Pride Park Stadium

Pride Park
Location	Pride Park Derby DE24 8XL
Coordinates	52°54′54″N 1°26′50″W / 52.915°N 1.44722°W / 52.915; -1.44722Coordinates: 52°54′54″N 1°26′50″W / 52.915°N 1.44722°W / 52.915; -1.44722
Broke ground	1996
Opened	18 July, 1997
Owner	Derby County F.C.
Operator	Derby County F.C.
Surface	Grass
Construction cost	£28million
Architect	Miller Partnership
Capacity	33,597
Tenants
Derby County F.C. (1997-Present)

Pride Park Stadium is a football stadium in the Pride Park business park on the outskirts of Derby, England. It is owned by and is the home of Derby County F.C. The stadium holds 33,597 spectators. On 11 June 2007, the club announced plans to expand the capacity to 44,000 for the 2008–09 season, subject to retaining their Premiership status, although following relegation these plans were put on hold.

[edit] History

The stadium was completed in 1997 and replaced Derby County's previous stadium, the Baseball Ground. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 18 July, with a friendly against Sampdoria following on 4 August.

The first competitive league match to be played there was against Wimbledon. The floodlights failed part way through the match and it had to be abandoned.

Plans to build the stadium were revealed only 18 months before the beginning of Derby's first season there. The original plan had been for the Baseball Ground to be rebuilt with a 26,000-seat capacity, but in February 1996 it was announced that Derby would be relocating instead.

On January 17, 2009 a bust of Steve Bloomer was unveiled next to the home dugout.^[1]

[edit] Records

The highest attendance at Pride Park Stadium for a competitive Derby County match is 33,378 in a Premier League match against Liverpool on March 18, 2000.

[edit] Pride Plaza Redevelopment and 2008 Ground Expansion

The East Stand

On 27 April 2007, Derby County released details of a proposed £20m development around the stadium which would create about 250 jobs.^[2] Although plans have yet to be submitted to the city council, the Pride Plaza project would include a 165-bed hotel, bars, restaurants and office space. On 9 of November Derby City Council agreed to let the plans go ahead.

Two squares and a road on the west side of the stadium would be named after club legends Brian Clough, Steve Bloomer and Lionel Pickering.^[3] The club have said no money would be taken away from the team to pay for the development.

Following promotion to the Premier League in the 2006–07 season, the club announced plans to expand the capacity of the stadium up to 44,000 for the start of the 2008–09 season, if the club stayed up ^[4]. The plans included adding rows of seats to the north, south and east stands and would have allowed the club to break its current club record attendance, which stands at 41,826 for a match against Tottenham Hotspur during the 1969–70 season set at The Baseball Ground. However, the club did not manage to avoid relegation and the plans were put on hold.

However, Derby has been short-listed as a potential city for the FA's proposed bid for England to host the 2018 World Cup and as Pride Park can be extended to 44,000 (exceeding FIFA's capacity quota for World Cup group matches) the ground may still be extended, if the city is selected upon a successful World Cup bid. Derby County owner Tom Glick is quoted to have said, "If England’s World Cup bid is successful and matches are to be played in the East Midlands, then why not Derby?" ^[5]

[edit] Average League Attendences

The bust of Steve Bloomer, located adjacent to the home team's dugout

The South Stand (right)

^[6][7]

[edit] Non-Derby County Matches

As one of the largest football grounds in the Midlands, Pride Park has also hosted some notable matches not connected to Derby County.

The ground has hosted four England U21's. The first was on 9th February 1999, a friendly match against France, which ended in a 2-1 victory to England. The crowd of 32,865 was the highest to watch the U21's in England since 1983. The next two fixtures were both European Championship Qualifiers, with 30,155 seeing a 1-1 draw with Germany on 6th October 2000 and 32, 418 saw a 1-0 victory over Holland on 13th November 2001. The most recent match was on 6th February 2007, when 28,295 saw a 2-2 friendly draw between England U21's and Spain U21's, a match which was the first match under the tenure of current England U21's manager Stuart Pearce.

The club has also hosted one full England international; a 4–0 friendly victory over Mexico on 27 May 2001. The match also holds the record for the highest attendance at the stadium: a full-house of 33,597.

On 4th May 2009, Pride Park hosted the 39th FA Women's Cup Final, which saw Arsesnal run out 2-1 victors over Sunderland to win the cup for a record fourth consecutive time, with an attendance of 23,291.

The ground has also been earmarked as possibly hosting some World Cup matches should England win the race to host the 2018 World Cup Finals, with Derby Chief Executive Tom Glick saying that "What we [the board] know is that Derby already has the core elements to be a host city... We are going to find out what the requirements are but we are certainly expecting that the requirement would be at least 40,000 seats. The ability to do that at Pride Park Stadium exists, the land exists. So we know that if we were successful, that is something that could be done". ^[8]

[edit] Images

Panorama taken from the south stand lower.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Pride Park Stadium web-site