The Kassam Stadium is the home ground of Oxford United FC and London Welsh Rugby Football Club. It is named after the stadium’s owner, and former chairman of the football club, British businessman of Indian descent Firoz Kassam. He bought the club in 1999 for £1, with the debts, of course, which that time were near £13 millions of pounds. The club was previously based at The Manor Ground.
On 30 May 2012, rugby union side London Welsh RFC played the second leg of the 2011-12 RFU Championship Play-off final with the Cornish Pirates at the Kassam Stadium. London Welsh won the match 29-20 in front of a crowd of 3,456. The victory gave them an overall aggregate win of 66-41.
The stadium became London Welsh’s home ground for the 2012-13 season in the English Premiership. London Welsh’s promotion was initially rejected by the governing Rugby Football Union, but the decision was successfully appealed by the club.
The move to the Kassam was a result of the Premiership’s minimum capacity requirement of 10,000, which the side’s former ground at Old Deer Park in Richmond did not meet.
London Welsh played their opening fixture of the 2012-2013 Aviva Premiership season against Leicester Tigers on 2 September 2012, losing by 38 points to 13, in front of a crowd of 6,850 people. In 2015 London Welsh RFC returned to Old Deer Park, after a few seasons at the Kassam Stadium.