Stoke City

Despite the feeling that The Britannia Stadium, now the Bet365 Stadium, has been around forever, it was, in fact, opened officially on the 30th August 1997. It cost £14.7 million and was a replacement for The Victoria Ground, the stadium that Stoke had called home since 1878. The Britannia Stadium gained its name from the fact that it was sponsored by The Britannia Building Society, the company being instrumental in the funding of the new ground. Unfortunately The Britannia Building Society has now gone bust, but Stoke City did keep the name of the ground due to fan pressure. As of 2016 the ground is now named after sponsors Bet365, the international bookie began life in Stoke and still has offices based there employing a lot of local people. The owners of Bet365 are massive Stoke City fans and are sure to maintain investment in the stadium now they've added their name to it. Stoke City themselves went from being one of the Premier League’s most unpopular teams thanks to the style of football introduced by former manager Tony Pulis, to becoming widely admired under the leadership of Mark Hughes. The former Manchester United midfielder got the team playing some attractive football with a squad containing more Champion’s League winning players than any other team in the league at one point, as well as attaining the club's highest ever league position finishing 9th three seasons in a row. A sharp decline in 2018 saw Hughes sacked, and the club relegated to the Championship soon after.