Bloomfield Road

Bloomfield Road is a 17,338-capacity all-seater football stadium in the English town of Blackpool, Lancashire. It has been the permanent home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901 and is named after the road on which the stadium's main entrance used to stand. The stadium has been in a process of redevelopment since 2000. June of that year saw the demolition of the Spion Kop at the north end of the ground; an all-seated stand has now replaced it. The rebuilding of the West Stand was completed in August 2002. In March 2010, the South Stand, whose original structure was pulled down in 2003, was opened by Jimmy Armfield, the former Blackpool player for whom the stand is named. A temporary East Stand is currently in place, opened on 28 August 2010, with a capacity of 5,120 seats, initially increasing capacity to 16,220 with further hospitality seating in the South Stand to be installed later in the year. Bloomfield Road is currently the 51st-largest stadium by capacity in England and the third-smallest in the Championship.

Before moving to Bloomfield Road, Blackpool had called two other grounds home during their short existence. Firstly, between 1896 and 1897, they played their fifteen home Football League matches at Raikes Hall Gardens (also known as the Pleasure Gardens). In 1897, they moved to the Athletic Grounds at the present-day Stanley Park, which hosted thirty-two League matches over two seasons. After a short spell back at Raikes Hall Gardens in 1899, during their season out of the League, and again for all but the first home game of the 1900–01 campaign, Blackpool made the permanent move to Bloomfield Road.

The record attendance at the original Bloomfield Road was 38,098, which occurred when Blackpool played Wolverhampton Wanderers on 17 September 1955. The record at the reconstructed stadium is 16,116, which occurred for the visit of Manchester City on 17 October 2010. The record gate receipts for a home game is £72,949, for the FA Cup third-round tie against Tottenham Hotspur on 5 January 1991.

The stadium hosted three matches during the 2005 UEFA Women's Championship. It has also been the venue for the annual final of the Northern Rail Cup, a rugby league tournament, since 2005.

The club's mascot, who can be seen at every home game, is Bloomfield Bear. He replaced the long-serving Cable Cat, who was retired in June 2000.

Between September 1900 and the present day, Blackpool have played 2,138 Football League games at Bloomfield Road. Between August 2010 and May 2011, they played nineteen Premier League games at the ground. Of these they won five (26%), drew five (26%) and lost nine (48%).

Read more about Bloomfield Road:  History, Stands, Stand Capacities, Groundsmen, Advertising, Transport

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