Hi, I’m looking for some help with a project I’m currently working on and thought the good people of Charlton Life would be able to help. I help run the Doing The 92 site and we fund it by selling a wallchart each year showing the location of the current League grounds, along with brief info about each team and their current kit.
Each year I include some extra information, and this time I’ve decided to show the location of all the ex-League grounds that are still in use for some sort of sport. It has to still be an enclosed ground, so The Mount doesn’t count, even if you’ve had a kickabout there.
I’ve listed below the ones I know about but I’ve probably missed somewhere obvious - I only realised I had missed the Ricoh out when I typed up this list!
Grounds still used by the same ex-League club:
1. Aggborough Stadium – Kidderminster Harriers
2. Bootham Crescent – York City
3. Borough Park – Workington
4. Bower Fold – Stalybridge Celtic
5. Edgeley Park – Stockport County
6. Haig Avenue – Southport
7. Holker Street – Barrow
8. Huish Park – Yeovil
9. Meadow Lane – Notts County
10. Northolme – Gainsborough Trinity
11. Plainmoor – Torquay United
12. Proact Stadium – Chesterfield
13. Racecourse Ground – Wrexham
14. Recreation Ground – Aldershot (and Aldershot Town before them)
15. The Hive – Barnet
16. Victoria Road – Dagenham & Redbridge
17. Victoria Park – Hartlepool United
18. York Street – Boston United
Grounds now being used by a non-League Phoenix club:
19. Deva Stadium – Chester (Chester City)
20. Edgar Street – Hereford (Hereford United)
21. Penydarren Park – Merthyr Town (original Merthyr Town)
22. The Shay – FC Halifax Town (Halifax Town)
Non-League Grounds that were briefly used by a League Team:
23. Avenue Stadium – Dorchester Town (AFC Bournemouth)
24. Stonebridge Road – Ebbsfleet United (Gillingham)
25. Twerton Park – Bath City (Bristol Rovers)
26. Wembley Stadium – England (Tottenham Hotspur; Orient also used the old Wembley)
27. Withdene Stadium – AFC Vardeanians (Brighton & Hove Albion)
Ex-League grounds being used for other sports:
28. County Ground – Northamptonshire County Cricket Club (Northampton Town)
29. Darlington Arena – Darlington Mowden Park Rugby Football Club (Darlington)
30. Millmoor – occasionally used for youth football matches (Rotherham County & United)
31. Odsal Stadium – Rugby Football League, although not this season (Bradford City)
32. Peel Croft – Burton Rugby Football Club (Burton Swifts & United)
33. Ricoh Arena – Wasps Rugby Union Football Club (Coventry City)
People who have done the 92 (or 90 as it currently is) sometimes move on to getting round these grounds, so I’m keen to get the list right. It’s a moving target of course, with Boston, York, Burton RFC and maybe Workington all likely to be moving to new grounds at the end of this season.
Thanks for reading - as I say, any help gratefully received!
Comments
The Ultimate Directory of English and Scottish Football League Grounds Hardcover – 1 Aug 2002
Think I've seen us play at 21 of those grounds.
I would have done the game if it was not for my boycotting.
@Henry - The books are very good and in fact I worked with Paul Smith on the site for a while. His book is excellent and well worth getting. Mike Float's books are also interesting and the South East London one is very comprehensive.
@Johnnysummers5 - I think QPR have played home League games at more grounds than anyone else, and they may be on the move again.
Of my original list I think I've been to 21. For purely selfish reasons I was pleased Workington's move away from Borough Park was put on hold as it gives me a chance to get there. Long, long drive though.
I did a quick tot-up and reckon Charlton played a game at 21 of them as well as at 83 of the current 90 League grounds (just missing Spurs, West Ham, Forest Green, Macclesfield, Morecambe, Newport and Salford). Again - happy to be corrected on these!
Don’t know the stats but from memory there were very few new grounds before Hillsborough - I can only recall Scunthorpe as one - but loads of new grounds in the last 30 years as clubs had to get aligned with new regulations.
Ex-League grounds being used for other sports:
34. Park Avenue - Bradford College Cricket Academy (Bradford Park Avenue)
35. Herne Hill Velodrome - Cycling (Chrystal Palace)
@SheffieldRed - sad to hear they're not using Odsal at the moment. Wikipedia says it's owned by Bradford City Council and leased to the Rugby Football League so hopefully it'll be retained for sport. Highest attendance there was 102,569 in 1954 for a rugby final, which puts it up there as one of the biggest sporting venues in England.
@Ormiston Addick - lots of fans still take pride in doing the 92 (90) and you're right, it gets harder each year. The number of clubs moving ground has slowed a little with Brentford being the next to go at the end of this season. Wimbledon should be next and then maybe Everton. We've had over 10,000 members sign-up on the site since we started so it's clearly still popular!
@Addickted - couple of good calls there. Park Avenue should count and given its history I'd like to include it in the list anyway. Is it the only ground to have been included in a team's name? The Velodrome is also a good shout but it looks as though Palace played at the old Crystal Palace ground until 1915 and then The Nest after the war. Wikipedia says they played a few war-time games there so it's not going to make the list I'm afraid. And of course I've just realised that I've answered the question I posed above because Palace took their name from the old Cup Final ground they used between 1906 and 1915!
Odsal would have been England’s third largest stadium behind Wembley and West Ham Stadium (Thames).
Bradford Bulls (previously Northern) have had various financial issues and have chosen to leave their historic stadium with huge terraces to move to a more modern stadium elsewhere. Currently the talk is of a return to Bradford at a later date but at another venue.
Not sure regarding Bradford Park Avenue. It was a back to back stadium, cricket one side of a stand, football the other. A current example of a back to back stadium is Headingley, cricket on one side, rugby on the other. The football part of Park Avenue was largely demolished, with some cricket facilities built on part of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odsal_Stadium
As for grounds with cricket on one side and football on the other, I think Bramall Lane was like that the first time I went to see Sheff Utd, although I might be mis-remembering? The County Ground was the oddity, with cricket and football both played on the same pitch. I went to the Charlton cup game in the '80s and there was a rope down one touchline for us to stand behind because we were actually standing on part of the cricket outfield.