Meadow Lane

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Meadow Lane Stadium
The Haydn Green Family stand (center) on Meadow Lane in Nottingham
The Haydn Green Family stand (center) on Meadow Lane in Nottingham
Data
place United KingdomUnited Kingdom Nottingham , Nottinghamshire , UK
Coordinates 52 ° 56 '32.9 "  N , 1 ° 8' 13.8"  W Coordinates: 52 ° 56 '32.9 "  N , 1 ° 8' 13.8"  W.
opening 1910
First game September 3rd, 1910
Notts County - Nottingham Forest 1: 1
Renovations 1992–1994 (complete conversion), 2010
surface Natural grass
costs £ 8 million (complete refurbishment)
capacity 20,229 seats
playing area 103 × 66 m
Societies)
Events
  • Notts County Games (since 1910)
  • Games of Notts County Ladies FC (since 2014)
  • Nottingham RFC Games (2006-2014)
The City Ground of Nottingham Forest in the foreground and the Magpies' Meadow Lane behind it

The Meadow Lane is the football stadium of the English football club Notts County (nicknamed The Magpies ; German  The magpies ) in Nottingham , county Nottinghamshire . The venue, inaugurated in 1910, now offers space for 20,229 visitors. After a restriction to around 17,000 seats for safety reasons, tickets can now be sold again for all seats since the 2011/12 season. From 2006 to 2014 the rugby union team of the Nottingham RFC also played their games in Meadow Lane. Notts County Ladies FC, the club's women's team from WSL 1 , has been using Meadow Lane for their games since 2014 .

history

Many stops to Meadow Lane

Meadow Lane is just 300 meters from the City Ground , home of city rivals Nottingham Forest , and only separated by the River Trent . Before the move, the Magpies played their games in The Park from 1862 to 1864 and then moved into The Meadows from 1864 to 1877. Three years at the Beeston Cricket Ground followed . Notts County spent the years 1880 to 1883 in the Castle Ground ; before Trent Bridge , the cricket ground of the Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club , became the home of the Magpies in 1883 . The last game at Trent Bridge played Notts on April 16, 1910 in front of 13,000 spectators against Arsenal . The club invested around £ 10,000 to make the stadium usable. At the first game in Meadow Lane on September 3, 1910, Notts County met neighboring Nottingham Forest; they parted in front of 28,000 spectators with a 1-1 draw. At the beginning, the venue only had one grandstand. The Taverner's Stand was dismantled at the Trent Bridge and rebuilt at a new location.

In 1912, the first FA Cup semi-finals took place on Meadow Lane. On April 3, Barnsley FC and Swindon Town competed against each other for the replay . Barnsley defeated Swindon 1-0 after extra time and moved into the final against West Bromwich Albion . During the First World War , the stadium was taken over by the British Army . In 1920 Meadow Lane almost became a slaughterhouse . The Nottingham Corporation , who owned the property Notts County had leased, wanted to build a slaughterhouse on Meadow Lane. William Walker, a member of the city council, convinced the health committee to move the slaughterhouse to another location. In the FA Cup season 1924/25, Meadow Lane was again the site of a semi-final. March 28, 1925. defeated Cardiff City to Blackburn Rovers with 3: 1. Also in 1925, a new County Road booth added the stadium. During the Second World War , the stadium was damaged by aerial bombs . On the night of May 8-9, 1941, the explosive devices struck the Notts County venue. The stadium was so badly damaged that the club missed the entire 1941/42 season. Meadow Lane was also home to Nottingham Forest twice for a while. In the winter of 1946/47 both stadiums were flooded, causing great damage to the City Ground, and on August 24, 1968, the main stand was destroyed in a fire during the game against Leeds United .

30 years of stagnation in the stadium

The Kop grandstand was built in 1949; this was the last major construction project in the stadium for a long time. In 1953 the stadium received a floodlight system ; which was inaugurated on March 23 of the year with a game against Derby County in front of 20,193 spectators. The system was replaced in 1962 after only nine years due to poor quality. At the end of the 1970s, construction machinery arrived in the stadium and the Meadow Lane stand with its barrel roof , which had been in use for almost 70 years, was demolished. The changing rooms have been relocated to the £ 800,000 newly built Meadow Club sports center . At the time, Meadow Lane only had three grandstands and there was speculation about a move to the City Ground of Nottingham Forest. A small standing room was built in place of the Meadow Lane stand in the late 1980s. From 1981 to 1985, the club slipped from the Football League First Division to the Football League Third Division and the stadium fell into disrepair.

In these difficult sporting and financially difficult times, Derek Pavis took over the club in 1987. The entrepreneur from the heating and plumbing industry was wooed as a donor by several associations in the region. But he decided on the club from his hometown. Shortly after Pavis became club chairman, he sold his company and invested approximately £ 2 million in the Magpies . After two consecutive promotions, County played again in the Football League First Division in 1991 .

The new Meadow Lane

After the 1985 Valley Parade fire disaster in Bradford and the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield in 1989 , the Taylor Report was presented in the early 1990s . The report recommended u. a. only to allow seats in the English stadiums. The association then decided to completely renovate Meadow Lane and in January 1992 the plans were presented to the public. At that time there were not even 4,000 seats in the stadium with a total of around 24,000 seats. On May 2, 1992, the last game took place in old Meadow Lane between the Magpies and Luton Town . In the summer of 1992, Jimmy Sirrel stood on the back straight ; the Haydn Green Family Stand and The Kop built behind the gates in just 17 weeks. As the start of the 1992 season approached, people worked in 24-hour shifts through the night to get things done on time. At the start of the season on August 22, 1992, 10,502 spectators came to the new building. The main stand built in 1910 was then replaced in 1994 by the Derek Pavis stand . In this are u. a. Conference and event rooms, the business seats, changing rooms for players and referees, showers and dehydration baths, fitness studio, massage room as well as trainer and club offices. The stadium's 18 boxes are housed on the family stand under the roof. The conversion of the stadium into a modern seating stadium cost around eight million pounds, of which the main tier alone, at four million, cost exactly as much as the three other stands. Much of the cost was paid for by £ 1 million from Derek Pavis, £ 1.9 million from the Football Trust and proceeds from player sales by Tommy Johnson and Craig Short for £ 3.8 million to Derby County .

