|
Villa Park (Aston Villa stadium)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Information
|
Name: Villa Park
Club:
Aston Villa FC
Inauguration: 1897
Capacity: 43,300 seats
Pitch dimensions: 105*69
Record Attendance: 76,588; Aston Villa-Derby,
March 1946
Address: Trinity Road, Birmingham B6 6HE |
|
|
Stadium Pictures
|
|
|
|
|
History and Stands
|
Villa Park, in Birmingham, England;
is the stadium at which Aston Villa Football Club play their
home games.
The Aston Villa legend, Billy Walker summed up Villa Park when
he said "About Villa Park itself hung an aura that seems almost
to be visible. Most certainly it is there to be felt and I know
of no other ground that has the same effect on one. Almost it
seems to be peopled by ghosts - amiable ghosts whose job it is
to breathe the great Villa spirit into generation after
generation of ambitious youngsters who pass through the great
gates to achieve a life's ambition; to wear the famous claret
and blue of the great club."
Opened in 1897, the year Aston Villa won the League and FA Cup 'Double',
it was officially called the Aston Lower Grounds, on the site of
a Victorian amusement park in the former grounds of a Jacobean
stately home, Aston Hall. Once the site of a fishpond and
kitchen garden belonging to Sir Thomas Holte, the owner of Aston
Hall. This is where the name of the legendary Holte End came
from. The pitch was initially surrounded by a 24 foot wide
concrete cycle track and a cinder running track. Many athletics
and cycle events were staged here prior to the First World War.
The running track was removed in 1922 when work started on the
Trinity Road Stand and the ground was squared off. The Trinity
Road Stand was demolished in 2001 and replaced by a larger
modern stand.
It has an approximate capacity of 43,000 and has played host to
many FA Cup semi-finals, due to it being a quite large, often
neutral venue roughly in central England.
Villa Park has hosted a number of England internationals at
senior level. The first of which was in 1899, the most recent
being in 2005.
Villa Park hosted three World Cup matches during the 1966 World
Cup and four during Euro '96.
The last ever final of the European Cup Winners' Cup was staged
at Villa Park. Lazio beat Real Mallorca 2-1.
The first English ground to stage international football in
three centuries
Villa Park compromises of 42,000 seats split, as with most
stadiums, between four stands. These four stands are the Holte
End to the South, the Trinity Rd stand to the West, the Witton
Lane (commercially known as the 'Doug Ellis Stand') stand to the
opposite of that, and the North Stand behind the northern goal.
The Club have planning permission to extend the North Stand.
This will involve the 'filling in' of the corners to either side
of the North Stand. However the chairman has stated that the
money must be spent on improving the playing squad first. When
completed, the capacity of Villa Park will be increased to
51,000. |
|
|
Records
|
|
Record Attendance: 76,588, Aston
Villa v Derby County, FA Cup Sixth Rd, 02 March 1946 |
|
|
More English Soccer Stadium
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
