Blundell Park

Blundell Park

The Young's Stand (then named The John Smith's Stand) in 2003.
Location Blundell Park
Cleethorpes
North East Lincolnshire
England
Coordinates 53°34′12.19″N 0°2′46.80″W / 53.5700528°N 0.0463333°W / 53.5700528; -0.0463333
Owner Grimsby Town
Operator Grimsby Town
Capacity 9,052 (all seated)[1]
Record attendance 31,651 (vs Wolverhampton Wanderers, 20 February 1937)[2]
Field size 101.5 by 68.5 metres (111.0 by 74.9 yd)
Surface Grass
Scoreboard Yes
Construction
Broke ground 1897
Built 1899
Opened 2 September 1899[3]
Renovated 1925 (Barrett's Stand)
1939 (Osmond Stand)
1961 (Pontoon Stand)
1982 (Findus Stand)
Tenants
Grimsby Town (1899–present)

Blundell Park is a football ground in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England and home to Grimsby Town Football Club. The stadium was built in 1899, but only one of the original stands remains. The current capacity of the ground is 9,052, after being made all-seater in summer 1995, reducing the number from around 27,000. Several relegations in previous years meant the expansion seating was also taken away; that reduced the capacity further from around 12,000 to what it is now.

The stadium is Grimsby Town's fourth ground, having previously played at Clee Park, Lovett Street and Abbey Park in the club's first twenty years of existence. The record attendance at Blundell Park was 31,651 in an FA Cup tie against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 20 February 1937. The two clubs also hold the record attendance at Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium when 76,962 people saw the two sides meet again in the 1939 FA Cup semi-final.

History

Grimsby Town Football Club moved into their new Blundell Park stadium in the summer of 1899, having relocated from Abbey Park, and bringing with them all the fixtures and fittings, as well as the Abbey Park and the Hazel Grove stands.[3] The opening match was a Football League Second Division fixture against Luton Town on 2 September 1899, with 4,000 spectators seeing the teams draw 3–3.[3][4] In 1901 a new Main Stand was built on the northern side of the ground.[3]

In 1925 the Abbey Park Stand was demolished and in its place was built the Barrett's Stand. In 1937 the club's record attendance of 31,651 was recorded when the club met Wolverhampton Wanderers in an FA Cup tie on 20 February 1937.[2] In 1939 around the time of the break-out of the Second World War the Hazel Grove Stand, the final remaining stand from the previous ground was demolished and was replaced by the Osmond Stand.[5]

In 1953 the club introduced its first floodlights to the ground and with that enabling Grimsby Town to play night-time fixtures.[6] Tall floodlights were purchased second hand from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1958 and installed in 1960 at a cost of £9,000 which was raised by the supporters club, they have illuminated matches ever since when required.[4][7]

In 1961, the 63-year-old Pontoon Stand was demolished and replaced with a new stand of the same name. In 1980 the ground was renovated again, the Main Stand the ground's only original stand was made an all-seater, and the Barrett's stand which was built in 1925 was demolished and replaced the two tier Findus stand, which now became the ground's largest stand. Following the Taylor Report which documented the Hillsborough disaster, Blundell Park was made an all seater stadium in 1995. The club in 1995 also introduced temporary seating in the partings between the Pontoon and Main Stands and the Osmond and Findus stands. The club's largest attendance since being made an all seater stadium was 9,528 on 3 March 1999 against Sunderland in a Football League Division One tie. Following Grimsby Town's relegation from the second tier of English football to the fourth between in 2003 and 2004, the club removed the expansion seating, which would only have made returns in high-profile cup fixtures.[5]

Grimsby Town received a £19,000 grant in April 2015 from The Football Stadia Improvement Fund (FSIF) – the largest funder of non-league football in the country, which enabled the club to carry out repairs and maintenance to the floodlights at Blundell Park.[8][9]

The ground as it stands

Pontoon Stand

In 1899, Blundell Park was opened with the original Pontoon Stand constructed alongside the Main Stand, but this stand was eventually demolished in 1961 and was replaced by the current Pontoon Stand which was built by funds raised by the club's supporters. The stand is situated behind the goal to the right of the tunnel and was converted to an all-seater facility in 1995 in response to the Taylor Report following the Hillsborough disaster of 1989 and the seats were laid out in black and white stripes to reflect the club's colours.

