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Defunct Grounds

Utah Owl

By Utah Owl
in General Football Chat

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Bannofan Veteran

Bannofan

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I think when fans say we can never leave Hillsborough for a better located stadium,  we need to think that fans of Sunderland, West Ham, Tottenham, Arsenal etc all though the same - teams as big or bigger than us.

 

There is something romantic about an old fashioned stadium, walking through the streets to them..both a bit scary and exciting. Filbert Street, Baseball Ground, Burnden Park, The Dell  etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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punkskaphil Grand Master

punkskaphil

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26 minutes ago, Bannofan said:

I think when fans say we can never leave Hillsborough for a better located stadium,  we need to think that fans of Sunderland, West Ham, Tottenham, Arsenal etc all though the same - teams as big or bigger than us.

 

There is something romantic about an old fashioned stadium, walking through the streets to them..both a bit scary and exciting. Filbert Street, Baseball Ground, Burnden Park, The Dell  etc.

 

 

The thing with those clubs (certainly with West Ham, Spurs and Arsenal - can't remember if it was the same with Sunderland) is that they were selling out the vast majority of their matches and needed to expand, but were unable to without moving/rebuilding from scratch. We rarely sell out, so our needs are different.

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alanharper Grand Master

alanharper

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I've seen Wednesday play on at least 19 grounds that either don't exist any more or are defunct :

 

Old Wembley, and the former grounds of : Arsenal, Bolton, Brentford, Cardiff, Coventry, Chesterfield, Doncaster, Hull, Leicester (Filbert St was my first ever away game), Man City, Middlesbrough, Millwall, MK Dons (National Hockey Stadium), Rotherham (both Millmoor and Don Valley), Spurs, West Ham, York .

 

 

Everton will be on that list soon, and a few others who are apparently building or moving to new grounds like Bournemouth, Luton, Oxford, Peterborough, Southend. Oddly I never managed to go the Baseball Ground, closest I came was the tickets selling out whilst I was queuing for FA Cup QF tickets in 1993, and to be fair there are a hell of a lot of grounds that I went to years ago which have been pretty much completely rebuilt since and bear little resemblance to the grounds I went to.

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31Dec1966 Veteran

31Dec1966

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What an absolutely wonderful video, and interesting story.  A small part of Peel Park (Accrington Stanley) terracing still exists.

As said earlier, going to a match, especially at night, was a much different experience in the 60's and 70's.  Just follow the (proper) floodlights, follow the crowd, down alleys, amidst terraced houses and corner shops. No tickets, choose which part of the ground to go in, pay your affordable fee at a proper turnstile.  It was much better. No soul less concrete bowl, groungs all had their own unique character then. Adverts were for local garages, shops and evening papers.  

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Utah Owl Grand Master

Utah Owl

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Here's the grounds I've been to that are sadly no more:

 

Arsenal (Highbury)

Brighton (Goldstone)

Chesterfield (Saltergate)

Coventry (Highfield Rd)

Darlington (Feethams)

Donny (Belle Vue)

Leicester (Filbert Street)

Man City (Maine Rd)

Middlesborough (Ayresome Park)

Oxford (Manor Ground)

Rovrum (Millmoor & Don Valley)

Shrewsbury (Gay Meadow)

Southampton (The Dell)

Stoke (Victoria Ground)

West Ham (Upton Park)

Wimbledon (Plough Lane - the original one)

York City (Bootham Crescent)

 

In addition there is the Old Wembley and whilst the ground is still there (but not the team) Bury - Gigg Lane.

 

Think that covers it!

 

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alanharper Grand Master

alanharper

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Forgot Southampton, make that 20! I went to the Dell but haven't been to St Mary's yet. I've also been to Bury but wasn't sure whether to count it or not, thought they were back there tbh.

 

Did anybody at Port Vale last week notice the weird bit of old stand in the far corner? That's all that remains of the former structure from before it was redeveloped. 

 

 

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alanharper Grand Master

alanharper

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16 hours ago, 31Dec1966 said:

What an absolutely wonderful video, and interesting story.  A small part of Peel Park (Accrington Stanley) terracing still exists.

As said earlier, going to a match, especially at night, was a much different experience in the 60's and 70's.  Just follow the (proper) floodlights, follow the crowd, down alleys, amidst terraced houses and corner shops. No tickets, choose which part of the ground to go in, pay your affordable fee at a proper turnstile.  It was much better. No soul less concrete bowl, groungs all had their own unique character then. Adverts were for local garages, shops and evening papers.  

 

Yeah it was a different world before the internet. Now I plan everything, route in, and can even see exactly where I want to park via Streetview. 

 

Hard to believe that back in the day you'd drive somewhere without even having a clue where the ground was sometimes, and would drive around the town hoping to catch a glimpse of the floodlights to guide you in the right direction, and stopping to ask directions if you were really stuck which was a last resort and admission of failure. Remember following a crowd at Leicester once and ending up at the rugby ground! 

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Utah Owl Grand Master

Utah Owl

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39 minutes ago, alanharper said:

 

Yeah it was a different world before the internet. Now I plan everything, route in, and can even see exactly where I want to park via Streetview. 

 

Hard to believe that back in the day you'd drive somewhere without even having a clue where the ground was sometimes, and would drive around the town hoping to catch a glimpse of the floodlights to guide you in the right direction, and stopping to ask directions if you were really stuck which was a last resort and admission of failure. Remember following a crowd at Leicester once and ending up at the rugby ground! 

My one and only visit to Valley Parade came just a few weeks after an interview at Bradford University and remembering seeing floodlights from the campus headed in that direction. 

 

Only snag it was the old Bradford Park Avenue ground!

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Guest HUDDERSFIELD OWL

Guest HUDDERSFIELD OWL

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On 08/10/2022 at 12:47, alanharper said:

 

Yeah it was a different world before the internet. Now I plan everything, route in, and can even see exactly where I want to park via Streetview. 

 

Hard to believe that back in the day you'd drive somewhere without even having a clue where the ground was sometimes, and would drive around the town hoping to catch a glimpse of the floodlights to guide you in the right direction, and stopping to ask directions if you were really stuck which was a last resort and admission of failure. Remember following a crowd at Leicester once and ending up at the rugby ground! 

I did the same visiting high field road. Ended up at the rugby ground

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