Derry City F.C. - Home Ground

Home Ground

Derry City's home ground is the municipal Brandywell Stadium, situated just south-west of the Bogside in the Brandywell area of Derry. It is often abbreviated to "the Brandywell" and is also a local greyhound racing venue, with an ovoid track encircling the pitch. The dimensions of the pitch measure 111 by 72 yards (101 m × 66 m). The legal owner is the Derry City Council which lets the ground to the club. Due to health and safety regulations the stadium has a seating capacity of 2,900 for UEFA competitions, although it can accommodate 7,700 on a normal match-day, terraces included. The curved cantilever all-seated "New Stand" was constructed in 1991, while development on the still-insufficient facilities is set to continue with the planned £12 million upgrade to an expandable 8,000 all-seater by 2010.

Plans of Derry City's to purchase a pitch fell through after its formation due to the tight time-scale between its foundation in 1928 and the season's beginning in 1929 and so the Londonderry Corporation (now the Derry City Council) was approached for the use of the Brandywell which had been used for football up until the end of the 19th century. It agreed and the club still operates under the constraints of the Honourable the Irish Society charter limitations which declare that the Brandywell must be available for the recreation of the community. In effect, the club does not have private ownership and, thus, cannot develop by its own accord, with that discretion or whether to sell being left to the Derry City Council.

Derry City's first game at the Brandywell was a 2–1 loss to Glentoran on 22 August 1929. In 1933, the purchase of Bond’s Field in the Waterside was mentioned, but it was thought to be too far away from the fan-base which had built up on the Cityside, especially in the Brandywell area. It also had first option on Derry Celtic’s old ground, Celtic Park, but hesitated on a final decision and the Gaelic Athletic Association bought it ten years later. It also decided against buying Meenan Park for £1,500.

Because of Northern Ireland's volatile political situation during the Troubles and security fears for Protestants and those of the unionist tradition visiting the mainly nationalist city of Derry, the Brandywell has not always been the home ground of Derry City. In 1970 and 1971, Derry had to play its "home" ties against Linfield at Windsor Park in Belfast – the home-ground of Linfield. From September 1971 until October 1972 Derry was forced to play all its "home" games at the Showgrounds in mainly Protestant Coleraine, over 30 miles (48 km) away, as police ruled the republican Brandywell area as too unsafe for visiting unionists. The Brandywell did not see senior football for another 13 years as the Irish Football League upheld a ban on the stadium and Derry decided to leave the league as a result. Only greyhound meetings and junior football were held during this time. Derry's admission to the League of Ireland in 1985 saw a return of senior games.

In December 2010 the club introduced a new credit card type season ticket system to ensure abuse of tickets could no longer occur and additionally ensuring more accurate attendance count at matches.