Rose Bowl/Ageas Bowl/Hampshire Bowl (West End)

The Rose Bowl, also known as The Ageas Bowl or the Hampshire Bowl, is a cricket ground with a capacity of 15,000, located at Botley Rd, West End, Southampton, United Kingdom. It is the home ground of Hampshire County Cricket Club since its opening in 2001. The Rose Bowl hosts test matches, One-Day Internationals, and Twenty20 International matches. There are a 4-star hotel and a golf course in the area. The Rose Bowl also hosts the home matches of Southern Vipers, a women’s cricket team.

General information

Official website: https://www.ageasbowl.com/

Arena capacity: 15,000 spectators

Address: Botley Rd, West End, Southampton SO30 3XH, UK

GPS coordinates for the navigator: 50.9240°N 1.3219°W

Year of construction: 2001

Seating plan of Rose Bowl

Rose Bowl stadium is a big outdoor stadium and it can accommodate around 90 thousand spectators. During High voltage events, the stadium gets very crowded and it is very difficult to find seat. Rose Bowl seating chart comes in very handy to locate seat inside the stadium. The entry and exit gates are clearly depicted on the map along with seating chart and rows. All the designs are also mentioned on the right side of the map so that visitors can find all the amenities of the stadium easily. ATM location, restroom location, Customer service and first aid location is clearly marked on the map.

Where to buy tickets?

It is advisable to book the Rose Bowl Stadium tickets only from official sources. Many websites are offering tickets so you should check the authenticity of the website before making any payment. Best view seats always sold out quickly as compared to other seats so spectators should plan accordingly. It’s suggested to book tickets in advance for the game. Below are the steps to book Rose Bowl Stadium tickets online from the official website.

1. Log on to the official or partner website selling Rose Bowl tickets online.
2. Sign up for the website if you are not a registered user.
3. Click on the ticket section and a new page will open.
4. All the games and events of Rose Bowl Stadium will be listed on the page along with the date.
5. Click on the event and all the available seats along with stands and ticket prices will be displayed.
6. After checking all the details choose the number of seats as per need and budget.
7. Click on the checkout button after checking all the details and amounts.
8. Complete the payment in online mode and after payment wait for the confirmation screen.
9. After the successful booking of entry tickets, all the details regarding Rose Bowl entry tickets and guidelines will be shared on the registered email.

Offline tickets are sold through the Rose Bowl stadium ticket office. Entry tickets are mandatory to get admission inside the stadium. Apart from the stadium, tickets are also sold through official outlets and kiosks.

How to get there?

You can find out more about travelling to The Rose Bowl, as well as view specific event/match travel information below.

By Bike

The Rose Bowl provides a free bicycle storage facility. Head towards the roundabout and follow directions from the traffic operatives. All parking is subject to availability and on a first come first served basis.

By Bus/Train

Hedge End train station is less than 2 miles away, approximately a 35-minute walk from The Rose Bowl and Hilton at The Rose Bowl.

Southampton Airport Parkway station is approximately 3.5 miles from The Rose Bowl and Hilton at The Rose Bowl and services the Waterloo to Weymouth South Western Railway Main Line.

Free rail shuttle buses will be operating from and to Southampton Airport Parkway and Hedge End Railway Stations from 1 hour before gates open and to 30 minutes after the match day has ended.

By Car

The roads around The Rose Bowl are likely to be busy throughout The Hundred, so allow plenty of time for your journey.

Parking must be pre-booked.

Be aware that on-site car parking may be located a short walk away from the gate and the surface may be grass.

On-site car parks will open 30 minutes before the scheduled gates opening time of the fixture, and will close 90 minutes after the match. Cars are not permitted to stay overnight.

Drivers on the day who have not pre-booked should use Southampton Airport Parkway Station’s Multi-Storey Car Park. From here you can catch the Shuttle Bus to the ground.

There is no car parking in local residential areas. Supporters may use official transport routes or get dropped off at the venue.

Where to eat and sleep?

There’s a range of food and drink outlets within the ground to suit all tastes. Food options around the ground include:

• Sanjha’s Punjabi Cuisine;
• Donna Italia Pizza;
• Burgers;
• Fish and Chips;
• Hog Roasts;
• Pasties;
• Chinese;
• Greek;
• Ice Cream.

