Pride Park Stadium
Encyclopedia
Pride Park Stadium is an all-seater
football stadium
located on the Pride Park
business park
on the outskirts of Derby
, England
. It is the current home of Football League Championship
club Derby County
, who moved to the stadium from the Baseball Ground
upon its opening in 1997. With space for 33,597 spectators, Pride Park Stadium has the sixteenth-largest capacity of any English football stadium, the twentieth-largest of any stadium in the United Kingdom
, and the one hundred and twenty-first-largest in Europe.
The ground has hosted one full England international fixture, played whilst the new Wembley Stadium was under construction, as well as several England U21s fixtures and a friendly match between Brazil
and Ukraine
.
had been based at The Baseball Ground
since 1895. Although at its peak the ground had held over 40,000 (the record attendance being 41,826 for a match against Tottenham Hotspur
in 1969) the Taylor Report
, actioned after the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster
had seen the legal requirement for English football stadia to become all-seater by 1994–95 season resulting in its capacity dwindling to just 17,500 by the mid 1990s, not enough for the then-ambitious second tier club
. An additional problem came with the ground's wooden components (considered unacceptable in the wake of the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985) and, in February 1996, chairman Lionel Pickering
made the decision to move the club to a new stadium, having originally planned to rebuild the Baseball Ground as a 26,000-seat stadium.
The club originally planned to build a purpose-built 30,000-seat stadium at Pride Park
, with 4,000 car parking spaces, restaurant and conference facilities, a fitness centre, a supporters club and new training ground. A year later the stadium plan was changed to become part of a £46 million project by the Stadivarios group that would also include a 10,000-seat indoor arena. However, Peter Gadsby
, the club's associate director at the time and head of the Miller Birch construction company felt the project was both too ambitious and expensive and instead plans were drawn up by new Chairman Lionel Pickering
to modernise and extend the Baseball Ground to hold 26,000, at a cost of £10 million. However, despite signing a construction agreement with Taylor Woodrow
, Gadsby suggested the club make a second attempt at securing the then-redeveloping Pride Park business park
, settling with Derby City Council for a smaller site than previously agreed. On February 21, 1996, prior to a match against Luton Town
at The Baseball Ground, the club announced to supporters the decision to move to a £16 m state-of-the-art stadium for the start of the 1997–98 season.
Derby City Council were paid £1.8 million for the land and the club's four directors – Lionel Pickering, Peter Gadsby, Stuart Webb and John Kirkland each paid £2.5m towards a package deal to pay for the stadium. The stadium itself was based upon Middlesbrough
's Riverside Stadium
, which opened in 1995, though it had more than 30 amendments to the original plans. After toying with the idea of naming the new ground "The New Baseball Ground", it was settled that the club's new home would be called The Pride Park Stadium.
Pickering laid the foundation stone in November 1995 and, after decontamination, the first of the more than 1,000 pre-cast concrete piles was sunk in September 1996. This was followed by 6,500 tonnes of concrete and more than 2,100 tonnes of steelwork as the ground began to take shape. Tapping in to the excitement amongst supporters, the club setup a visitors centre which included a computer-generated tour of the stadium taking shape and attracted more than 75,000 fans. The opportunity was also made available for supporters to buy special bricks – on to which they could engrave a message of their choosing – which would be set around the outside of the completed stadium.
The weather of the 1996 winter was not kind to the contractors but extra urgency was provided by the news that the stadium was to be opened by Queen Elizabeth II
. This news – the first time the Queen had opened a new football stadium – ensured that the workers, at one point behind schedule, had to pull out all of the stops to get the stadium completed in time. The pitch stood at 105 metres long and 68 metres wide, meeting the requirements for an international venue, and measured five yards longer and four yards wider than the pitch at the Baseball Ground. It also came with a three-metre grass margin.
The Queen opened the stadium on July 18, 1997 in front of 30,000 spectators. By this time the south west corner, which stood between the main stand and the horseshoe, had been completed. The interest from potential corporate clients had been so high that Pickering pressed the board to go the full distance with the stadium, raising the final initial costs of completing the stadium to £22m. Work was still in progress on the remaining corner on the opening day, leaving Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
to jokingly ask Taylor Woodrow contract manager Ross Walters, "Haven't you been paid yet?" An overture to the Opening Ceremony came two weeks later, on 4 August 1997, with the first ever game at Pride Park Stadium being played against Italian
side Sampdoria
, the match ending in a 1–0 defeat with Vincenzo Montella
scoring the only goal of the game. The attendance of 29,041 was the highest for a Derby County home game in 20 years. The fixture kicked off a tradition of pre-season friendlies being held against European teams at the ground, with Barcelona (twice), CSKA Moscow
, Athletic Bilbao
, Lazio
, Ajax and RCD Mallorca
all visiting the stadium over the next 6 years.
