Following Oxford's promotion from League One at the end of the 2023–24 season, the stadium will host Championship (second-tier) games for the first time in its history.

On 7 June 1995, directors of Oxford United Football Club announced that the cramped and outdated Manor Ground would be replaced by a new 16,000-seat stadium, situated in the Blackbird Leys area of the city, by the end of the decade.

Construction of the new stadium was begun in the summer of 1996 by Taylor Woodrow, but was suspended in December 1997 after financial problems meant the contractors weren't paid.

Oxford's fortunes on the pitch changed dramatically during this period of financial uncertainty, hardly helped by having to sell some of their best players in order to stay afloat.

The game was a friendly match against Crystal Palace, which Oxford won on penalties following a 1–1 draw, and Paul Powell scored the club's first goal at the ground.

"[1] In May 2012, rugby union club London Welsh applied to move their home ground to the Kassam Stadium following promotion from the RFU Championship, and their opening Premiership fixture was played there on 2 September 2012.

[10] In 2006–07, when Oxford led the Conference National for most of the season before being overhauled by Dagenham & Redbridge and then being eliminated from the playoffs by Exeter City, the average attendance at the Kassam Stadium was 6,332.

[11] Promotion back to the Football League was achieved via the playoffs in 2009–10, during which Oxford's average attendance enjoyed a dramatic rise and narrowly exceeded the 6,000 mark.

London Welsh's promotion was initially rejected by the governing Rugby Football Union, but the decision was successfully appealed by the club.

[18] The move to the Kassam was a result of the Premiership's minimum capacity requirement of 10,000, which the side's former ground at Old Deer Park in Richmond did not meet.

[19] London Welsh played their opening fixture of the 2012–13 Aviva Premiership season against Leicester Tigers on 2 September 2012, losing by 38 points to 13, in front of a crowd of 6,850 people.

[21] In June 2015, the club announced that they had left the Kassam Stadium, moving back to Old Deer Park for the 2015–16 season, despite having signed a three-year contract in 2014.

Thames Travel offer special matchday buses to and from the stadium at selected points around the city at various times before and after kick-off.

[28] In 2001, Bishop of Oxford Richard Harries conducted an exorcism after the feeling of a malicious force and the team's loss of thirteen of their first seventeen games at the new stadium was blamed on a gypsy curse placed on the club by a Roma man who had been evicted from the site during construction.