ticket sites take months.
SPORTA Arena fixtures: Stevenage FC home games, September and October 2026
These are the first-team games at SPORTA Arena for the rest of September and October. The dates and kick-off times are the ones in the club’s own fixture list on stevenagefc.com, checked on 11 September 2026; the opponents are cross-checked against the published League One fixture list for the season. All are League One.
| Date | Kick-off | Opponent |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday 26 September | 3pm | Sheffield Wednesday |
| Saturday 10 October | 3pm | Wigan Athletic |
| Tuesday 20 October | 7.45pm | Plymouth Argyle |
| Saturday 24 October | 3pm | MK Dons |
In between, the away league games are at Leyton Orient on 19 September, AFC Wimbledon on 3 October, Bradford City on 17 October and Leicester City on 31 October. The club’s list also has two 7pm midweek games, on Tuesday 22 September and Tuesday 6 October, in the EFL Trophy group stage; check the fixture page for the venue before you travel, because Trophy fixtures are the likeliest to move.
Tickets are sold through the club’s own ticketing, reached from the Tickets link on stevenagefc.com, which points to its Fanbase box office. We have not printed prices here because the box office only loads in a browser and we could not check them directly.
Where the “10-year deal” figure comes from
You will find the partnership widely described as a 10-year agreement. Football Ground Guide ran it under exactly that headline on 22 August 2026, and the figure has been repeated from there.
We have gone back to both original announcements and neither states a term. SPORTA’s own release, checked again on 4 September 2026, calls SPORTA a “long-term partner” and quotes chairman Phil Wallace on the scale and ambition of the partnership, but puts no number of years on it anywhere. The club’s announcement, published the same day, does not either.
The same article describes SPORTA as “a banking company”. As the section above sets out, SPORTA’s own website says the opposite: it is not a bank, holds no banking licence and offers no regulated banking product today.
So treat 10 years as unconfirmed rather than wrong. It may well be accurate and simply undisclosed in the public releases, but no party to the deal has said it on the record, and the outlet reporting it gives no source.
The name it replaces
The ground had carried the Lamex name for years. The club put the naming rights up for offer on 5 November 2025, in an announcement headlined “Stevenage FC opens Stadium Naming Rights opportunity after 15-year Lamex partnership”. That is the club’s own description of how long the previous deal ran.
The timing is deliberate. Stevenage FC was founded in 1976 and marks its 50th anniversary during the 2026/27 season, which both parties give as a reason for launching now.
What it means for you
- Nothing about getting there changes. Same ground, same Broadhall Way site, same entrances. Only the name on the signage, the tickets and the listings is different.
- Expect the old name to stick around. Sat navs, mapping apps and third-party ticket sites take months to catch up with a stadium rename, and plenty of supporters will not use the new one at all.
- No banking product is being offered to fans. The announcement is explicit that nothing regulated is being launched off the back of it. If anyone contacts you claiming otherwise, treat it with suspicion.
- The community commitments are ambitions, not funding. The wording is “exploring how long-term infrastructure can support” the club, the academy and community facilities. There is no sum of money attached to any of it.
Getting to a home game is covered on our Stevenage roadworks and travel page, which also carries the bank holiday rail closure, and there is more to do in the town on our things to do in Stevenage page.
A note on sourcing
Stevenage FC’s own website serves an empty application shell to anything that is not a web browser, so we could not read the club’s copy of the announcement directly. Everything quoted above comes from the joint release as published on SPORTA’s website, which carries the club chairman’s quotes, and from SPORTA’s own product pages. We have linked the club’s version so you can read it yourself.
Sources
- Stevenage FC and SPORTA launch flagship partnership with naming of SPORTA Arena, SPORTA, 20 August 2026, for the name, the quotes, the areas of collaboration, the 22 August activation date and the banking disclaimers.
- Stevenage FC partnership announcement, 20 August 2026.
- sporta.team personal and business menus and site-wide disclaimer, checked 25 August 2026, for what the company sells today.
- Stevenage FC opens Stadium Naming Rights opportunity after 15-year Lamex partnership, 5 November 2025.
- Stevenage stadium’s new name revealed as 10-year deal agreed with League One club, Football Ground Guide, 22 August 2026, for the 10-year figure and the “banking company” description, neither of which appears in either original announcement.
- OpenStreetMap way 51578931, checked 4 September 2026, for the address, the 7,318 capacity and the fact the ground is still recorded as Lamex Stadium.
- Stevenage FC fixtures, checked 11 September 2026, for the dates and kick-off times of the September and October games and the link to the club’s box office.
- 2026-27 Stevenage F.C. season, Wikipedia, checked 11 September 2026, for the opponent and venue of each fixture, matched date by date against the club’s kick-off times.
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