The first competitive fixture to be completed at the new stadium came on 30 August 1997 and ended in a 1–0 against Barnsley
in front of 27, 232, with Stefano Eranio
scoring the only goal from the penalty spot. The stadium's inaugural competitive fixture had come against Wimbledon
was called off with the score at 2–1 after the lights went out in the 11th minute of the second half. Referee Uriah Rennie
abandoned the match following a delay of more than half-an-hour while engineers tried unsuccessfully to restart two failed generators. Gadsby said: "We had 11 maintenance people on duty including six electricians but nobody has yet worked out why both generators failed. There was a bang of such strength that it fused them both." This proved to be the only major problem with the new stadium, which delivered everything which had been promised of it and went on to gain international recognition. Later additions to the ground raised the capacity to 33,597 and a final cost of £28m.
by The Co-operative Bank, who instantly installed a new board composed of John Sleightholme
, Jeremy Keith
and Steve Harding, for the cost of £1
each. Financial circumstances worsened as the debt spiralled to £30m plus and an unpopular refinancing scheme was put in place which saw the stadium sold to the "mysterious" Panama
-based ABC Corporation and the club paying rent of £1m a year to play there, which local journalist Gerald Mortimer described as "an affront.. to those who put everything into building (the ground)." The ownership trio of Sleightholme, Keith and Harding were dubbed "The Three Amigos" and, after came under increasing criticism from the Derby's support, in the form of two separate supporters groups, the RamsTrust and the Rams Protest Group (RPG), they eventually sold out to a group of local businessmen, dubbed "The League of Gentlemen" by the local press, led by former board member Peter Gadsby
, in April 2006. The Gadsby-led consortium returned Pride Park to club ownership. Three years later, Murdo Mackay
, Jeremy Keith
and finance director Andrew McKenzie were charged with taking a secret commission worth £440,625 from the club and were each sentenced to a combined seven and a half years in prison. As of August 2009, the club still owed £15m on the mortgage of The Pride Park Stadium which was later revealed to be due to be paid off in 2016.
, the club's greatest manager Brian Clough
and former-Chairman Lionel Pickering
, who had died in 2006. The club insisted no money would be taken away from the team to pay for the development. On November 9, 2007, Derby City Council agreed to let the plans go ahead. Following promotion to the Premier League in the 2006–07 season, the club announced plans to expand the capacity of the stadium up to 44,000 for the start of the 2008–09 season, if the club successfully survived. The plans included adding rows of seats to the north, south and east stands and would have allowed the club to break its current club record attendance. However, the club failed to maintain its top-flight status and when, in January 2008, was sold into new American ownership, in the form of General Sports and Entertainment both the Plaza plan and the Ground expansion initiatives were scrapped.
In 2008 a 9'0 high bronze statue of Brian Clough
and Peter Taylor – who had managed the club between 1967 and 1973 – was commissioned to adorn the north west portion of the ground to be called Unity Plaza. The statue was designed by Andrew Edwards and features both Clough and Taylor holding Football League First Division
which they won with the club in 1972
. It was unveiled on August 27, 2010.
venue when Derby County
announced its intention to apply to be one of the host cities as part of England's bid
for the 2018 World Cup Finals, with Derby Chief Executive Tom Glick saying that "What we [the board] know is that Derby already has the core elements to be a host city... We are going to find out what the requirements are but we are certainly expecting that the requirement would be at least 40,000 seats. The ability to do that at Pride Park Stadium exists, the land exists. So we know that if we were successful, that is something that could be done".
