Our collective post-Euro 2016 disappointment has been replaced with that unmistakable feeling of excitement that only the start of the new football season brings…
It’s all change at the top. Mourinho replaced Van Gaal at United; Pep replaced Pellegrini at City; Conte replaced Hiddink at Chelsea and Arsene Wenger is still at Arsenal. OK, some things never change…
What do change with increasing regularity however, are stadiums.
From the Old to the New
In 1988, when Scunthorpe United moved from the Old Show Ground to the 9,088-capacity Glanford Park, they were the first league club to move to a purpose-built stadium since the mid-50s when Southend United moved to Roots Hall. Now, it’s de rigeur if you’ve got a sugar-daddy, access to unlimited petro-dollars or an underused Olympic stadium on your doorstep…
Stadia of old were things of beauty – traditional, rickety, smelly, falling down, crappy view, tucked-away-in-a-residential-street beauty. We loved them. We loved queuing up for 10 minutes to use the loo and twice that for a partially-cooked hot dog and a warm beer. We loved feeling the whole stand shake when your team scored. It was part of the experience and if you ever went to football in the 70s and 80s, you’ll know what we’re talking about.
But, can going to football in a soul-less glass and steel mega-stadium with fine dining restaurants and plush seating evoke the same passion and will it evoke the same memories of going to football as it once did? A slice of goat’s cheese quiche and a mint tea doesn’t do it but a can of Coke and a shirt sleeve drenched in vinegar walking home with your dad from a night match holding a bag of the best chips in the world certainly does.
A Sign of the Times…
So why do football clubs move grounds? For most, it’s about generating the required revenue in order to compete at the highest (or higher) level. Arsenal are a prime example, having moved from the 38,400-capacity Highbury to the 60,300-seater Emirates to compete with the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Bayern Munich at Europe’s top table both on the pitch and in the bank.
Arsenal – From South to North
Prior to Wimbledon moving to Milton Keynes, football clubs have only ever really moved locally , but in the early 20th century, Arsenal, as Woolwich Arsenal, were playing at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, south-east London.
After years of living on the financial precipice, Woolwich Arsenal was faced with bankruptcy in 1910. Their average gates were just 11,000 compared to 28,000 at Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. In a deal that would be unthinkable today, Fulham chairman and London property magnate Sir Henry Norris bought Woolwich Arsenal and moved the club to Highbury in north London (after trying and failing to create a London super-club by merging the two).
Woolwich Arsenal’s last game at the Manor Ground, a 1-1 draw against Middlesbrough in April 1913, was seen by just 3,000. After they left, the ground fell derelict and was eventually demolished. If you find yourself overcome with nostalgia, the industrial estate that stands on the site is bound by Nathan Way, Griffin Manor Way and Hadden Road.
Interestingly, Arsenal’s relocation paved the way for Charlton Athletic to turn professional in 1920, taking their place as south-east London’s premier club.
Wood is No Good (Anymore)
For other clubs, century-old wooden grounds simply stop being fit for purpose, especially since the publication of the post-Hillsborough Taylor Report. Very strict criteria in terms of safety provision, seating, barriers and fencing and stadium entry are now regimentally enforced with serious penalties for non-compliance – and rightly so. We never want to see another Hillsborough or Bradford City again.
Another reason why clubs move comes down to straight property deals. Leases are granted to tenants (in this case football clubs) for a length of time and when the lease is up or there’s an appropriate break, the landlord does what landlords do. Maximise ROI. If that means selling the land to a housebuilder or a supermarket chain, then so be it. The club is then left with no choice but to either build a new stadium, ground share or in a worst-case scenario, fold.
When clubs fold, it’s more often than not due to crippling debt – see Darlington, Aldershot, Accrington, Chester City, Scarborough and perhaps the biggest of them all, Parma in Italy.
During the 90s they won the Italian Cup three times, one Italian Super Cup, two UEFA Cups, one European Cup Winners’ Cup and a European Super Cup. Parmalat, the massive food and dairy conglomerate that was the football club’s cash-cow collapsed in 2003 with a £13bn hole in its accounts. It remains Europe’s biggest bankruptcy. With that went the football club.
When a club moves or disappears, hundreds of jobs also disappear, debts aren’t paid to small suppliers and entire communities suffer.
From Wimbledon to Milton Keynes
The most recent high profile move has been the relocation of Wimbledon FC to Milton Keynes.
They were playing at Plough Lane, a modest, non-league standard ground when then chairman Ron Noades, as early as 1979, realised it wasn’t a viable option moving forward. After the publication of the Taylor Report, they ground-shared with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, a temporary arrangement said Wimbledon’s then owner Sam Hamman, while a more suitable site was found somewhere else in south-west London.
Merton Council, it seemed, did little to help Wimbledon find new premises and relocation became their only realistic option with Dublin being briefly mooted in the mid-90s.
Enter Pete Winkelman, a music promoter who, in 2000, was in talks (with ASDA and IKEA) to develop a retail development in Milton Keynes and a league-standard football stadium. In the years that followed, relocating to MK, according to new chairman Charles Koppel, was the only way to stop the club going out of business.
The Football League initially refused permission but the club launched an appeal to which they were ultimately successful.
Naturally, there were plenty of Wimbledon fans who had been with the club since the very start, who were angry and disillusioned. They formed non-league club AFC Wimbledon in protest.
During this time, Wimbledon remained at Selhurst Park but in June 2003 went into administration. Pete Winkelman put his money where his mouth was and bought the club. While the stadium in MK was being built, he did a deal with the National Hockey Stadium where they stayed until 2007 (when the lease ran out).
On 29th November 2007, stadium mk was officially opened by HRH The Queen and at the time of writing, MK Dons sit comfortably in mid-table in League One.
Here’s a short list of the clubs that have moved over the last 20 years or so. How many have you been to? How many do you remember?
Houses, flats and giant IKEA megastores are the legacy our football teams leave when they move. In one way it’s desperately sad that a century of history gets wiped out with one swing of a wrecking ball but in another way, it’s simply the nature of progress.
The importance of being able to compete at the highest level – both on the pitch and off – is acute and that means spending vast sums of money on playing staff, managers, marketing and inevitably, bricks and mortar.
As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions. Tweet us @BDG_SP.
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