In November 2000 the stadium was flooded and was completely unplayable for seven weeks. In mid-2002, a contract was signed with the local real estate agency Aaron Scargill Estate Agents for the naming rights to the stadium. After that, the stadium would be called The Aaron Scargill Stadium for a year and about £ 180,000 . But before the season began, the brokerage firm was bankrupt and, to the delight of county fans, the stadium retained its traditional name. The rugby team of the Nottingham RFC has been based on Meadow Lane since the mid-2000s. In 2010 the two clubs agreed that the rugby club would play its games in the Magpies' stadium for another 7 years .

At the end of May 2007, Haydn Green died, who invested over three million pounds in 2003 out of his own pocket in the club and saved the club from collapse. The family stand was named in memory of him in summer 2008. The opposite stand has been named after former coach Jimmy Sirrel since 1993. Sirrel died on September 25, 2008 at the age of 86. He was with County from 1969 to 1975 and 1978 to 1982 active and led the club back from the Football League Fourth Division to the Football League First Division . Initially, the Kop stand was open to home and guest fans; since 2008 this has been reserved for fans of the Magpies and the area for the guest fans has been moved to the opposite stand. The last renovation work so far took place in 2010. The Meadow Lane Sports Bar as well as the offices, boxes, conference and event rooms have been refurbished. In addition, the tiers are to get a new coat of paint and new seats.

The record number of visitors since the conversion into a seating stadium was set on October 26, 1994 with 16,952 spectators when Tottenham Hotspur were guests in Nottingham. The largest number of spectators ever in the stadium was on March 12, 1955 for the FA Cup game of the 6th round against York City with 47,310 visitors. The highest home win in a league game in Meadow Lane celebrated County on January 15, 1949. They parted with an 11-1 from opponents AFC Newport County .

Grandstands

  • Derek Pavi's stand - main grandstand, southwest, opened in 1994, 6,804 seats
  • Jimmy Sirrel stand - opposite stand , north-east, opened in 1992, 5,775 seats, block of guest fans at the north end
  • Kop Stand - back gate, northwest, opened in 1992, 5,438 seats
  • Haydn Green Family Stand - back gate, southeast, opened in 1992, 2,283 seats

photos

0The Derek Pavis booth 0The Kop Stand 0The Jimmy Sirrel booth 0Meadow Lane 1981
The main stand of Derek Pavi's stand The Kop stand in the northwest The Jimmy Sirrel booth on the opposite side Meadow Lane in 1981

literature

  • Tony Brown: The Official History Notts County 1862-1995 , Yore Publications, 1996, 272 pages, ISBN 978-1-874427612
  • Simon Inglis: Football Grounds Of Britain , HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 1996, 480 pages, ISBN 978-0-00-218426-7

Web links

Commons : Meadow Lane  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ nottscountyfc.co.uk: Spectator seats fully usable again ( Memento of the original from April 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Article from July 22, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nottscountyfc.co.uk
  2. ↑ nottinghamrugby.co.uk: Stadium on the homepage of the Nottingham RFC ( Memento of the original from August 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nottinghamrugby.co.uk
  3. ↑ a b c d e nottscounty-mad.co.uk: Meadow Lane - Home Of The Magpies ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nottscounty-mad.co.uk
  4. ↑ rsssf.com: FA Cup 1911/12 (English)
  5. ↑ nottscountyfc.co.uk: Meadow Lane has almost become a slaughterhouse ( memento of the original from September 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Article from September 16, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nottscountyfc.co.uk
  6. ↑ rsssf.com: FA Cup 1924/25 (English)
  7. ↑ a b homepage.ntlworld.com: Notts County venues ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / homepage.ntlworld.com
  8. ↑ a b c Simon Inglis: Football Grounds Of Britain , p. 279
  9. ↑ a b c Simon Inglis: Football Grounds Of Britain , p. 281
  10. ↑ Simon Inglis: Football Grounds Of Britain , p. 280
  11. ↑ bbc.co.uk: Facilities in the stadium (English)
  12. ↑ bgs.ac.uk: Flooding in Nottinghamshire 2000 (English)
  13. ↑ nottscounty-mad.co.uk: Aaron Scargill becomes sponsor Article from June 19, 2002 (English)
  14. ↑ news.bbc.co.uk: Sponsorship contract with Aaron Scargill has broken Article from August 7, 2002
  15. ↑ tribalfootball.com: Nottingham RFC returns to Meadow Lane Article dated February 23, 2010 (English)
  16. ↑ a b c nottscountyfc.co.uk: Stadium history on the official Notts County website ( memento of the original from September 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nottscountyfc.co.uk
  17. ↑ nottscounty-mad.co.uk: Haydn Green dies Article from May 29, 2007 (English)
  18. ↑ guardian.co.uk: Article on the death of Jimmy Sirrel Article from September 30, 2008 (English)
  19. ↑ nottscountyfc.co.uk: The Meadow Lane Sports Bar ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Article dated August 31, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nottscountyfc.co.uk
  20. ↑ footballgroundguide.com: Visitor records ( Memento of the original from August 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.footballgroundguide.com