Bramall Lane
Template:Football stadium Bramall Lane Stadium is the home of Sheffield United Football Club in Sheffield, England. It is named after Bramall Lane, a road in Sheffield and is the oldest major stadium in the world still to be hosting professional football matches. [citation needed] It had been the home first of Sheffield F.C. but since 1889 it has been the home of Sheffield United. It was also used for some games in the 19th century by Sheffield Wednesday. It has been the scene of many firsts within football.
Bramall Lane is one of only two grounds (the other being the Oval) which has hosted England football internationals (five games prior to 1930), an England cricket test match in 1902 against Australia and a FA Cup Final Replay in 1912, when Barnsley beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0. It also regularly hosted FA Cup Semi Finals and Replays between 1889 and 1938.
The ground has also hosted rugby league games for the Sheffield Eagles, a Billy Graham Evangelist meeting in 1985 and even a rock concert for Bruce Springsteen in 1988.
The record attendance for the ground is 68 287, set at an FA Cup 5th Round tie between Sheffield United and Leeds United on February 15, 1936. The ground has now been extensively renovated in the wake of the Taylor Report, and has an all-seated capacity of 33 000. [1]
History
Bramall Lane was first opened on April 30 1855 as a cricket ground for a match between "The Eleven" and "The Twenty Two", having been leased from the Duke of Norfolk at an annual rent of £70. It was built to host the matches of local cricket clubs. It was managed by an umbrella organisation for these clubs, the Sheffield United Cricket Club. Yorkshire County Cricket Club played their first match at the ground on August 27 1855, against Sussex County Cricket Club. The ground hosted its first football match on 29 December 1862, between Sheffield F.C. and Hallam F.C. The game was played to raise money for the Lancashire Distress Fund and ended 0-0.
As Sheffield's main sporting stadium it held all the most important local matches. The world's first football tournament, the Youdan Cup, held its final at Bramall Lane in March 1867 with Hallam beating Norfolk. This was followed by the Cromwell Cup a year later, which was won by a newly formed team called The Wednesday. By 1877, a crowd of 8,000 were watching The Wednesday play Hallam in the Sheffield Challenge Cup.
The first inter-association match, between the FA (often referred to as the London FA) and Sheffield FA, was also held at Bramall Lane in December 1871. It was won by the home side, who also arranged a number of games with other Associations including regular fixtures against Glasgow.
The first ever floodlit football match took place at Bramall Lane on 14 October 1878 in front of an attendance on 12,000. England's match against Scotland on 10 March 1883 was the first outside London and Glasgow. It makes it the oldest international football venue still capable of hosting international matches in the world.
On March 22, 1889, six days after 22,688 people paid to watch the FA Cup semi-final between Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion, it was decided to create a home football team to play at Bramall Lane. It was named Sheffield United after the cricket team.
Cricket at Bramall Lane
Bramall Lane opened as a cricket ground in 1855. The site was then away from the town's industrial site, and relatively free from smoke. Yorkshire County Cricket Club, formed in Sheffield in 1863, played regularly at the ground. It was the club's headquarters until 1903, when they moved to Headingley in Leeds.
The ground hosted a single Test match in 1902, against Australia, which England lost by 143 runs.[2] The defeat was blamed on the poor light at the ground, a product of smoke emitted by local factories. Attendances were poor, and the experiment was never repeated.
Yorkshire's last match at the ground occurring on 4, 6 and 7 August 1973, a drawn game against Lancashire. The construction of the South Stand began soon after, over the cricket square, finally enclosing the football pitch on all four sides.[3]
The two ends of the ground were known as the Pavilion End and the Football Ground End.
The Ground Today
The Stands
The ground has been all seated since 1994 and is now made up of four main stands and two corner infill stands in the North-East and South-West corners. The North-West corner (as well as a lot of the land under the John Street Stand contains the Blades Business Centre, and the South-East corner is still open, although there are plans to fill it with seating as part of the strategy to build a leisure complex at the back of the South Stand.
The Bramall Lane Stand
(sponsored by Halliwell's)
The oldest present stand at Bramall Lane, opened in 1966, this two-tiered structure is situated along Bramall Lane, and gives the stand and ground its name. It is situated behind the opposite goal to the Kop and is made up of two tiers. From the 2006-2007 Premiership Campaign, the bottom tier is occupied by away fans whilst the upper tier, which links into the South-West corner infill stand, is given to home fans (although part of the upper tier may be offered to away fans if the demand is present, as in the Premiership opener against Liverpool. This is in contrast to previous seasons, when away fans had the upper tier (and hence the best view in the ground) much to the the annoyance of home fans. During the 2005-2006 season, the outside of the Bramall Lane Stand was given a new red-and-white reclad, with the stand sponsors and the club crest on the outside of the stand, while the wooden seats of the upper tier were replaced with newer plastic seats with the words "BLADES" written into them. When the corner infill stand was built during the closed season, the roof over the Bramall Lane Stand was extended toward the pitch to provide better cover for the lower tier and to remove the supporting pillars from the upper tier. There are approx 2 700 seats in the upper tier, and 2 500 in the lower, giving a total capacity of 5 200.
