Ground #98 - The Darlington Arena

Date: 7th April 2012
Ground: The Darlington Arena
Location: Darlington, County Durham

My tenth new ground of 2012 was on Saturday 7th April at The Darlington Arena in Darlington, County Durham. The match was Darlington vs. Grimsby Town in Conference National.

The Darlington Arena, also known as The Northern Echo Darlington Arena, is situated on the southern outskirts of the town, just over a mile from Darlington railway station. In 2003 the club moved to the ground from their former home at Feethams where they had played for the previous 120 years. Shortly after the end of the 2011/12 season the club left the Darlington Arena having spent less than a decade there.

The Darlington Arena was built in 2003 by then-owner George Reynolds who moved the club from their 8,500 capacity Feethams home to the 25,000 capacity Darlington Arena. The stadium is bowl-shaped with all stands the same height the whole way round the ground. The only difference between the stands is the executive boxes which sit at the top of the South Stand. The excellent facilities at the venue were of a high standard for Football League competition and very much wasted for the non-league football which it hosted in the club's later years at the stadium.

The layout of the stadium including the perspex panels in between the roof and the seats means even when less than one-tenth full the venue retains sound well and enables a surprisingly good atmosphere. Sadly though, despite its technical achievements this ground will be forever viewed as one which has been fundamentally bad for the club. The venue was always going to be far too large for a club of Darlington's size and the running costs crippled the club since they moved in. With low attendances it is no surprise that Darlo have found themselves in administration on three separate occasions since 2003. In May 2012 the fans finally gave up with the venue and upon their takeover decided to vacate the premises and enter a groundshare arrangement with another club in the area.

The game began with both sides on the attack in an end-to-end first 45 minutes with lots of decent chances and an equal amount of poor finishing. The two goalkeepers also made saves to make sure the score remained 0-0 at half-time. Much of the second half was one-way traffic with the hosts dominating the play for large parts of the game. Darlington created some good passing moves but as in the first period were let down in the final third of the pitch. Any time they did come close a combination of the crossbar, the Grimsby goalkeeper and bad luck meant they just couldn't get the ball in the back of the net. In the final minutes the visitors looked like they might steal it but desperate defending kept them out meaning a decent game ended goalless.

Result: Darlington 0-0 Grimsby Town
Division: Conference National
Attendance: 2,212

Ground #12 - New Wembley Stadium

Visited: 11th August 2010
Ground: Wembley Stadium
Location: Wembley, London

Wembley Stadium is located in Wembley Park in north-west London. Taking over from the original Wembley Stadium, building began on the new Wembley in 2003 with the stadium finally opening in 2007. It is the home of England football team as well as most national football competition finals and a variety of other sports and events.

I have been to the new Wembley Stadium on only one occasion so far - to see England beat Hungary 2-1 in an friendly match held on 11th August 2010. This was the first England game since the side's extremely disappointing performance in the World Cup so it was not a full house, but with 72,024 fans inside the stadium there was still a decent atmosphere.

The new Wembley is structured as a three-tiered bowl with a capacity of 90,000. This is higher than the old stadium, and unlike its predecessor it has no supporting beams to obstruct the views of spectators. The roof itself is largely supported by the dramatic arch which reaches nearly 450ft into the air. As the stadium cost £800m to build, the facilities are excellent, with a quarter-mile of escalators and at 2,618, has the largest number of toilets of any stadium in the world. The ground is well ventilated and very spacious for spectators.

As well as hosting football, the stadium is home to the NFL International Series as well as some Rugby League and Rugby Union matches. It has also played host to motor racing in the form of the Race of Champions events in 2007 and 2008. Besides sport, concerts are the venue's other main usage and these frequently reach attendances of close to 80,000.

With the stadium only recently opened there will not be any substantive changes to it. It was planned for the venue to have the ability to alter the stadium for athletics events by sliding rows of seats away and installing a running track. To actually enact this however was found to be expensive and time consuming and once it had been decided to build an Olympic Stadium, such an option at Wembley became redundant. The drastic changes to the stadium to create the racing track for the Race of Champions events do however, demonstrate the Wembley Stadium's flexibility in such matters.

Ground #5 - Wembley Stadium

First Visited: 20th April 1997
Ground: Wembley Stadium
Location: Wembley, London

The original Wembley Stadium was located in Wembley Park in north-west London. Built in 1923, it was the home of the England football team for most of that period as well as hosting every F.A. Cup final from the year it opened until the stadium was closed in 2000 to make way for the new Wembley Stadium.

I visited the original Wembley Stadium on three occasions. The first of these was on 20th April 1997 for the Football League Trophy Final (at the time known as the Auto Windscreens Shield Final) between Carlisle United and Colchester United, which culminated in a penalty shoot-out win for Carlisle after a goalless 120 minutes. The other two visits were for international games, seeing England draw 0-0 with Saudi Arabia in a friendly match on 23rd May 1998 and England beat Luxembourg 6-0 in a European Championship Qualifying match on 4th September 1999. The photograph in this post comes from the Football League Trophy Final game.

The oval-shaped stadium had a capacity of 82,000 when it was closed in 2000. The venue was finally demolished in 2003 and a new 90,000 Wembley Stadium was built in its place over the next four years, opening its doors in 2007, taking over the mantle as the home of the England team and F.A. Cup Final as well as various other events.