A groundshare, also known as a shared stadium or shared arena, is the principle of sharing a stadium between two local sports teams. This is usually done for the purpose of reducing the costs of either construction of two separate facilities and related maintenance.[1]
Given sufficient compatibility between facility requirements, two teams that do not play the same sport may share a ground or a stadium. North American indoor arenas commonly feature basketball and ice hockey teams sharing the facility during their common fall-to-spring season; a layer of insulation and a basketball floor can easily be laid over or removed from the hockey rink, and dasher boards disassembled or reconfigured, in a matter of hours.
Historically baseball and American football teams often shared a large general-purpose outdoor or domed stadium, particularly during the multi-purpose stadium era of the 1960s-1990s, despite the dissimilarity of their fields; historically before the television age, the National Football League and its teams rented baseball stadiums and did not have the resources to build a team-specific stadium outside of rare examples such as the two-stadium Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City, Missouri.
This practice fell out of fashion in the 1990s as baseball teams entered the retro-classic ballpark age, where stadiums became more classically styled to the sport, and were intentionally sized to disallow a football layout entirely unless they have a deep outfield, along with seating arrangements which would disadvantage the views football spectators. In turn, the NFL's popularity allowed their teams to demand and have stadiums build specifically designed to host that sport, along with being able to easily accommodate domestic or international soccer as American spectator interest in that sport grew. The development of Major League Soccer and the United States soccer league system then allowed for the development of soccer-specific stadiums which could also host college football and high school football without the overhead and 'empty bowl' feel of the 50,000+ seats required to host an NFL game.
A variation on the groundshare concept exists commonly within the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League. As the space requirements for a regulation NHL hockey rink can easily contain a regulation NBA basketball court comfortably with additional courtside seating, in many cases where a metropolitan area has both an NBA and an NHL franchise, the teams will share the same arena.
Two teams in this arrangement share the same ground. These may be two non-competing teams who play at different levels, such as Bury F.C., renting Gigg Lane to F.C. United of Manchester in England. Often, this is done for economical reasons to allow a city with multiple teams in the same sport to share one site, or due to local opposition (mainly from competing venues) against having two stadiums devoted to the same sport in a metropolitan area, an arrangement done for the New York Giants and Jets at MetLife Stadium after the Jets' own proposal to build a stadium on the west side of Manhattan was rejected due to local opposition.
This is where two teams in the same league share the same ground, such as the New York Giants and New York Jets sharing MetLife Stadium and the Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams share SoFi Stadium, in Inglewood.
In the American NBA, only two franchises share one arena: both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers share Crypto.com Arena, though this will end when the Clippers new arena, the Intuit Dome is finished in 2024.
New York Giants and New York Jets
Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers
Persepolis F.C. and Esteghlal F.C.
Los Angeles FC and Angel City FC
S.C. Farense and Louletano D.C.
IFK Göteborg, GAIS, Örgryte IS
Club Brugge K.V. and Cercle Brugge K.S.V.
FC Zürich currently share their home stadium with Grasshopper Club Zürich until the completion of Grasshopper Zurich's new stadium.
Melbourne Victory FC, Melbourne City FC, Western United FC
New York Red Bulls and NJ/NY Gotham FC
Kayserispor and Kayseri Erciyesspor
Portland Timbers and Portland Thorns FC
Mohun Bagan Super Giant, East Bengal FC and Mohammedan SC
Paris FC and Paris Saint-Germain Féminines
U.C. Sampdoria and Genoa C.F.C.
A.C. ChievoVerona and Hellas Verona F.C.
A.S. Roma and S.S. Lazio
Beitar Jerusalem F.C. and Hapoel Jerusalem F.C.
Djurgårdens IF Fotboll and Hammarby Fotboll
FC Inter Turku and Turun Palloseura
Carlton, Essendon, North Melbourne, St Kilda and Western Bulldogs
Collingwood, Hawthorn, Melbourne and Richmond
Fremantle and West Coast
LG Twins and Doosan Bears
Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers
Bayern München and TSV 1860 München
West Ham United F.C. shared their home stadium with Charlton Athletic F.C. from 1991 until 1992.
Futbol Club Atlas and Guadalajara until Guadalajara moved to their new home of Estadio OmniLife in 2010.
Manchester City F.C. shared their home stadium with Manchester United F.C. from 1945 until 1949.