Most stalls will offer vegetarian and/or vegan options as well as gluten-free, alongside halal and kosher options.

Note that no alcohol can be brought into the ground, only alcohol purchased on-site may be consumed. The Rose Bowl operates a strict ‘Challenge 25’ alcohol policy and as such anyone deemed to look Under 25 will be asked to provide photographic proof of their age, prior to being served alcohol.

A wide selection of non-alcoholic beverages will also be available for purchase at food and drink stalls all around the ground. We also offer non-alcoholic beer on all bars, plus a selection of non-alcoholic spirits at selected bars.

Spectators can bring in food, a sealed soft drink up to 500ml, or an empty water bottle to fill at the water fountains.

Water fountains will be available to fill water bottles up at the Hotel ends of the CIM and Shane Warne stands.

The venue is entirely cashless, so ensure that you bring appropriate cards with you if you would like to purchase anything in the venue.

The Rose Bowl is among the very few international cricket stadiums to possess a five-star hotel next door. The Hilton Hotel, along with the greenish mountain view on one side and a golf court by the other side, gives the stadium a divine touch.

Most importantly, an on-site hotel adjacent to the ground benefits the players in avoiding the long travel to get into the ground.

Facilities

Besides the main cricket ground at the Rose Bowl, an additional satellite ground borders the main ground to the southeast. Known as the Nursery Ground, it hosts Hampshire Second XI matches at the Hampshire Academy in Southern Premier Cricket League matches. Its end names are the Northern End and the Golf Club End. Its pavilion is named after Arthur Holt, who coached Hampshire from 1949 to 1965. The Nursery Ground has hosted one first-class match, Hampshire v Loughborough MCCU in April 2013.

The main pavilion, now known as the Rod Bransgrove Pavilion, holds the players facilities, as well as facilities for club members, such as the Robin Smith Suite, Derek Shackleton suite, the Richards Suite, the Greenidge Suite and The Hambledons (a suite named after the famous Hambledon Club). Located between the pavilion and the cricket academy building is the atrium restaurant. The cricket academy, which has six lanes of cricket nets is used by county squads, the Hampshire Academy, cricket clubs and schools. It is known to have some of the best facilities of its kind outside of Lord’s and is available for hire by the general public.

The two new stands include permanent catering facilities along the internal concourse of the ground floor, which were lacking prior to the redevelopment. Also located on the ground floor of the west stand is the club shop. Both of the new stands contain suites, which can be used for conferences and exhibitions outside of match days. The stands are named after two of Hampshire’s most popular captains, Colin Ingleby-MacKenzie and Shane Warne.

Also part of the Rose Bowl complex is the Boundary Lakes Golf Club, an eighteen-hole golf course opened in 2017 and set in the rolling countryside which surrounds large parts of the main stadium. The clubhouse and golf shop are located in the Hilton Hotel. A David Lloyd health club (formerly Virgin Active) is also onsite.

Every November the Rose Bowl hosts one of the largest fireworks displays on the South Coast. The Rose Bowl also acts as a venue big-name music concerts. Acts to have performed at the Rose Bowl include Oasis in 2005, who performed in front of 35,000 people, Billy Joel in 2006, the Who in 2007, Neil Diamond and R.E.M., both in 2008, Rod Stewart in 2016, Bryan Adams and Little Mix, both in 2017. The late Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti was due to play at the ground in 2006, but cancelled his farewell UK tour due to ill health.

Accessibility

To book a wheelchair or accessible ticket, call or email [email protected] to request a call back.

The Rose Bowl has a number of wheelchair accessible areas available to be booked. These areas will be supported by a dedicated Matchday Steward and provide space for an essential companion to sit alongside. It should be noted that the vast majority of seats at The Rose Bowl are not covered.

The Rose Bowl provides blue badge parking and accessible bus services from local transport hubs. To arrange this, contact the phone number or email outlined above.

There are clearly marked accessible gates at all entrances, these entrances allow access to the Rose Bowl’s famous berm, which provides a level surface around the entire ground.

Accessible lifts provide access to hospitality suites and the Roof Terrace and are positioned in the lobbies of the main stands, pavilion and hotel. Some areas of the ground, including pitch level, require navigation via a short flight of stairs.

