Grounds
Sheffield club have played at a number of grounds around Sheffield. Initially they played at Strawberry Hall Lane Park. However, like all of the early grounds they played at, it was not owned by the club. In the following years they would play at Newhall Athletic ground, Old Forge ground and a ground near Hunters Bar on Ecclesall Road.
There was much reluctance from the owners of Bramall Lane to see the pitch be used for football. They did not relent until a charity match between Sheffield and Hallam was suggested in late 1862. The ground was used by Sheffield F.C. for its more important fixtures but relations with the owners remained strained. They collapsed altogether in 1875 when the club vowed never to play at the ground again.
In 1921, Sheffield settled at the new Abbeydale Park ground. They moved to Hillsborough Park in 1988, then to Owlerton Stadium and Don Valley Stadium before purchasing the Coach and Horses pub and some adjoining land in Dronfield in 2001 for the purposes of developing a stadium, the first time the club had owned its own ground.
The land was previously used by the Coach and Horses pub team, and was also the home of Norton Woodseats and Dronfield United. It currently has a capacity of 2,000, and is also known as the BT Local Business Stadium for sponsorship purposes, having previously been named the Bright Finance Stadium.
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Famous quotes containing the word grounds:
“And in a disused shed in Co. Wexford,
Deep in the grounds of a burnt-out hotel,
Among the bathtubs and the washbasins
A thousand mushrooms crowd to a keyhole.”
—Derek Mahon (b. 1941)
“The most disgusting cad in the world is the man who, on grounds of decorum and morality, avoids the game of love. He is one who puts his own ease and security above the most laudable of philanthropies.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“We’re built, as a nation, on the grounds of a concentration camp. It’s like saying “OK, here’s Auschwitz. Here’s where we’ll start our country.””
—Peter Carey (b. 1943)