As well as staging local rugby competitions, the ground briefly hosted two short-lived football clubs – the original Rochdale A.F.C.

By the time the club joined the Football League in 1921, a low wooden grandstand had been built on the south side of the ground, once the location of the cricket pavilion.

The Main Stand features a statue of a long-standing Rochdale fan, David Clough, situated where he watched matches as a season-ticket holder.

Spotland Stadium was selected as a venue for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup hosting a match between Fiji and Ireland.

(Note that Spotland Stadium had earlier been used to host the match between Ireland and Moldova in the 1995 Emerging Nations tournament which ran alongside that year’s Rugby League World Cup, but this event is not considered to be part of the World Cup proper.)