Macclesfield Town F.C. shared their home stadium with Chester City F.C. from 1990 until 1992.
Bayern München and TSV 1860 München shared this stadium from 1972 until 2005.
Gillingham F.C. shared their home stadium with Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. from 1997 until 1999.
Crystal Palace F.C. shared their home stadium with Charlton Athletic F.C. from 1985 until 1991 and latterly Wimbledon F.C. from 1991 until 2003.
Juventus and Torino shared this stadium from 1990 until 2006.
Juventus and Torino shared this stadium from 1958 until 1990 and latterly from 2006 until 2011.
Los Angeles Galaxy and CD Chivas USA from 2005 until Chivas USA folded in 2013.
Bath City F.C. shared their home stadium with Bristol Rovers F.C. from 1986 until 1996 and latterly Team Bath F.C. from 1999 until 2009.
Dartford F.C. shared their home stadium with Maidstone United F.C. from 1988 until 1992.
Yomiuri Giants and Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (until 2004).
Widnes Vikings shared their home stadium with St Helens R.F.C. in 2011.
Dallas Mavericks (basketball) and Dallas Stars (ice hockey)
Bristol City FC and Bristol Rugby.
Colorado Avalanche (ice hockey) and Denver Nuggets (basketball)
BC Lions (Canadian football) and Vancouver Whitecaps FC (association football)
Toronto Argonauts (Canadian football) and Toronto FC (association football)
Darlington RFC (rugby league) and Darlington F.C. (association football)
Sheffield United F.C. (association football) share their home stadium with Sheffield Eagles (rugby league).
Brentford F.C. (association football) share their home stadium with London Irish (rugby union)
Washington Capitals (ice hockey) and Washington Wizards (basketball)
Seattle Seahawks (American football) and Seattle Sounders FC (association football)
Wasps (rugby union) share their home stadium with Coventry City F.C. (association football)
Wigan Athletic F.C. (association football) and Wigan Warriors (rugby league)
Vissel Kobe (association football) and Kobelco Steelers (rugby union)
Gateshead (association football) and Gateshead Thunder (Rugby League)
New England Patriots (US Football/NFL) and New England Revolution (US Major League Soccer)
Huddersfield Town A.F.C. (association football) and Huddersfield Giants (rugby league)
Hull City A.F.C. (association football) and Hull F.C. (rugby league)
Doncaster Rovers F.C. (association football) share their stadium with Doncaster (rugby league).
Detroit Pistons (basketball) and Detroit Red Wings (ice hockey)
New York Knicks (basketball) and New York Rangers (ice hockey)
Notts County F.C. (association football) share their home stadium with Nottingham R.F.C. (rugby union).
Newport County A.F.C. (association football) and Dragons RFC (rugby union).
Salford City Reds (rugby league) share their home stadium with Sale Sharks (rugby union).
Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (baseball) and Consadole Sapporo (association football)
Toronto Maple Leafs (ice hockey) and Toronto Raptors (basketball)
F.C. Halifax Town (association football) share their home stadium with Halifax (rugby league).
Rochdale A.F.C. (association football) share their home stadium with Rochdale Hornets (rugby league).
Red Star FC (association football) and Stade Français Paris (rugby union)
Los Angeles Lakers (basketball) and Los Angeles Clippers (basketball) share with the Los Angeles Kings (ice hockey).
Brisbane Broncos (rugby league), Queensland Roar (football) and Queensland Reds (rugby union)
Swansea City A.F.C. (association football) and Ospreys (rugby union).
Boston Bruins (ice hockey) and Boston Celtics (basketball)
Chicago Blackhawks (ice hockey) and Chicago Bulls (basketball)
Stourbridge FC (association football) and Stourbridge Cricket Club (cricket)
Philadelphia 76ers (basketball) and Philadelphia Flyers (ice hockey)
Júbilo Iwata (association football) and Yamaha Júbilo (rugby union)
New York Yankees (baseball) and New York City FC (soccer)
Wycombe Wanderers F.C. (association football) shared their home stadium with London Wasps (rugby union) from 2002 until 2014.
Brooklyn Nets (basketball) shared with New York Islanders (ice hockey) from 2015 to 2019
Oldham Athletic A.F.C. (football) shared their home stadium with Oldham R.L.F.C. (rugby league) from 1997 until 2001 and latterly from 2003 until 2009.
