Parque Central

Boaters de rigueur. 22,000 at Montevideo's Parque Central to see Uruguay defeat Argentina 2-0 on 02.12.23

Aston Villa

Aston Villa moved grounds in 1897, playing the first game at the Aston Lower Grounds on 17th April, 1 week after they had won the FA Cup and their position at the top of the League had become unassailable. 

Aston Villa topped the League attendances for 6 seasons from 1899-1904 (displacing Everton, who had been top for the first 10 seasons of League Football, firstly at Anfield and then at Goodison).  

Season	Average
1898-99	23,045
1899-1900	18,765
1900-01	17,530
1901-02	19,580
1902-03	19,790
1903-04	20,035

1898-99 was the first time that any club had enjoyed an average attendance in excess of 20,000.

The new stadium at Aston Lower Grounds had more to recommend it than just accommodation for large numbers of spectators. Here we see Howard Spencer, the Prince of fullbacks (also England captain), enjoying the therapeutic benefits of an individual hot bath. The photographer was former Villa player Albert Wilkes who specialized in football subjects. 

Gottfried Fuchs Platz

This is our 1,000th post, so it is dedicated to the memory of the footballer after whom this blog was originally named: Gottfried Fuchs of Karlsruher FV and Germany.

Note the building in the background, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. It features prominently in images of matches at Karlsruhe in the early part of the 20th century when the city played a central role in the development of German football.
The images below come from Germany's first international victory, a 1-0 win over Switzerland at Karlsruhe on 04.04.09.
Das Stadion an der Telegraphenkaserne was demolished in 2006.
More here: http://www.karlsruher-fv1891.de/stadien.html

Villa Park

Home to Aston Villa since 1897, Villa Park is one of the great stadia of English football. During the first quarter of the 20th century only Goodison could rival its grandeur.
 Aston Lower Grounds was originally an amusement park set in the grounds of a 17th century mansion.  
Up until 1914 the stadium also hosted cycling and athletics events- in this photograph from 1907 the banked cycling track is clearly visble. 

Goodison Park

'The first purpose built football stadium in England'- Goodison Park opened on 24 August 1892. FA dignitaries Lord Kinnaird and Frederick Wall were present, but strangely there was no football match- a 12,000 crowd saw athletics followed music and a fireworks display. Everton's first game at the new stadium was on 1st September 1892 when they beat Bolton Wanderers  4-2. 2,000 less people were present than had been for the fireworks!. The first Everton XI to take to the pitch at the new stadium was:
Jardine, Howarth, Dewar, Boyle, Holt, Robertson, Latta, Maxwell, Chadwick, Millward.
The same line up faced  Nottingham Forest in the opening League fixture on September 3rd (a 2-2 draw).
Out of Doors magazine commented in  October 1892:
No single picture could take in the entire scene the ground presents, it is so magnificently large, for it rivals the greater American baseball pitches. On three sides of the field of play there are tall covered stands, and on the fourth side the ground has been so well banked up with thousands of loads of cinders that a complete view of the game can be had from any portion.it appears to be one of the finest and most complete grounds in the kingdom...

The illustration above shows the friendly between Everton and Heart of Midlothian on November 12th 1892. The match ended in a 2-0 victory for the hosts. The drawing shows the Gwladys Street End and Goodison Road - the old St Luke's Church  is in the background. The corner flags look like they belong on a crazy golf course. 

Liverpool Mercury -  21.11.92

Die Pfarrwiese

Simply adore this panoramic postcard of Rapid Vienna's Pfarrwiese ground. Football in La Belle Époque. 

There is an air of gentility about the scene. People in their Sunday best attending the game.

An assortment of headwear and plenty of walking-canes...

... and this lady has really made an effort!

Note the high fences to prevent the ball being booted out of the ground- this was before Jimmy Hogan taught the Austrians to play it on the carpet.

Rapid moved to this ground  in the Hütteldorf area of Vienna in 1911. The initial capacity was 4,000,

This site has some pictures of the ground as it is today. 

The Twelve Original Football League Grounds.

Of the 12 teams that took part in the inaugural season of the Football League 10 are still playing League football , and Stoke, reformed in 1908, did their very best to carry on seamlessly where the original club left off.
So, how many of those 11 grounds have hosted League football for 127 years? And what has become of the grounds of 1888 which are no longer used for football?

Accrington - Thorneyholme Road
 Thorneyholme Road was a cricket ground when Accrington FC was formed. It is still in use as a cricket ground, and the area where the football pitch was is now tennis courts. The last League match at the ground was played on April 15th, 1893.

