Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Iffley Road rugby football ground


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   keep. There is a clear consenus that this content should be kept in some form, however there is no consensus whether it warrants a separate article or not. Anybody is free to open a merge discussion on the talk page. (non-admin closure) Armbrust The Homunculus 12:49, 28 May 2014 (UTC)

Iffley Road rugby football ground

 * – ( View AfD View log  Stats )

Eminently non-notable football ground; article has not a single reference that might indicate notability. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 19:06, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Utterly insane nomination of a ground that has hosted international rugby union matches, the home stadium for Oxford University's rugby union, the home of one of only four semi-professional rugby league teams in the South of England and contains a listed building. The only thing this is not is a "football stadium". Just slap "sources needed" tag on it and leave it alone.GordyB (talk) 19:57, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
 * And I've added two references. More will follow.GordyB (talk) 20:36, 19 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Merge selectively to Oxford University Rugby Football Club. Almost all the information in the article is a copy-paste/close paraphrase from the OU RFC website. The nearby stadium and running track on Iffley Road gets the vast bulk of the coverage as far as I can see. One of the existing sources in this article is a tiny mention, while another verifies something entirely different. Sionk (talk) 23:22, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of England-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 04:52, 20 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Rugby union-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 04:52, 20 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Based on the current article merge is right. This ground does have an interesting history, but at the moment there's little of substance in the article, and the references are just passing mentions.  Probably easier to develop a section elsewhere and then spin it off if it ever gets big enough to stand on its own. Jonathan A Jones (talk) 07:02, 20 May 2014 (UTC)
 * I'd also support a merge in line with User:Jonathan A Jones's comment above. --Bcp67 (talk) 08:26, 20 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Merge, probably to Oxford University Rugby Football Club, unless we can justify a blanket article for the various University sports facilities in this area. There are several of these situated in the area bounded by St Hilda's College (to the north), the River Cherwell (to the west), Iffley Road and Bannister Close (to the east) and Jackdaw Lane (to the south). They host a wide variety of sports, including association football, athletics, cricket, field hockey, netball, Rugby football (both codes) and tennis (both hardcourt and lawn). The famous athletics track is at the centre of this group; the Rugby ground is the south-easternmost (Bannister Close backs onto it). There's a row of tall trees (poplar?) between the athletics track and the rugby ground; this might indicate a land ownership boundary. -- Red rose64 (talk) 10:23, 20 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Note that the Rugby Ground is not a University sports facility: it is owned and managed separately by the Rugby Club, which is an independent organisation. Bannister Close was built on Rugby Club ground if I recall correctly.  I think the land you mention all originally belonged to Christ Chuch who retain control of part of it, sold some to the University and the Rugby Club, and rent some to Magdalen College School. This is the "interesting history" I hint at above.  Jonathan A Jones (talk) 18:28, 20 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Comment: The problem with "merge" is that the facilities aren't just used by OURFC. They are also used by a semi-professional rugby league club Oxford Rugby League. This would mean that the template for the grounds used in the Championship 1 competition would contain a link to the OURFC article - not only are they the wrong club but also the wrong sport.GordyB (talk) 18:22, 20 May 2014 (UTC)
 * That's a problem with the template. Many of the third tier rugby stadia are not notable (or have no evidence of notability). From my understanding of your article, this football ground is owned and run by OU RFC. Sionk (talk) 19:02, 20 May 2014 (UTC)
 * No evidence of notability is not the same as "not notable". Rugby is not generally a controversial topic and, on the whole, people do not try to delete articles so there hasn't been a need to justify the existence of 99.9% of rugby articles.GordyB (talk) 19:20, 20 May 2014 (UTC)
 * This page will presumably survive as a redirect, and there's nothing wrong with liking to the redeirect page per MOS:REDIR. You can even mark this page as a "redirect with possibilities" per WP:RWP in anticipation of a later spin off article. Jonathan A Jones (talk) 19:56, 20 May 2014 (UTC)
 * I could live with that because the subject is notable and given time I can find enough resources. What I don't need is a deletion.GordyB (talk) 20:57, 20 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Keep - there are now references, there are no real issues of copy-violation just a smokescreen. Yes, some info does come from the OURFC website but one or two sentences doesn't constitute copy-vio. See .GordyB (talk) 18:49, 20 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Keep. It's notable and just needs added sources and a rewrite. SW3 5DL (talk) 01:10, 22 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Keep - Springboks have played there 5 times, All Blacks 6 times and Wallabies 8 times. If you check the wiki pages for those sides UK tours then you can see the game and result - don't have time at the moment to link them all Grousehouse (talk) 16:01, 22 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Keep. Notability of this as a location for playing rugby is not in question. Apparently brought to AfD under the misapprehension that this is a football ground. --Andreas Philopater (talk) 22:36, 24 May 2014 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.