Hillsborough Stadium

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Hillsborough
Full name	Hillsborough Stadium
Built	1899
Opened	2 September 1899
Capacity	39,859 (all seated)
Home of	Sheffield Wednesday
Pitch size	116 x 71 yards (approx 106 x 65 m)

Hillsborough Stadium is the home of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club in Sheffield, England. Association Football has been played at the ground since it was opened on 2 September 1899, when Wednesday moved from their original ground at Olive Grove.

Today it is a 39,859 all-seater stadium, making it the largest stadium in the city. The vast majority of the seats are covered. It is located in the Sheffield suburb of Owlerton and is named after the local parliamentary constituency.

Although the ground has received little investment since Euro 1996, it is still regarded as "a beautiful ground oozing character." ^[1] It has two large separate two tiered stands and two large single tiered stands, all of which are covered. All four stands are of a similar size in terms of capacity, but with the South stand being the largest and the West stand (used for away fans) the smallest. Only one corner of the ground is filled, between the West and North Stands. This area, known as the North West terrace, is uncovered and is only used for visiting supporters when the West stand upper and lower tiers are full. On the other corner of the West stand is an electronic scoreboard.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Search for a new home 1.2 Early years 1.3 Post war 1.4 Hillsborough disaster 1.5 All-seater era 2 Stands 2.1 North Stand 2.2 West Stand 2.3 South Stand 2.4 Spion Kop 3 Location 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Search for a new home

During the 1898-99 season Sheffield Wednesday were told that the land rented at Olive Grove would be needed for railway expansions.^[2] They were allowed to remain there for the rest of that season but had to find a new ground for the next season. Several locations were considered but fell through for various reasons. An alternative was offered by the Midland Railway Company but it didn't meet the requirements of the club.

Finally James Dixon, owner of the Silversmiths James Dixon's, offered a 10 acre site at Owlerton, a sparsely populated area of land to the northwest of the city. It was successfully bought for £5,000 GBP plus costs. The 2,000 capacity stand at Olive Ground was then transported to the new site and was joined by a newly constructed 3,000 capacity stand for the start of the next season.^[3] The first match to be played was on 2 September 1899 against Chesterfield. It was a Chesterfield player, Herbert Munday, who scored the first goal at the new stadium but Wednesday came back to win the game 5-1. Despite the location of the ground several miles outside the city boundaries and a poor public transport service the new ground averaged 3,000 supporters for the first three months.^[2]

[edit] Early years

The ground was known as the Owlerton Stadium until 1914, when it was renamed Hillsborough to coincide with a series of ground improvements. The ground took its new name from the newly created parliamentary constituency.^[4] The ground proved to be lucky for Wednesday with the first 8 years proving to be their most successful so far. They included their first league wins in the 1902-03 and 1903-04. This was followed by a second FA Cup in 1908.

The first FA Cup semi-final to be held at the stadium was a replay between West Bromwich Albion and Blackburn Rovers on 3 April 1912.^[5] A crowd of 20,050 saw an extra time goal give West Brom the win. This was followed by its first international on 10 April 1920. A match between England and Scotland was watched by 25,536. The game ended with England winning 5-4. The following two seasons saw Hillsborough host two more FA Cup semi-finals, both between Preston North End and Tottenham Hotspur. The crowds for these matches were 43,320 and 49,282 respectively. The highest ever attendance was 72,841 on February 17, 1934 for an FA Cup 5th round game against Manchester City.

[edit] Post war

During the post war era Hillsborough rose to be one of the top stadiums in the country. It hosted a total of 27 FA Cup semi-finals. In 1966, the stadium was selected as one of the venues for the Football World Cup, hosting first round matches involving West Germany, Argentina, Switzerland, and Spain, as well as a quarterfinal in which West Germany beat Uruguay 4-0.

The ground held its first national cup final when it played host to Everton and Aston Villa for a Football League Cup final replay. A crowd of 52,135 watched a 1-1 draw leading to another replay. At the end of the 1980s the ground held three successive FA Cup semis ending with the tragic events that changed the nature of football grounds throughout the country.

[edit] Hillsborough disaster

In 1989, the ground was the scene of tragedy when 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death in an FA Cup semi-final in the infamous Hillsborough disaster. This prompted a series of improvements to safety at the ground; the terraced stands were converted to all seated accommodation over the following four years, and the fences around the pitch were replaced with low safety-barricades to allow incursion onto the playing surface in case of emergency.

Outside the ground, near the main entrance on Parkside Road, is a memorial to the 96 fans that lost their lives at Hillsborough in 1989, during the FA Cup Semi Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

[edit] All-seater era

In 1996, Hillsborough was host to several fixtures at the Euro 96 competition and in particular was host to the Danish squad. The Danish fans endeared themselves to the local population with their fanatical support and exemplary behaviour, and were particularly popular amongst local landlords - a number of Sheffield public houses had to order emergency supplies of beer and cigarettes

In 1997 Hillsborough hosted its first major domestic match since the disaster. The League Cup final replay between Leicester City and Middlesbrough was played at the ground. It was won by Leicester by one goal to nil. Later the same year Middlesbrough returned to Hillsborough for a FA Cup semi-final replay in which they beat Chesterfield by three goals to nil.

