Bramall Lane

From Free net encyclopedia

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. 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 has 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 30,975.

1 History
- 1.1 All-Time Record Attendance
2 Cricket at Bramall Lane
3 The Ground Today
4 External links

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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 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. Is was won by the home side, who also arranged a number of games with other Association 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.

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All-Time Record Attendance

68,287 Sheffield United v Leeds United, FA Cup 5th Round, February 15, 1936

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Cricket at Bramall Lane

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. 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, finally enclosing the football pitch.

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.

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The Ground Today

The ground has been all seated since 1994 and is now made up of four stands: the John Street Stand (sponsored by HFS Loans), the Shoreham Kop Stand (sponsored by Hallam FM), the South Stand (sponsored by Global Windows), and the Bramall Lane Stand (sponsored by Gordon Lamb). 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, generally occupied by away fans although occasionally home fans occupy the bottom tier. Image:Corner stand bramall.jpg

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Current and Ongoing Work

A new corner "infill" stand is currently being built which will provide more than 2,000 additional seats and will join together the South and Bramall Lane stands. There are also plans to build a hotel.

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