Highfield Road (stadium)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Highfield Road Stadium | |
|---|---|
| (Highfield Road) | |
 |
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| Location | Hillfields, Coventry, England |
| Opened | 1899 |
| Closed | 30 April 2005 (last game) |
| Demolished | 2006 |
| Owner | Coventry City F.C. |
| Surface | Grass |
| Tenants | None |
| Capacity | 23,489 (as all-seater) |
The Highfield Road Stadium was a football stadium in the city of Coventry, England. It was the home ground for Coventry City F.C. until the club moved to the new Ricoh Arena after the 2004-05 season. It was built in 1899 in the Hillfields district, close to the city centre, and staged its final game on 30 April 2005 when Coventry City beat Derby County 6-2 in the Football League Championship with the last ever goal appropriately being scored by Andrew Whing, a product of Coventry City's youth academy.
Highfield Road had one of the largest playing surfaces in the English leagues (it looked enormous on television) and was the English league's first all-seater stadium (the first all-seater in the UK was Aberdeen FC's Pittodrie Stadium). The all-seater policy introduced by Jimmy Hill was later abandoned when Leeds United 'fans' tore-out several hundred seats after losing their First Division game to Coventry 4-0 in 1981, only months after the seats had been installed.
The stadium's record attendance was 51,455 when Coventry played their West Midlands rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in a Football League Division 2 game in 1967. However, after it was converted to an all-seater stadium for the second time in the mid 1990s, its maximum capacity was 23,489 at the time of its closure. The stadium had by then been well-developed with one corner filled to provide a more modern look and feel. However, it lacked facilities compared to the new stadia of similar-sized clubs such as Southampton and Leicester City, which was one of the main causes of the move to the Ricoh Arena.
Demolition took place in early 2006.
[edit] Post-stadium housing development
The site of the stadium is currently being regenerated by George Wimpey plc to provide housing on the areas which were originally the car parks and stands. The area which was the playing surface will be relaid with grass so that the local children can continue the tradition of playing football on that space.
 New buildings around the site of the former football pitch. |
 View eastward along Thackhall Street in April 2007; the stadium was on the right and a car park was on the left. |