The record attendance since the ground was made all-seated was on February 2, 2000 in a Premier League game against Manchester United and was watched by 39,640 fans. In recent years average attendances at Hillsborough have remained high despite Wednesday's relatively poor league position:

• 2005-06: 24,853 (Football League Championship)
• 2004-05: 23,100 (Football League One)
• 2003-04: 22,336 (Division Two)
• 2002-03: 20,327 (Division One)

[edit] Stands

[edit] North Stand

Constructed: 1960-1961

Capacity: 9,255 (seated)

Sponsored by Sheffield Assay Office

The original North Stand was built between 1899 and 1903. In the early sixties this was replaced by the current North Stand which runs along the long north edge of the pitch, and was the second football stand in Britain to have a cantilever roof (thus amongst some fans, it is known as "the cantilever"). It was however the first in the country to run the entire length of the pitch; the first cantilever stand in English football at Scunthorpe United's Old Show Ground only covered the centre of the pitch. Hillsborough is the only football ground to be mentioned in Nikolaus Pevsner's Buildings of England due to this stand.

At the time of opening the stand was the best new stand to be built since Arsenal's East Stand at Highbury in the thirties.

"There is not a misplaced line in this remarkable stand. From any angle (it) is quite breathtaking. It is like an architect’s model of the dream stand of the future, a space age stand." Simon Inglis ^[6]

[edit] West Stand

Constructed: 1966

Capacity: 7,995 (seated)

Situated at the Leppings Lane end of the ground, the West Stand seats the away supporters on Wednesday home games.

The original stand built at the turn of the century was a covered terrace housing up to 3,000 fans. In the 1920s this was joined by the North West terrace before the Leppings Lane stand was replaced by a 12,000 capacity partially covered terrace. Before the 1966 World Cup the West Stand was demolished again and replaced by a two-tiered structure with 4,471 seats in the upper tier and retaining a terrace in front of the stand. After the infamous Hillsborough disaster in 1989 the lower tier terrace was closed for two years and replaced by 2,294 seats. The North West terrace was the last section of the stand to be made all seated, adding another 1,382 seats to the structure. The North West terrace (still referred to as a terrace despite now being all seated) is the only section of the stadium to remain uncovered and is hence only used for visiting supporters at big games when the West Stand upper and lower tiers are full.

[edit] South Stand

Constructed: 1913-1914

Capacity: 11,354 (seated)

Sponsored by Windsor Foodservice

The first South Stand was originally constructed at Olive Grove, but moved with the club in the summer of 1899 to the new site at Owlerton where it was reconstructed brick-by-brick.

The modern stand, the oldest remaining stand at the ground, was constructed in 1913 for a fee exceeding £17,000 to a design by Archibald Leitch. The stand had 5,600 seats as well as room for 11,000 standing fans. The modern stand has seen a series of improvements, the first being a conversion to an all-seated stand in 1965 ahead of the 1966 FIFA World Cup and latest being a major £7m re-development for the Euro 1996 international competition when an upper tier of 3,000 extra seats, a new roof, 30 executive boxes, two conference suites, a bar, a restaurant and a range of office space were added.

The South Stand is the most recognisable of the four stands and still bears the original clock face and finial from the 1913 design, although the remainder of the stand is unrecognisable from Leitch's original. It houses the main reception, media and hospitality boxes, as well as the ground's family enclosure, five modern refreshment kiosks and four bars. It also features concourse television sets relaying live coverage of the match as well as highlights at half-time.

[edit] Spion Kop

Constructed: 1914

Capacity: 11,210 (seated)

Sponsored by Hallam FM

Named after a hill that was the scene of a famous battle in the Second Boer War, the Spion Kop is built into a natural hill at the east end of the ground and houses the most vocal of Wednesday supporters. It is usually simply referred to by fans as The Kop.

The stand remained open to the elements until a roof was added in 1986 after fans raised money to contribute to the cost. The Kop's huge capacity of 22,000 made it the largest covered standing area in Europe at the time.

The Kop was the last part of the Wednesday ground to be converted to all-seater accommodation, the change finally coming in 1993 to comply with new FA Premier League regulations following the Taylor Report. The capacity was hence halved, but the Kop remains one of the largest single tier stands in Britain and is very intimidating for opposition players.

A large concourse area was added in 2004, partially funded by the Owls Trust.

[edit] Location

The stadium is located in the north west of the city roughly 3 miles from the city centre.^[7] The area is mainly residential with a number of shops and a shopping centre located at nearby Hillsborough Corner. Views of the area can be enjoyed from hills located to the west.

The stadium is sandwiched between Hillsborough Park to the south and terrace housing to the north. The River Don also runs alongside the stadium to the south. The Spion Kop backs straight onto Penistone Road, a major dual carriageway leading to the city centre, while there is some space between the West Stand and Leppings Lane.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Hillsborough at Google Maps
• Hillsborough at The Internet Football Ground Guide

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club
The Club | Staff | Ladies
History | Former players | Records | Seasons
Olive Grove | Hillsborough
Steel City derby | Wednesdayite

Football League Championship venues, 2006-2007

Britannia Stadium | Carrow Road | Deepdale | Elland Road The Hawthorns | Hillsborough | Home Park | Kenilworth Road KC Stadium | Layer Road | Loftus Road | Molineux Stadium Ninian Park | Oakwell Stadium | Portman Road | Pride Park Stadium Ricoh Arena | Roots Hall | Selhurst Park | Stadium of Light St Andrews | St Mary's Stadium | Turf Moor | Walkers Stadium

Coordinates: 53°24′41.12″N, 1°30′2.41″W