25 Oldest Stadiums in the World Still in Use (2026)

This list ranks the 25 oldest sports venues still in active use anywhere in the world — places where professional sport is still played in 2026, some of them nearly two centuries after the first match.

The rule: a purpose-built sports venue with permanent spectator accommodation that still hosts regular professional, first-class or senior international sport, ranked by the year it opened in its present continuous-use form. Cricket and football grounds count — Lord’s has more permanent seating than most football stadiums. A venue that lay derelict for centuries before being rebuilt is dated from the rebuild, which is the single decision that most changes this list.

The Ranking

A Sheffield Field From 1804

Sandygate Road in Sheffield is recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest football ground on Earth, and Hallam FC still play there. On Boxing Day 1860 it hosted the first football match ever played between two clubs — Hallam against Sheffield FC — on a pitch that had already been in use for over half a century. Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground (1807) is close behind and holds a record of its own: it is the world’s oldest international football stadium still hosting internationals.

From there the list is a tour through the birth of organised sport. Lord’s (1814) is where Thomas Lord carted his turf across London for the third and final time. The Oval (1845) staged England’s first home Test, the first FA Cup final and the first England–Scotland football match. Bramall Lane (1855) is the oldest major stadium still hosting professional football and put on the world’s first floodlit match in 1878.

The Two Ancient Cases

Two famous venues are far older than anything on this list, and both deserve an honest explanation rather than a quiet omission.

The Arena di Verona was built around AD 30 and has never stopped being used — but its regular programme is opera, not sport, so it falls outside the rule. It does still take occasional sport (five Giro d’Italia stage finishes) and it hosted the closing ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics. Judged as “any venue still hosting major events”, it beats Sandygate Road by roughly 1,775 years.

Athens’ Panathenaic Stadium has a stadium history reaching back to the 6th century BC and a marble rebuild under Herodes Atticus around AD 144. But Theodosius I banned athletic festivals in the 4th century, and the stadium lay buried under a wheat field for roughly 1,400 years until it was excavated in 1869 and rebuilt in marble for the 1896 Olympics. Under the continuous-use rule it is a venue from 1896 — genuinely active today as the Athens Marathon finish, but roughly fortieth on this list. Ranked by the founding of the site, it would lead by two and a half millennia.

Why No American Stadiums?

Fenway Park (1912) and Wrigley Field (1914) are the grand old cathedrals of American sport, and neither comes close to this list — they would rank somewhere in the fifties. The oldest continuously used American sports site is Franklin Field in Philadelphia (1895), where college football has been played for over 130 years, and Harvard Stadium (1903) is the oldest original stadium structure in the country. The reason the top 25 is almost entirely British and Commonwealth is simple: cricket and association football are the only sports with a documented, unbroken tradition of purpose-built venues predating 1880.

Just Outside the 25

Edgbaston, Ewood Park, Taunton and Barbados’ Kensington Oval all date to 1882; Turf Moor to 1883; Anfield to 1884, built for Everton before Liverpool existed. Newlands in Cape Town opened in 1888. Goodison Park (1892) deserves a note of its own — Everton’s men left in 2025 but the ground was not demolished, and it is now the largest dedicated women’s football stadium in the UK.

FAQ

What is the oldest stadium in the world still in use?

Sandygate Road in Sheffield, England, in use since 1804 and still home to Hallam FC. Guinness World Records recognises it as the world’s oldest football ground.

What is the oldest stadium in the United States?

Franklin Field in Philadelphia, opened in 1895, is the oldest American sports site still in continuous use; Harvard Stadium (1903) is the oldest original stadium structure. Fenway Park (1912) and Wrigley Field (1914) are considerably younger than the oldest venues worldwide.

Doesn’t the Colosseum or the Arena di Verona count?

The Arena di Verona (about AD 30) is still standing and still in use, but its regular programme is opera rather than sport, so it sits outside this ranking — though it did host the 2026 Winter Olympics closing ceremony. Athens’ Panathenaic Stadium is dated 1896 here, because it spent roughly 1,400 years abandoned and buried before being rebuilt for the first modern Olympics.

Photo: Hugh Chevallier via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)