The Pontoon mainly houses the more vocal supporters of the club, and often houses a drummer; however in the mid-1980s the stand became the away stand with the Osmond Stand reserved for home fans, the thought being that the Pontoon's more open design would make the Grimsby Town supporters' presence more noticeable in the remainder of the stadium. This was extremely unpopular with club supporters and reversed.

The Young's Stand

The Young's Stand.

The Young's Stand is the third to be built on the opposite side of the ground to the tunnel and changing rooms. Originally the club had moved the Abbey Park Stand from their previous ground the Abbey Park Stadium, this stand was eventually demolished in 1925 and was replaced by the Barrett's Stand. The Barrett's itself was eventually demolished in 1980 and was replaced with a two tier stand paid for by the fish processing firm Findus. The stand therefore was named the "Findus Stand".

The stand was opened in 1982 and is the largest inside the stadium with the upper tier offering a scenic view of the Humber Estuary, Spurn Point and the North Sea, from this point you can clearly view the shipping going down the estuary. The lower tier's front rows are uncovered and between the two tiers are a row of corporate boxes. Housed within the stand is the boardroom, ticket office, club shop, bars and the "McMenemy's" function suite and restaurant which is named after former manager Lawrie McMenemy.

In 1990s Findus ceased production in the town, so the stand went through several other sponsored names. Firstly the stand was renamed the Stones Bitter stand before later becoming the John Smiths stand in 1997 and then the Carlsberg stand in 2004. Findus returned to the Town in 2009 and the stand then reverted to its original name.

For the 2016/2017 season, a new sponsorship deal with Young's Seafood was announced with the tiers being renamed to the Upper Young's and Lower Young's stands.

Main Stand

The Main Stand.

Opposite the Young's stand, on the north side of the ground, is the Main Stand which dates from 1901 and is often claimed to be the oldest stand in the Football League until the club's relegation to Non-league football in 2010. Only the central part of the stand dates from 1901, the rest having been modified in some guise or other. This stand houses the changing rooms and disabled supporters' areas. The players' tunnel runs from the centre of this stand onto the pitch between the two dugouts.

Osmond Stand

The Osmond Stand (Away End).

To the left of the Main Stand, is the Osmond Stand. This replaced the Hazel Grove Stand which was moved from the club's previous Abbey Park Stadium home. The Osmond was built in 1939 when the Hazel Grove was demolished shortly before the start of World War II. The Osmond stand is also a two tier stand, but unlike the Young's Stand, the Osmond only has steps separating the two parts. The stand also houses the away supporters, with home fans occasionally sitting in the half closest to the Main Stand when the club are playing a club with a low number of travelling fans. The stand holds around 2,000 seats, 1,000 or so of those seats have a restricted view due to the roof supports and height of the roof.

The ground did briefly hold home supporters in the mid-1980s when the club decided the move the away supporters to the Pontoon Stand, but this proved to be unpopular with Grimsby supporters and so the decision was reversed. The corner between the Main Stand and the Osmond Stand is the only enclosed corner in the whole ground, the corner is shut off and this section is the only standing part of the stadium however with it being shut off from the fans the ground is still classed as an all seated stadium.

Additional seating

When Blundell Park became an all seated stadium in 1995, the overall capacity of the ground decreased accordingly. The club erected temporary seating in the north-west and south-east corners, colloquially known as "the green seats". These consisted of four blocks of makeshift scaffold seating approximately 10 rows back. The temporary seating were intended to provide additional capacity when needed, but were in regular use on a weekly basis while the club enjoyed a lengthy spell playing in the English Championship.

Relegation from the Championship led to reduced match attendance and temporary seating became largely redundant. In special cup fixtures, for instance the 2005 League Cup games with Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United the temporary seating is reinstalled for one-off use.[10]

Due to the changes in seating, the ground's overall capacity dropped from just under 12,000 while in the Championship to just under 10,000 in League Two.

Layout

A view for the Pontoon Stand looking at the Main Stand on the left, Osmond Stand Middle and Findus Stand right (taken on New Year's Day 2012).