Aston Villa - Wellington Road (Perry Bar)
Villa acquired the ground, then undeveloped, in 1876, It remained their home ground until 1897. Wellington Road hosted 2 FA Cup semi finals and an England international, but the playing surface was poor and Villa wanted a more commodious stadium.  The last League match was played at Wellington Road on 22nd  March 1897. The land was built over and no trace of the old ground remains. 

Blackburn Rovers - Leamington Road
Rovers moved into this, their third ground, in 1881. Leamington Road hosted 2 England internationals. The last League game played there was on January 4th 1890, after which the club moved to Ewood Park. The Leamington Road ground was built over and is now the site of rows of charming red brick houses.

Bolton Wanderers - Pikes Lane
Bolton's first regular home venue. The club remained at Pikes Lane from 1880 until 1895, the last game being played on 13th April 1895. The ground was reputedly unpopular with players and spectators alike due to the bumpy pitch and poor facilities. It is now the site of terraced housing. 

Burnley - Turf Moor
Burnley moved into Turf Moor in 1883 and remain there to this day.

Derby County - The County Ground
The County Ground (aka The Racecourse) is still a County Cricket Ground (no longer used for horse racing!). Derby County played there until 1895 when they moved to the Base.ball Ground. The County ground was the first provincial ground to host an FA Cup Final (1886) and also staged an England International.

Everton - Anfield
Anfield is still a League venue of course, but with different tenants.  Everton played their last match there in 1891 before moving into their grand purpose built stadium at Goodison Park.

Notts County - Trent Bridge
Continuing the theme of cricket grounds. Trent Bridge hosted Notts County matches in the 1860s, but it was the primary venue for Nottingham Forest until 1883. Forest relocated and County moved in, staying until  1910, when they moved to Meadow Lane. 

Preston North End - Deepdale
 North End was primarily a cricket club when they first leased the land on Deepdale Farm in 1875. Their winter game was Rugby football. Association was first played at Deepdale in 1878, and it remains the home of Preston North End to this day.

Stoke- The Victoria Ground
Football was originally played in Stoke at the Victoria Cricket Club, but this was not the same venue. Stoke moved across the road from Sweetings Field to the Victoria Ground in 1878. At the time it was still known as The Athletic Club field, but was later named after a pub built on the Sweetings Field  that Stoke had vacated. The Victoria Ground was the home of Stoke and their successors until 1997.
The site is now wasteland.

West Bromwich Albion -Stoney Lane
Stoney Lane was Albion's 5th ground. It was their home from 1885 until 1900. The site is now a housing estate.

Wolverhampton Wanderers - Dudley Road
Home to the Wanderers from 1881- 1889, the last match being played on 2nd  March 1889. Now a housing estate. 

Old Trafford 1910

The Manchester Courier, 21.02.10

Its not just teams and individual players that make up the rich fabric of football history, but places too, iconic venues.

Manchester United's Old Trafford ground is one of the great venues in World Football. 

Opened in 1910, Old Trafford was Manchester United / Newton Heath's 3rd home. 

From 1878  to 1893 Newton Heath played at North Road. The highest attendance recorded at this ground was approximately 15,000 for a Division 1 game against Sunderland (04.03.93).

The second ground was Bank Street. The capacity was 50,000. In the last match United played there, however, the attendance was just 5,000 (22.01.10).

The opening match at Old Trafford (19.02.10) drew a crowd in excess of 50,000.

In 1911 58,000 watched the replayed FA Cup Final between Bradford City and Newcastle United. Old Trafford's 2nd FA Cup Final, the Khaki Final of 1915 (Sheffield United v Chelsea) had an attendance of 49,557. 

70,504 saw United lose 3-1 to Aston Villa (27.12.20) and the ground's first international (England 0 Scotland 1, 17.04.26) was attended by a crowd of 49,429.

Sandy Turnbull scored the first ever goal at Old Trafford, for United in a 4-3 loss to Liverpool. 

Barcelona's Stadia

Velódromo de la Bonanova (1899)
In their first ever match, (08.12.99) Barcelona played a scratch team of English expatriates (some of whom were founder members of the club) in Velódromo de la Bonanova in the Turo Parc area. For the uninitiated a velodrome is a cycling track, as you can see from the photographs above, which shows the banked track in the background. 

Hipodrom De Can Tunis (1900-01)
Matches were also occasionally played at this former horseracing track.