The South Stand
(sponsored by Global Windows)
The South Stand is also known as the "Main Stand", the "Laver Stand" (after the stand's long-term sponsors) or even the "New Stand" by many older fans since there was no stand on the South end of the pitch until 1975, where previously it was used as the cricket pitch's outfield. Opened in August 1975, the South Stand is situated alongside the pitch and is for home fans who wish to have a side-view when watching the match (the John Street Stand is for families only). During the 2005-2006 season, this stand was renovated, with a re-clad of the outside of the stand and the old wooden seats replaced by newer plastic seats forming an emblem of two swords written. There was also an upgrade of the box-seats. This stand holds approximately 8 000 fans, and most of the ground's amenities, including the Box office, Blades Superstore, Platinum Suite, Hall of Fame, police control centre, newly refurbished reception, Press box and the Club's administrative offices. It also houses a television gantry.
The Kop Stand
(sponsored by Hallam FM)
Seated since 1991, this is the area in which the most boisterous home fans sit, such that former assistant manager Kevin Blackwell named the noise coming from this stand as the "Bramall Roar" after the 2002 play-off semi-final against second-leg Nottingham Forest, which the Blades won 4-3, coming from 0-2 down. The stand itself is built into a hillside situated behind the goal, along along the East side of the pitch. This places the stand along Shoreham Street, hence the often-heard chant of "Hello! Hello! We are the Shoreham Boys" coming from this stand on matchdays. Many supporters hold season tickets in the Kop. It has the club's initials "SUFC" written into the seats, and holds around 10 000 fans, making this the largest stand at Bramall Lane. The facilities are of lower quality in the Kop because there is no indoor concourse but in spite of this it is still a firm favourite amongs the fans, and usually full on matchday.
The John Street Stand
(sponsored by Capital One)
The John Street stand, completed in 1996, is used as a family enclosure for home fans and is situated alongside the pitch, boasting great views of the playing action. It has the word "BLADES" written in the seats, and holds around 7 500 fans. This is also where the disabled supporters may sit. The stand is home to a small club shop as well as the Carlsberg Suite and the newly reopened Tunnel Bar. There is also a row of executive boxes along the back of the stand.
Kop Corner
(sponsored by Streetwise Sports)
Also called the Northeast Corner, this stand was completed in 2001 and is between the Kop and the John Street stand. It is fully linked to the John Street Stand, and is also used as a family enclosure holding 700 fans.
Westfield Health Stand
(sponsored by Westfield Health)
Also known as the "new" corner infill, this stand is in the South-West corner of the stadium, between the Bramall Lane Stand and the South Stand. It is linked to the Bramall Lane stand (upper tier), sharing its facilities, turnstiles and exits. It is always used by home fans, and reputedly has the best views of the ground, although season tickets are not available in this stand. The stand holds approximately 2 000 fans.
The South-West corner is filled in by rentable offices, known as the Blades Business Centre (an example of the Blades building their off-the-field activities), while the South-east corner is still open land.
Current and Ongoing Work
The Club have also announced their medium term intention to replace the Shoreham Kop Stand with a new two tiered stand. However the Club are yet to announce when these works will commence. There are also plans to build a hotel, recently approved by Sheffield City Council.
Record Attendance
The record attendance since the 1994 introduction of all specatators being seated is 32,584 at the Sheffield United v Manchester United game in the Premiership League, on 18 November, 2006.[4]
Sheffield United F.C. Average League Attendances (at Bramall Lane)
- 1996-1997: 16,638
- 1997-1998: 17,942
- 1998-1999: 16,243
- 1999-2000: 13,718
- 2000-2001: 17,211
- 2001-2002: 18,020
- 2002-2003: 20,069
- 2003-2004: 21,646
- 2004-2005: 19,594
- 2005-2006: 23,650
- 2006-2007: 30,082 (correct as of 2006-11-18)
Notes & References
- ^ Adams, Duncan. "Bramall Lane, Sheffield United Football Club". Football Grounds Guide. Retrieved 2006-11-24.
- ^ "England v Australia at Sheffield". CricInfo England. Retrieved 2006-11-24.
- ^ http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/152490.html
- ^ "Match report from BBC Sport". BBC Sport. 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-18.
External links
- Bramall Lane Football Stadium profile from The Internet Football Ground Guide
- when Bramall Lane was a first-class Cricket Ground from CricInfo
53°22′13″N 1°28′15″W / 53.37028°N 1.47083°W
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