Chonburi Municipality Stadium (Chonburi)

Chonburi Municipality Stadium is a sports stadium in the city of Chonburi. A multi-purpose arena, it is best known for hosting the matches of Chonburi FC when they played in the Provincial League in the 2002 and 2003 seasons.

Once accepted into the Thai Premier League in 2006, Chonburi played at the stadium until 2008, with its capacity sometimes tested as the club pushed for honours, as the Sharks were Thai Premier League champions in 2007 and finished as runners-up in 2008.

The stadium was also the home to Coke-Bangpra FC for the 2008 season in the Thai Premier League before they changed their name to Pattaya United who relocated down the coast. The venue's owners ended its agreement with Chonburi FC, who moved to Princess Sirindhorn Stadium in Si Racha.

My visit

Stadium Visit
Friday 25th March 2022

Several years earlier, I had headed south from Ekkamai bus station to spend a few hours in Chonburi and hopefully take photos of the Municipality Stadium. This was before the days of having a phone with a map app.

The day turned into a shambles as I caught a songthaew and ended up taking photos of the basic stadium of Chonradsadornumrung School. It was obvious that I was in the wrong place, so I asked a motorcycle taxi driver to take me to my original intended target.

We went all of twenty yards before I had to abort, being totally petrified. Instead, I ended up going back to the old bus station in the town centre and headed back towards the capital, misjudging the volume of traffic.

My pal Steve was not massively impressed when I finally returned, as he had to sit outside the house after a stressful day at work, on a very hot afternoon. Ironically, I eventually visited the stadium on a trip when I had no intention of doing so beforehand.

I’d been to the Thailand v Nepal friendly international the previous evening at Chonburi Stadium, then hung around Central Chonburi hoping that a van might stop heading back towards Bangkok, or ideally Minburi.

Nothing was happening, so when a songthaew pulled over, I jumped aboard, knowing it would head towards the old city where my van had stopped a couple of times on the way down. The only problem was that it veered off the main drag.

On this occasion,n I was fully equipped with technology, so there was no problem. The transport continued to Mueang Chon Buri District Office, where I alighted and headed towards the stadium. Before I got there. I enjoyed a walk around the beautiful Suan Tamnaknam public park.

There was no access inside the arena, but plenty of views inside were afforded, so I snapped away at a venue that obviously was once popular, but by now had overgrown and was looking very shabby.

It was noticeable just how far away the stands were from the pitch, as I commented online that it would be a great venue for Cricket Sixes, which I administer in Thailand. The shale track was virtually overgrown. It painted a sorry picture.

It was time for me to make tracks, and I enjoyed a pleasant walk back towards Sukhumvit Road, passing the square where the night market sets up, and the Chonburi Provincial Hall. I walked a mile or so up the main road and found a stop with some vans parked outside.

After a little bit of confusion, I was put aboard one of them, where it was explained that I would be deposited at Market Village Suvarnabhumi in Bang Na, from where another vehicle would take me to Minburi.

And that’s exactly how it worked out. A cheap return journey costing 180 THB, and I had learned a most useful link to get back home when attending football down that way.

Many thanks to Chonburi FC fan Dale for providing information for this piece. He compiles the excellent and highly recommended fanzine/blog, It's A Habit That Sticks, as well as editing A Thai Football Podcast, which comes out weekly.