Yorkshire County Cricket Club (cricket) shared the stadium with Sheffield FC (football) from 1862 until 1875, Sheffield Wednesday F.C. (football) from 1868 until 1888 and Sheffield United F.C. (football) from 1889 until 1975.
St. Louis Cardinals (baseball) shared with St. Louis Cardinals (American football) from 1966 to 1987 and St. Louis Rams (American football) in 2005
Cardiff City F.C. (football) and Cardiff Blues (rugby union) from 2009 until 2012.
Preston North End F.C. (football) shared their home stadium with Lancashire Lynx (rugby league) from 1996 until 2000.
Fulham F.C. (football) shared their home stadium with Fulham RLFC (rugby league) from 1980 until 1984.
Rotherham United F.C. (football) shared with Sheffield Eagles (rugby league) in this predmoninately athletics stadium in 2008 and latterly from 2011 until 2012.
Stockport County F.C. (football) shared their home stadium with Sale Sharks (rugby union) from 2003 until 2012, when Sale moved to the Salford City Stadium.
Leeds United F.C. (football) shared their home stadium with Hunslet (rugby league from the mid-1980s until 1995.
New York Giants and New York Jets (American football) and New York Red Bulls (association football) until its demolition in 2009.
Brentford F.C. (football) shared their home stadium with London Broncos (rugby league) from 2002 until 2006.
Leeds Rhinos (rugby league) shared their stadium with Leeds Tykes (rugby union).
Minnesota Twins (baseball until 2009), Minnesota Vikings (American football – NFL), University of Minnesota Golden Gophers (American football – NCAA under 2009)
Seattle Seahawks (American football) shared with Seattle Sounders (association football) from 1976 to 1983, Seattle Mariners (baseball) from 1977 to 1999, and Seattle SuperSonics (basketball) from 1978 to 1985
Newcastle Falcons (rugby union), Newcastle Blue Star (now defunct) (football) until 2009.
Queens Park Rangers F.C. (football) shared their home stadium with London Wasps (rugby union) from 1996 until 2002 and latterly with Fulham F.C. (football) from 2002 until 2004.
Reading F.C. (association football) shared their home stadium with Richmond F.C. (rugby union) from 1998 until 1999 and subsequently with London Irish (also rugby union) from 2000 until 2020.
Bristol Rovers (football) and Bristol Rugby (rugby union) from 1996 until 2014
Oakland Athletics (baseball) and Oakland Raiders (American football)
Bradford Northern RLFC (rugby league) shared their home stadium with Bradford City A.F.C. (football) from 1985 until 1986.
Wrexham A.F.C. (football) shared their home stadium with North Wales Crusaders (rugby league) from 2012 until 2016.
Washington Redskins (football) shared with the second Washington Senators baseball from 1962 to 1971 and various NASL soccer clubs intermittently from 1968 to 1984, then D.C. United soccer in 1996; United then shared with the Washington Nationals from 2005 until 2007.
Halifax Town A.F.C. (football) from 1998 until 2008 shared their home with Halifax (rugby league).
Northampton Town F.C. shared their home stadium with Coventry City F.C. between 2013 and 2014.
Birmingham City F.C. shared their home stadium with Coventry City F.C. between 2019 and 2021.
Atlanta Hawks (basketball) shared their home arena with Atlanta Thrashers (ice hockey) between 1999 and 2011.
Los Angeles Galaxy (football) shared their home temporarily with the Los Angeles Chargers (American football)
Phoenix Coyotes (ice hockey) and Phoenix Suns (basketball)
Harlequin F.C. (rugby union) shared their home stadium with London Broncos aka Harlequins RL (rugby league) from 1997 until 1999 and latterly from 2007 until 2013.
Charlton Athletic F.C. (football) shared their home stadium with London Broncos (rugby league) from 1996 to 1997 and latterly from 1999 to 2000.
Bradford City A.F.C. (football) shared their home stadium with Bradford Park Avenue A.F.C. (football) from 1973 until 1974 and latterly Bradford Bulls (rugby league) from 2001 until 2002.
Watford F.C. (football) shared their home stadium with Wealdstone F.C. from 1991 until 1994 and latterly Saracens F.C. from 1997 until 2013.