There are accessible toilets located around the ground, at both ends of the Shane Warne and Ingleby-Mackenzie Stands, in the pavilion and at the Hilton End. For some matches these toilets are controlled by a RADAR key. If you have forgotten or do not have access to a RADAR key ask an Information Steward or staff in The Rose Bowl Store.

Assistance dogs are welcome at the venue.

Architectural Aspects

This ground was designed by architect Sir Michael Hopkins. The project consists of the centrepiece pavilion with a tented roof; the ground is built into the side of the gently sloping hill on which it is located, resulting in an amphitheatre bowl. The ground was christened The Rose Bowl, because the logo of this place is composed of a rose and crown and also because the ground is bowl shaped.

The addition of two new stands at The Rose Bowl cricket ground in Hampshire has increased capacity from 20,000 to 25,000, making it one of the largest grounds in the country. The number of permanent seats increased to 15,000.

Keen to ensure that the new stands fitted the original visual concept for the ground, a sickle structure was developed visually separating the roof to the permanent seating from the back of house structure, and expressed on the rear elevation by a large visually independent column supporting a timber louvered façade to marry with the surrounding landscape. The stands follow the curve of existing terracing to maintain the bowl concept.

The steel structure which provides the framing for the envelope consists of main frames radially placed at approximately 8.250m centres. Each frame comprises the central accommodation structure, consisting of two floors plus roof. This is 12.2m wide and formed of a regular grid of steel beams acting compositely with a 130mm in-situ slab on a profiled metal deck. A conventional built up system provides the roof to this structure.

Springing from the second floor, the terrace rakers slope down to meet the back of the existing terracing. The rakers are split into two spans by a mid-support, which follows the line of the back wall of the new welfare facilities.

Above the two storey structure supported on the front column is the sickle rafter, which forms the main structural member to the canopy roof. This rafter curves round the back corner of the two storey structure forming an independent column which slopes back into the building. This column is discretely connected back to the two storey structure at roof and floor levels. The sickle rafter is formed of standard UB sections with the curved portion formed in plates.

The structure in its final form is a simple braced structure with the floor slabs acting as diaphragms. The main (canopy) roof is braced for the full length to ensure effective transfer of lateral loads. Provision of vertical bracing was only possible longitudinally in the line of columns mid-span of the terrace rakers, and between the sickle columns to the rear of the building. No vertical bracing was possible radially or in the walls of the ‘back of house structure’ due to the numerous openings and glazed areas.

The sickle columns are discretely connected at each floor level and at roof to the accommodation block, taking the form of a radial prop between the columns on each line. At two locations along the length of each stand diagonal members spring from the 914 x 305 UB sickle columns to third points in the adjacent floor edge beams. By this means, the sickle columns are discretely connected to the ‘building’ structure, maintaining the required architectural illusion of independence. Thus, the vertical bracing between the sickle columns provides the lateral stability to the rear of the building.

The terrace rakers provide a natural brace up to second floor level, the column simply cantilevering from second floor to roof. Again, the connectivity to the sickle columns provides a degree of additional stiffness, due to the sheer size of these feature columns.

A cost-effective structural solution was delivered maintaining a ‘simple’ frame, avoiding the need to introduce significant moment connections into the structure, whilst meeting all the architectural requirements in terms of unhindered elevations within the accommodation building, and the main visual impact of an independent roof and rear feature wall.

Considering the rain factor, which has been the wrecker-in-chief of cricket in this geography, the ground is facilitated with a terrific drainage system.

History

The ground was constructed as a replacement for Hampshire’s previous home ground, the County Ground in Southampton, which had been Hampshire’s home ground since 1885. Hampshire played their first first-class match at the ground against Worcestershire on 9–11 May 2001, with Hampshire winning by 124 runs. The ground hosted some of the matches in the 2004 Champions Trophy. Twenty20 Internationals have also been played there, as well as a Test match in 2011, which saw England play Sri Lanka.

In order to be able to host Test cricket, the ground underwent a redevelopment starting in 2009, which saw the stands built to increase capacity and other construction work undertaken to make the hosting of international cricket at the ground more viable. The end names are the Pavilion End to the south and the Northern End to the north. Following Hampshire County Cricket Club finding itself in financial trouble in 2011, the ground was sold to Eastleigh Borough Council for £6.5 million in January 2012.