Bramall Lane
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| Bramall Lane | |
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| Full name | Bramall Lane |
| Nickname | The Lane |
| Built | 1855 |
| Opened | April 30, 1855 |
| Capacity | 33,000 |
| Home of | Sheffield United F.C. |
| Pitch size | 112 x 72 yards |
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. It had successively been the home first of Sheffield F.C. and since 1889, became 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 for 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.
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[edit] 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 was 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 March 10, 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 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.
[edit] All-Time Record Attendance
68,287 Sheffield United v Leeds United, FA Cup 5th Round, February 15, 1936
[edit] 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. [1]) 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.[2]
The two ends of the ground were known as the Pavilion End and the Football Ground End.
[edit] The Ground Today
The ground has been all seated since 1994 and is now made up of four stands and two corner infill stands: the John Street Stand (sponsored by Capital One), the Shoreham Street Kop Stand (sponsored by Hallam FM), the South Stand or Main Stand (sponsored by Global Windows), also called the "new stand" by many older fans since there was no stand here at all until 1975 as it was used as the cricket pitch's outfield, and the Bramall Lane Stand (sponsored by Halliwells). The corner infills are the Kop Corner or Northeast Corner, between the Kop and the John Street stand (sponsored by Streetwise Sports, and the Southwest corner, between the Bramall Lane Stand and the South Stand (sponsored by Westfield Health). The Southwest corner is filled in by offices, know as the Blades Business Centre, and the Southeast corner is still open.
The John Street stand, completed in 1996, is used as a family enclosure for home fans and is situated alongside the pitch, whilst the Kop, seated since 1991, is the area in which the most dedicated and boisterous home fans sit and is situated behind the goal. The South Stand, opened in August 1975, is situated alongside the pitch and is for home fans who wish to have a side-view when watching the match, whilst the Bramall Lane Stand, opened in 1966, is situated behind the other goal and is made up of two tiers, the bottom of which 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 demand requires, as happened in the The Premiership opener against Liverpool.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Record Attendance (All Seated)
32,584 Sheffield United v Manchester United , The Premiership, 18 November 2006. 2006.[1]
[edit] 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 18/11/06)
[edit] Notes & References
- ^ Match report from BBC Sport. BBC Sport (2006). Retrieved on 2006-18-11.
[edit] External links
- Bramall Lane Football Stadium profile from The Internet Football Ground Guide
- when Bramall Lane was a first-class Cricket Ground from CricInfo
| FA Premier League Venues 2006-2007 |
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| Anfield | Boleyn Ground | Bramall Lane | City of Manchester Stadium | Craven Cottage Emirates Stadium | Ewood Park | Fratton Park | Goodison Park | JJB Stadium Madejski Stadium | Old Trafford | Reebok Stadium | Riverside Stadium | St James' Park Stamford Bridge | The Valley | Vicarage Road | Villa Park | White Hart Lane |
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