Gallagher Stadium

James Whatman Way, currently known as the Gallagher Stadium, is a 4,200 capacity football stadium in Maidstone, Kent, England. It is home to National League club Maidstone United. Full construction of the stadium began in September 2011 and was completed in July 2012, with the stadium officially opening on 14 July 2012 when the club hosted Brighton & Hove Albion in a friendly.The Stadium3G Artificial PitchRather than the traditional choice of grass, Maidstone were the first English team to build a stadium with third generation artificial turf. The reasons for going with the synthetic turf were threefold, the first being to eliminate match postponements caused by waterlogging and freezing conditions, the second so that the pitch can be hired out, bringing in vital funds (around £120,000 to £150,000 profit per year), and thirdly so that the stadium can be a hub for all the club's youth and community teams. The pitch currently hosts the home matches of the club's first team, academy (under 18s), under 16s-13s and under 7s-8s. It is also used for training among a large number of the club's teams, and in addition is hired out to other organisations for wider community use.A downside of the 3G pitch is that so far the club has only gained permission to use the pitch in the Football Conference (Conference National / North & South) downwards. As a result of this, promotion to The Football League will not be possible until permission is granted from the league or the 3G turf is replaced with grass. In a bid to overcome these hurdles, Maidstone United head up a group of professional clubs looking to promote the merits of 3G surfaces called '3G4US'. However, as of the 2014–2015 competition, the FA allowed the use of 3G artificial pitches in every round of the FA Cup.