Valley Parade

Valley Parade, currently known under a naming-rights contract as Intersonic Stadium (previously Bradford & Bingley Stadium), is the home stadium of Bradford City football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is not to be confused with The Valley, the home stadium of Charlton Athletic.

The club does not itself own Valley Parade and in 2004 narrowly escaped being forced to move

It has a current seating capacity of 25,136.

It is divided, as are many English football grounds, into four stands, known as the Carlsberg Stand, Sunwin Stand, TL Dallas Stand and the East Stand.

Some of the official current stand names come from naming rights of sponsors. For instance, the Carlsberg Stand is traditionally known as the Kop End (the name derived, like many other home ends in stadiums around the UK, from the famous Spion Kop). The Sunwin Stand is known as the Main Stand, and the TL Dallas Stand is traditionally known as the Bradford End, it being the closest stand to the City Centre. The East Stand is also known traditionally as the Midland Road Stand (after the road on which it sits). The East Stand currently has no sponsor, after it's previous sponsors deal ended before the 2006/2007 season.

The Sunwin and Carlsberg Stands are the newest additions to the ground (the Sunwin Stand being completed in 2001). These are both large, two-tiered stands. The Sunwin Stand is unusual in that it only runs roughly three-quarters the length of the playing area. The rest of this side is taken up by a brick building, which houses the club changing rooms and the security offices. The Sunwin and Carlsberg Stands are connected by a large, two-tiered corner section. Under naming rights, this is known as the Pulse Family Stand, and although it has no real traditional name assigned to it (given it's young age), it is known to some fans as the North West Corner.

The Carlsberg Stand is the home end of the ground where the most vociferous fans usually congregate, with home fans also using the bottom tier of the Sunwin Stand, the bottom tier of the Pulse Family Stand, and a section of the East Stand. Away fans are usually seated in the TL Dallas Stand, the smallest of the four stands. If a large away following is predicted, the club can open up a section of the East Stand for use by away fans. Away fans in the past have also been seated in the top tier of the Sunwin Stand and the Pulse Family Stand, although it is likely that these will remain one-off occassions, as they resulted in incidents of violence between home and away fans.

The three newest stands (the East Stand, the Carlsberg Stand and the Sunwin Stand) contain internal concourses, which include such facilities as food and drink kiosks, betting kiosks and TV screens, usually showing highlights from previous Bradford City games, or the dedicated sports channel Sky Sports News. The Sunwin Stand also houses the stadium's hospitality and banqueting suites, the stadium's private boxes and most of the stadium's media facilities. The top end of the bottom tier of the Carlsberg Stand is dedicated to the Bantams Bar area, a seperate area which incorporates it's own comfier seats and inside bar and betting kiosk. The centre of the East Stand, at the very back, is home to any TV cameras which may be filming a match or highlights of a match on a matchday.

The TL Dallas Stand is the oldest and smallest of the four stands, and as such facilities are limited. It does not have an internal concourse, and food and drink is served from a Portakabin style tea bar located on the bottom tier of the stand.

Valley Parade Fire

On May 11, 1985, a crowd of over 11,000 were celebrating Bradford City winning the Football League Third Division championship, equivalent to the post-2004 Football League One, and watching the final game of the season, against Lincoln City F.C. The trophy was presented before the game, and they were looking forward to the next season when they would be playing in their highest level in the English football league system since 1937.

Shortly before half-time, a fire broke out in the space beneath the seating in the 80-year-old wooden Sunwin Stand, believed to have been caused by a dropped cigarette igniting an accumultation of litter. The fire spread very rapidly, quickly engulfing the entire structure of the stand in flames and dense smoke, and causing a mass panic.

Ultimately, the fire killed 56 spectators ranging from small children to the 86-year-old former chairman of the club. The few existing narrow escape routes in some cases led to locked doors, and the only escape for most spectators was directly onto the field. The match was duly abandoned and was never replayed.

It was something of an irony that the old wooden roof to the stand was actually due to be replaced the very next day, as it did not meet the safety regulations required for the Division the team would be playing in the following season.

This disaster is marked by annual remembrance ceremonies on the anniversary, and an annual Easter-weekend youth tournament drawing teams from across Europe as well as from Bradford and Lincoln.

The disaster also proved to be the catalyst for the movement towards greater public safety in British sports venues, which intensified still further after the Hillsborough disaster a few years later. The dead are also remembered by a plaque at today's rebuilt Sunwin Stand.

During the following season, Bradford's home games were played at Elland Road, Leeds Road (The old Huddersfield Town F.C. stadium) and Odsal Stadium. For the first part of the 1986-87 season fixtures were played at Odsal Stadium before the team returned to the rebuilt Valley Parade in December 1986 with a friendly fixture against the England national side. The first competitive fixture at the rebuilt stadium was against Derby County which Bradford lost 1-0. Following the fire, the stadium did not reopen again until December 14, 1986 and is now rebuilt to far more stringent safety standards than before.

Bradford's twin city, the German town of Hamm, donated a memorial with all the names the victims, cast in relief on it, soon after the disaster.

Rugby League

The stadium was briefly shared with Bradford's biggest Rugby League club, Bradford Bulls during the 2001 and 2002 Super League (Europe) seasons. This was due to the proposed development of the Bulls' home ground Grattan Stadium (formerly known as Odsal Stadium), however a full re-development never took place and instead only minor changes were made to the stadium in the south of the city. However, whilst playing at Valley Parade the Bulls won the 2001 Super League Title and the 2002 World Club Challenge Title.

External links

• BBC historical story on the disaster

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