Belle Vue was the home of English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 professional

Professional

A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...

 football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 club Doncaster Rovers

Doncaster Rovers F.C.

Doncaster Rovers Football Club is an English football club, based at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. The team currently competes in the Football League Championship, after being promoted via the League One play-offs in 2008, and have remained there since.The club was founded in...

 from 1922 to 2006. The ground was affectionately called by fans as 'Old Belle Vue' or OBV.

History

The ground was opened by Charles E. Sutcliffe from the Football League

The Football League

The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...

 on Saturday, 26 August 1922. The opposition was Gainsborough Trinity

Gainsborough Trinity F.C.

Gainsborough Trinity Football Club are an English football club based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.Between 1896 and 1912 they were members of the Football League. They are currently in the Conference North, and play their home matches at The Northolme, which has a capacity of 4,304...

. The initial capacity

Seating capacity

Seating capacity refers to the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, both in terms of the physical space available, and in terms of limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats...

 was for 7,000 spectators, which was extended year-on-year as finances allowed. In 1927 the main stand at Doncaster's former ground in the suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

 of Bennetthorpe was jacked up and moved on rollers to Belle Vue to form the family

Family

In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...

 stand, where it remained until 1985 when the tragic events at Bradford City

Valley Parade

Valley Parade, also known as the Coral Windows Stadium through sponsorship rights, is an all-seater football stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It was built in 1886, and was the home of Manningham Rugby Football Club until 1903, when they changed code from rugby football to association...

 meant that the old wooden structure was deemed unsafe and was demolished.

In 1938 the capacity of Belle Vue was increased to 40,000 and it was in 1948 that the stadium

Stadium

A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...

 recorded its highest attendance of 37,099 against Hull City

Hull City A.F.C.

Hull City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, founded in 1904. The club participates in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football...

, although apocryphal accounts refute this and claim that many more gained entry to the ground by climbing over walls and thus avoided having to pay.

Rovers decline and 1995 fire

In the later years of the 20th century, as the club's fortunes began to decline and finances became tighter, the capacity of Belle Vue was cut dramatically, falling as low as 4,859 in May 1987 when mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 subsidence

Subsidence

Subsidence is the motion of a surface as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea-level. The opposite of subsidence is uplift, which results in an increase in elevation...

 was found underground beneath the Popular Stand terrace.

A fire

Fire

Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....

 in the Main Stand one night in June 1995 caused extensive damage and nine months later Chairman Ken Richardson was arrested after the full time whistle blew on an evening match against Fulham

Fulham F.C.

Fulham Football Club is a professional English Premier League club based in southwest London Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Founded in 1879, they play in the Premier League, their 11th current season...

. He was charged with conspiracy

Conspiracy (crime)

In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...

 to commit arson

Arson

Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...

 and was subsequently found guilt

Guilt

Guilt is the state of being responsible for the commission of an offense. It is also a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that...

y. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment

Imprisonment

Imprisonment is a legal term.The book Termes de la Ley contains the following definition:This passage was approved by Atkin and Duke LJJ in Meering v Grahame White Aviation Co....

. The actual arsonist, 41-year-old Tyneside

Tyneside

Tyneside is a conurbation in North East England, defined by the Office of National Statistics, which is home to over 80% of the population of Tyne and Wear. It includes the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside — all settlements on...

 man Alan Kristiansen, received a one-year prison sentence; it was revealed that Kristiansen, a former SAS

Special Air Service

Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...

 soldier, had been paid £10,000 by Richardson to start the fire. His accomplices Ian Hay (aged 54 and from Gateshead

Gateshead

Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England and is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Historically a part of County Durham, it lies on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne and together they form the urban core of Tyneside...

) and Alan Cracknall (aged 32 and from Newcastle-upon-Tyne) both received nine-month prison sentences suspended for two years.

2003 renovations

In the summer of 2003 work began to repair the Town End terrace, to replace the old seating in the Main Stand and to extend the Rossington terrace. In the summer of 2004 the Popular Stand terrace was also extended and executive boxes were built at the Town End of the stadium. New club offices, a new supporters bar and the application of tarmac

Tarmac

Tarmac is a type of road surface. Tarmac refers to a material patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901...

 to the car park completed a much needed facelift. In a move that angered some fans Belle Vue was renamed Earth Stadium as part of a sponsorship deal with Rotherham

Rotherham

Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...

 based finance company Earth Finance. The capacity reached the region of 11,500.

Keepmoat Stadium and Belle Vue closes

A new stadium had long been mooted for Doncaster Rovers. The stadium finally started to become a reality when planning permission

Planning permission

Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...

 was granted. Construction

Construction

In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...

 started on 17 October 2005 of a 15,000 all-seater community stadium complex. The new ground was named the Keepmoat Stadium.

The last ever game at Belle Vue was on 23 December 2006 against League One

Football League One

Football League One is the second-highest division of The Football League and third-highest division overall in the English football league system....

 leaders, Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest F.C.

Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Association Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that plays in the Football League Championship...

. Doncaster finished their time at the stadium with a win, with a goal from Theo Streete

Theo Streete

Theo Streete is an English footballer who plays for Alfreton Town.-Career:Born in Birmingham, Streete began his career with Derby County, turning professional in August 2006, but only on a short-term deal. He joined Doncaster Rovers on loan in September 2006, making his league debut for Rovers on...

ensuring a 1-0 victory.

Life after football

On Wednesday, February 7, 2007 nearby residents to the old stadium described a sound like a bomb going off in the early hours of the morning, the impact of the blast left more than half of the Main Stand obliterated and much of the roof in pieces.
Two people at the scene received hospital treatment for injuries sustained in the explosion - one of whom had to be transferred to a specialist burns unit in Nottingham - while one lane of Bawtry Road had to be closed for two hours because of scattered debris and the risk of further explosions. It was rumoured in the town that earlier in the evening somebody had broken into the stadium and stolen the boiler, while leaving the gas pipes open, filling the stand with gas. Two different men later entered the stadium through wide open gates and doors before inadvertently igniting the gas, causing the explosion. The alarm was raised at 3.17am on Wednesday, February 7, when a police patrol officer on duty near the stadium in Bawtry Road witnessed the explosion and called for the fire brigade. One man in his 20s was arrested in connection with the incident and was questioned by police.

Demolition of the stadium, home to Doncaster Rovers for 84 years, was expected to be imminent because of the safety threat that the derelict site posed to the public.

Following the explosion, demolition of the stadium was rapidly speeded up and now very little remains of the ground. Areas of terrace are still identifiable and large sections of the pitch remain but The Main Stand and Popular Side have now been reduced to rubble while floodlights, executive boxes, turnstiles, snack bars and offices have either been removed or destroyed, along with the ground's club house, the Rovers' Return.

The site was patrolled by security following the explosion and was fenced off whilst demolition work was undertaken. Since demolition, the security fences have remained to prevent access onto the site.

The ground was renowned for having one of the top five biggest pitches in the UK, at 110 yards long, and 72 yards wide. In addition to the size of the pitch, it was considered to have one of the best playing surfaces due to the fertile soil, providing a near perfect pitch.