Camp del Hotel Casanovas (1900-01)
The estate of Hotel Casanovas was near to where Sant Pau hospital now stands. Walter Wild, the club president, negotiated the use of some of this land as a football ground.Barcelona first played there on 18.11.1900  The result was 0-0 against Athletic Club. According to contemporary reports the attendance was about 4,000.

Campo de la Carretera de Horta (1901-1905)
The club played its first game here on 23.11.01 against the Calliope (crew of a British ship). Barca won 4-0. Joan Gamper scored the first goal. The club had to move on when the land was developed.

Campo de la calle Muntaner (1905-1909)
Scene of the first ever Barcelona v (Real) Madrid (FC) clash, a 5-2 win for Barca in 1906. Later became the home of Club Deportivo Español .

Plaza De Armas (1909)
  Occasional use only

 La Fuxarda (1909)
The municipal stadium was used for 2 games against Sparta Prague. 

Campo de la Calle Industria (1909-22)

The first ground owned outright by the club had a capacity of 6,000 and featured a novel double-decker stand. It was the first ground in Spain to have floodlights. The beginnings were more modest, though- initially there were no changing rooms or running water!

The ground was officially opened on 14.03.09, and was used until the club's success saw them outgrow the stadium in 1922. 

Camp de Les Corts  (1922 -57)
The club therefore started the construction of a new stadium, and  Les Corts opened on  20.05.22, Barcelona playing Saint Mirren. The initial capacity was 22,000.
In 1925, a display of Catalan nationalism on the part of the crowd at Les Corts led to the authorities closing the stadium  for 6 months (later reduced to 3).

19th Century Attendances

Fallowfield

In the dingy nineteenth century towns the proletariat found little opportunity for enjoyment.

Eric Dunning

In terms of social class, crowds at Football League matches were predominantly drawn from the skilled working and lower-middle classes... Social groups below that level were largely excluded by the admission price...the Football League, quite possibly in a deliberate attempt to limit the access of poorer (and thus supposedly "rowdier") supporters, raised the minimum adult male admission price...

Dave Russell 

ENGLAND

season	FA Cup Final	England v Scotland	Football League Clubs
			Highest Average	Highest
1871-72	2,000 The Oval, London
1872-73	3,000 Lillie Bridge, London	2,500 to 4,000 The Oval, London
1873-74	2,000 The Oval, London
1874-75	…quite 1,000 (1) Replay=unknown The Oval, London	2,000 The Oval, London
1875-76	3,500 1,500 The Oval, London
1876-77	3000 The Oval, London	2,000 to 3,000  The Oval, London
1877-78	4,500 The Oval, London
1878-79	a much larger company than been seen at Kennington Oval in the present season The Oval, London	4,500 The Oval, London
1879-80	Upwards of 2,000 The Oval, London
1880-81	c. 4,000 The Oval, London	8,500 The Oval, London
1881-82	6,000 The Oval, London
1882-83	c. 7,000 The Oval, London	7,000 Bramall Lane, Sheffield
1883-84	12,000 The Oval, London
1884-85	12,500 The Oval, London	8,000 The Oval, London
1885-86	15,000 The Oval, London
	12,000 Racecourse, Derby
1886-87	15,500 The Oval, London	12,000 Leamington Street, Blackburn
1887-88	19,000 The Oval, London
1888-89	27,000 The Oval, London	10,000 The Oval, London	7,260 Anfield, Liverpool (2)	15,000 (Preston North End) Anfield, Liverpool
1889-90	20,000 The Oval, London		10,110 Anfield, Liverpool	18,000 (Preston North End) Anfield, Liverpool
1890-91	23,000 The Oval, London	10,000 Ewood Park, Blackburn	11,375 Anfield, Liverpool	16,000 (Accrington & Preston North End) Anfield, Liverpool
1891-92	25,000 The Oval, London		10,730 Anfield, Liverpool	16,000 (Blackburn Rovers, Accrington & Preston North End) Anfield, Liverpool
1892-93	45,000 (3) Fallowfield Athletics Stadium,  Manchester	16,000 Richmond Athletic Ground, London	13,230 Goodison Park, Liverpool	27,500 (Preston North End) Goodison Park, Liverpool
1893-94	37,000 (4) Goodison Park, Liverpool		13,520 Goodison Park, Liverpool	27,500 (Sunderland) Goodison Park, Liverpool
1894-95	42,560 Crystal Palace, London	42,500 Goodison Park, Liverpool	17,420 Goodison Park, Liverpool	35,000 (Sunderland) Goodison Park, Liverpool
1895-96	48,836 Crystal Palace, London		16,080 Goodison Park, Liverpool	30,000 (Aston Villa) Goodison Park, Liverpool
1896-97	65,891 Crystal Palace, London	33,715 Crystal Palace, London	15,840 Goodison Park, Liverpool	40,000 (Liverpool) Goodison Park, Liverpool
1897-98	62,017 Crystal Palace, London		17,390 Villa Park, Birmingham	50,000 (Sheffield United) Villa Park, Birmingham
1898-99	73,833 Crystal Palace, London	25,590 Villa Park, Birmingham	23,045 Villa Park, Birmingham	41,000 (Liverpool) Villa Park, Birmingham
1899-1900	68,945 Crystal Palace, London		18,765 Villa Park, Birmingham	60,000 (Sunderland) Villa Park, Birmingham

