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Broadhall Way, known as the Lamex Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium located in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. It has served as the home ground of Stevenage Football Club (formerly Stevenage Borough) since 1980. Prior to this, the stadium was home to the town's former clubs: initially Stevenage Town from its opening in 1961 until 1968, and subsequently Stevenage Athletic, who used the stadium for eight years until the club folded in 1976.
Following Stevenage's 1995–96 Conference winning season, the stadium was deemed inadequate to meet Football League standards due to insufficient capacity and facilities. The stadium underwent significant renovations in 2001 and again in 2019 as Stevenage progressed through non-League football into the English Football League. The stadium holds a capacity of approximately 7,300 spectators.
Stevenage were denied promotion to the Football League after winning the Football Conference in the 1995–96 season because of insufficient ground capacity and inadequate facilities. Consequently, in the early 2000s, the ground underwent upgrades, including the construction of a £600,000 stand, and work on a £5million training facility was announced for nearby Shephalbury Park, which subsequently opened in autumn 2002. In June 2011, the club secured a 42-acre former sports ground in Bragbury End with the intention of developing the site into a new training complex. Construction commenced in the summer of 2011, and club staff began using the complex towards the latter stages of the 2012–13 season.
In January 2009, Stevenage announced a seven-figure sponsorship agreement with the Lamex Food Group, resulting in the renaming of Broadhall Way to the Lamex Stadium. Following the club's promotion as league champions during the 2009–10 Conference National season, Broadhall Way hosted Football League matches for the first time in the 2010–11 season. Prior to the construction of the new North Stand the stadium had a capacity of 6,722 people, including 3,142 seats reduced from 7,100 following the club's promotion to the Football League. The capacity increased to approximately 7,300 following the construction of the North Stand in December 2019.
The former North Terrace, located at the north end of the ground, was just seven steps deep. Three-quarters of the terrace was covered, whilst the remaining quarter was left uncovered. The stand had a capacity of 700, and provided facilities for disabled fans. In January 2013, the club announced plans to replace the existing North Terrace with a new £1.2 million, 1,700-seat stand, although this did not materialise due to "numerous obstacles". In July 2017, the club launched a mini-bond investment scheme through the sports investment platform Tifosy, in an effort to raise the remaining £500,000 required to fund the new stand. The £500,000 target was met within five weeks, following investment from over 200 supporters. A further £100,000 was raised in the days that followed.
The North Terrace was demolished in January 2018. Construction of the new North Stand was halted in June 2018, after UK Power Networks refused the club permission to build around the existing electrical substation. Work resumed in February 2019, following the installation of a new substation. The 1,428-seat, all-seater stand was officially opened in December 2019.
Situated opposite the North Stand, the South Stand is a single-tiered, all-seated, covered stand. Constructed in 2001 at a cost of £600,000, it is designated for away supporters and has a capacity of 1,390. An electronic scoreboard is mounted at the centre of the roof, originally installed in 2001 and positioned to be clearly visible to home supporters. This scoreboard was replaced in October 2011. Behind the stand is the supporters' club. A new set of floodlights were installed ahead of the club's 2007–08 season.
For a five-year period, the ground also hosted the Tottenham Hotspur reserve team, with the North London club opting to use Leyton Orient's Brisbane Road for the start of the 2007–08 season due to its more convenient geographical location. Since September 2014, the stadium has again hosted a number of Tottenham under-21 matches each season.
At the end of the 2005–06 season, Broadhall Way also hosted the Conference South play-off final between St Albans City and Histon, a match that St Albans won 2–0 in front of 3,284 spectators. The following year, the stadium hosted the play-off final once more, with 3,167 in attendance to watch Salisbury City defeat Braintree Town 1–0, thereby securing promotion to the Conference Premier. It hosted the final for the third and final time in May 2008, when Eastbourne Borough beat Hampton & Richmond Borough 2–0. In addition to football, the stadium has also hosted other sporting and community events, including charity matches and a professional boxing event on 18 May 2019, when Billy Joe Saunders defeated Shefat Isufi to win the WBO super-middleweight title.
Since Stevenage's promotion to the Football Conference in 1994, average attendances at Broadhall Way have demonstrated a steady overall increase. The club's first season in the Football League saw an average attendance of 2,897, surpassing the previous high of 2,855 set during the 1996–97 season. This figure rose significantly in the following season, with an average of 3,559 recorded during the club's first season in League One, marking the first time Stevenage had averaged over 3,000 spectators and exceeding a cumulative home attendance of 100,000 across the season.
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