International games

Over the years Blundell Park has been host to a number of international matches. In 2001 it hosted France U18 against Finland U18,[11] and over the years has also hosted England U17,[12] England U18 and England women's national under-19 football team games.[13]

The future

As parts of Blundell Park are old, the cost of maintaining the stadium, particularly the wooden sections, is expensive. Compared to many football grounds, there is a serious lack of corporate facilities and amenities for visiting supporters; bars and food outlets within the stadium are usually crowded and unable to realise their potential income. Blundell Park is rarely used for anything other than football, whereas many clubs with more modern stadia are able to let out the ground for concerts, corporate events and other sports such as rugby. Further complications arise from the location of the stadium among terraced houses and next to the bank of the River Humber (separated by a railway line) which makes redeveloping Blundell Park to accommodate the 20,000 supporters required for promotion to the Premier League prohibitively expensive. Transport links to Blundell Park are poor – Cleethorpes railway station is a 30-minute walk away and Grimsby Town railway station is a 50-minute walk away. Parking is largely limited to the streets of terraced houses surrounding the stadium. There is no secure parking at Blundell Park and no additional provision for public transport such as park and ride. Blundell Park is also the lowest football stadium in the United Kingdom, at a height of only 2 feet above sea-level. While not in immediate danger from rising tides, it is prudent for Grimsby Town to pursue a move to higher ground.[14]

Since the mid-1990s the club has been pursuing a movement to a new ground on the western outskirts of Grimsby at Great Coates, adjacent to the A180 dual carriageway. Planning permission has been granted for the provisionally titled Conoco Stadium, but opposition by some residents combined with the economic crisis have seen the project continually delayed.[15] The financing of the new stadium would come primarily from the sale of the land at Blundell Park and from retail development on the land surrounding the new stadium as well as substantially increased revenue from the new stadium itself.

Grimsby Town are now looking at an alternative site at Peaks Parkway which is located two miles South of Grimsby (and around 2.5 miles due West of Blundell Park), after the proposal to build a new stadium at Great Coates fell through.[16] The Club are looking at building a 14,000 capacity stadium along with an adjoining retail development. North East Lincolnshire Council which owns the land has granted the Club 12 months to come up with detailed plans as to the how area could be redeveloped. It won't probably known until sometime in 2015 whether the proposed scheme will be feasible.[17]

Records

The highest ever attendance at the ground was 31,651 for an FA Cup 5th Round match on 20 February 1937 against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Since the ground was converted to all seating for the start of the 1995–96 season after the Taylor Report, the highest attendance was 9,528 for a Football League Division One (Second Tier) match against Sunderland on 13 March 1999.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Blundell Park Stadium Capacity". Grimsby Town F.C. Archived from the original on 23 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "Blundell Park through the ages". Grimsby Telegraph. 20 April 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Paul Smith & Shirley Smith (2005) The Ultimate Directory of English & Scottish Football League Grounds Second Edition 1888–2005, Yore Publications, p. 24, ISBN 0954783042
  4. 1 2 Hales, Andrew (1998). Memories of Grimsby. Halifax: True North Books. pp. 24–25. ISBN 1-900-463-97-0.
  5. 1 2 "Blundell Park". thefootballnetwork.net. The Greasy Chip Butty. 26 December 2007. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
  6. ↑ "Pitching in photo ideas!". Grimsby Telegraph. 17 April 2013. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  7. ↑ "Let There Be Light". Grimsby Town F.C. 8 September 2015. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  8. ↑ "Grimsby Town FC receive funding for stadium improvements". The Football Stadia Improvement Fund (FSIF). 25 April 2013. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  9. ↑ Coney, Steven (26 April 2013). "Grant Boost For Grimsby Town". The Non-League Football Paper. Wimbledon, London. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  10. ↑ "Grimsby 0–1 Newcastle". BBC Sport. 26 October 2005. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  11. ↑ Holmes, Paul (21 March 2001). "BP to Host International". The Fishy. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  12. ↑ "Blundell Park prepares to host two International Under-17 matches". Grimsby Telegraph. 24 August 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  13. ↑ "International Football At Blundell Park". Grimsby Town F.C. 1 February 2012. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  14. ↑ "The Highest and Lowest Stadiums (England and Wales)". Midfield Dynamo. Retrieved 20 July 2007.
  15. ↑ "Mariners submit new stadium plans". BBC Sport. 24 January 2006. Retrieved 26 February 2007.
  16. ↑ "Grimsby land assessed for football stadium and leisure complex". BBC Sport. 17 July 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  17. ↑ "Grimsby Town's 5-year goal is new stadium & Mariners keen to secure lease on Peaks Parkway site". Grimsby Telegraph. 14 November 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2015.

External links

Coordinates: 53°34′12.81″N 0°2′47.39″W / 53.5702250°N 0.0464972°W / 53.5702250; -0.0464972

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