(1) Italicised estimates come from contemporary press reports 

(2) Anfield was Everton's ground at this time

(3) Chaotic scenes: official attendance was 45,000, there were probably 60,000 in the ground, affecting the progress of the match.

(4) Again, the official figure. Probably far more in attendance. 

For the League highest the visitors are shown in brackets.

Crystal Palace

SCOTLAND

season	Scottish Cup Final	Scotland v England	League Clubs
			Highest  Average	Highest
1871-72		5,000 Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow
1872-73
1873-74	2,500 Hampden Park 1, Glasgow	4,000 Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow
1874-75	7,000 Hampden Park 1, Glasgow
1875-76	6,000 Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow	12,000 Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow
	10,000 Hampden Park 1, Glasgow
1876-77	8,000 15,000 12,000 Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow
1877-78	5,000 Hampden Park 1, Glasgow	10,000 Hampden Park 1, Glasgow
1878-79	9,000 Hampden Park 1, Glasgow
1879-80	4,000 Hampden Park 1, Glasgow	12,000 Hampden Park 1, Glasgow
1880-81	15,000 10,000 Kinning Park Glasgow
1881-82	12,500 14,000 Cathkin Park, Glasgow	10,000 Hampden Park 1, Glasgow
1882-83	15,000 12,000 Hampden Park 1, Glasgow
1883-84		10,000 Cathkin Park, Glasgow
1884-85	3,000 5,500 Hampden Park 2, Glasgow
1885-86	7,000 Cathkin Park, Glasgow	11,000 Hampden Park 2, Glasgow
1886-87	15,000 Hampden Park 2, Glasgow
1887-88	10,000 Hampden Park 2, Glasgow	16,000 Hampden Park 2, Glasgow
1888-89	17,000 13,000 Hampden Park 2, Glasgow
1889-90	11,000 13,000 Ibrox Park, Glasgow	26,379 Hampden Park 2, Glasgow
1890-91	10,836 Hampden Park 2, Glasgow		5,673 Rangers	12,000 Rangers (Dumbarton)
1891-92	40,000 26,000 Ibrox Park, Glasgow	20,000 Ibrox Park, Glasgow	7,636 Celtic	16,000 Celtic (Heart of Midlothian)
1892-93	18,771 13,239 Ibrox Park, Glasgow		9,111 Celtic	15,000 Celtic (Renton)
1893-94	17,000 Hampden Park 2, Glasgow	45,107 Celtic Park, Glasgow	7,188 Celtic	14,000 Celtic (Leith Athletic)
1894-95	10,000 Ibrox Park, Glasgow		7,889 Celtic	24,000 Celtic (Heart of Midlothian)
1895-96	17,034 Logie Green, Edinburgh	51,345/56,500 Celtic Park, Glasgow	10,367 Celtic	25,500 Celtic (Rangers)
1896-97	14,000 Hampden Park 2, Glasgow		11,333 Celtic	25,000 Celtic (Heart of Midlothian)
1897-98	13,000 Hampden Park 2, Glasgow	40,000 Celtic Park, Glasgow	13,056 Celtic	50,000 Celtic (Rangers)
1898-99	25,000 Hampden Park 2, Glasgow		12,241 Celtic	44,868 Celtic (Rangers)
1899-1900	15,000 Ibrox Park, Glasgow	63,000 Celtic Park, Glasgow	11,889 Rangers	48,000 Rangers (Celtic)

For the League highest the visitors are shown in brackets.

Celtic Park