To qualify as a host stadium the ground would need to expand to at least 40,000 capacity and the club announced that three methods could be undertaken to achieve this – two of which would leave the stadium permanently expanded. Option A would see the additional capacity supplied by temporary stands erected behind each goal, removing the current roof, and be supported by steel structures, with all the stands removed after the World Cup and the original roofing replaced. Option B would also see temporary seating built in the north and south stands as well as an additional structure placed on the east stand which the club could choose to keep, increasing the capacity to 39,000. The final Option, C, would see the removal of seating from the north, south and east stands and three new 20 row decks placed in each stand. This again came with the option of retaining the east stand expansion, raising the stadium capacity to a permanent 37,000. The club itself stated that it preferred to explore temporary, rather than permanent, expansion, saying "We'd like to meet the World Cup standards for matches when it comes to expansion but then perhaps scale down the stadium to something closer to where we are right now. That way, we can keep the intimacy and special atmosphere that has almost become a hallmark of going to a Derby County match. When the team play at home, having a full stadium is a huge advantage because it creates a brilliant atmosphere. What we wouldn't want to do is have a stadium that all of a sudden was too big after the World Cup had gone." On 16 December 2009, Derby's campaign was rejected by the FA
, along with Hull
and Leicester
. Tom Glick later commented, "We're all greatly disappointed. Thousands of hours of hard work has been put in across the city from a number of agencies. We need to get some feedback as to why the bid was not successful."
The club was later unsuccessful in its attempt to be the midlands
football venue for the 2012 Summer Olympics
, losing out to Coventry City
's Ricoh Arena
, with the Selection Committee citing the fact the stadium "has fewer dressing rooms and no hotel" in comparison to the Coventry-based stadium.
was unveiled next to the home dugout.
These plans include five cafes
/restaurant
s, two convenience store
s and 2,000 square metres of office space
. These plans have been scaled down from the planned £20 million pound development proposed in 2007. Derby County CEO Tom Glick, said that these plans would help the club deal with the new Financial Fair Play regulations which will be introduced in the Football League
from 2012, as revenue from the Plaza will be reinvested back into the club.
This planned development also coincides with a plan from the City Council to build a multi-use sports arena on the same site as the proposed Plaza.
on March 18, 2000.
Pride Park has hosted one full England
international; a 4–0 friendly victory over Mexico
on 25 May 2001, when the national side toured the country during the building of the new Wembley Stadium
. The match also holds the record for the highest attendance at the stadium: a full-house of 33,598.
The ground has hosted five England U21
matches. The first was on 9 February 1999, a friendly match against France
, which ended in a 2–1 victory to England. The crowd of 32,865 was the highest to watch the U21 in England since 1983. The next two fixtures were both European Championship
Qualifiers, with 30,155 seeing a 1–1 draw with Germany
on 6 October 2000 and 32,418 saw a 1–0 victory over Holland
on 13 November 2001. The U21's then played Holland U21s again four years later, on 8 February 2005, in a friendly, with a crowd of 33,184 seeing the home side lose 2–0. The most recent match was on 6 February 2007, when 28,295 saw a 2–2 friendly draw between England U21
and Spain U21
, a match which was the first match under the tenure of current England U21 manager Stuart Pearce
. Partly as a result of Derby's successful hosting of international U21 football, Pride Park was selected as a host venue as part of the English bid to host the 2013 European U21s Championship.
Away from the England national side, the stadium hosted a friendly between Brazil
and Ukraine
on 11 October 2010. The match ended in a 2–0 victory for Brazil, Daniel Alves
and Pato
scoring the goals, in front of a crowd of 13,088 live spectators and TV viewers in over 100 countries. Though Brazil coach Mano Menezes bemoaned the low turnout ("I expected more fans but I think it was a good game.") though Derby Chief Executive Tom Glick declared himself relatively pleased with the turnout, stating "I think everybody was hoping that we'd have a sold out crowd of over 30,000 but, realistically, time was working against us. We only had 13 days to sell the tickets and a big crowd just wasn't on the cards. But I think we've proven that we can turn it around, operationally. The promoter, Kentaro, has seen that. So we have done ourselves a favour in terms of bringing something else like this back again and we will continue to pursue things like this."
Away from international football, on 4 May 2009, Pride Park hosted the 39th FA Women's Cup Final
, which saw Arsenal
run out 2–1 victors over Sunderland
to win the cup for a record fourth consecutive time, in front of a crowd of 23,291.
on the 26th June 2005, whilst touring his Stardust: The Great American Songbook, Volume III album. This was followed by Red Hot Chili Peppers
, who played at the ground as part of the tour
for their Stadium Arcadium
album on the 5th June 2006.
All-seater stadium
An all-seater stadium is a sports stadium in which every spectator has a seat. This is commonplace in football stadiums in nations such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands. Most soccer and American football stadiums in the United States and Canada are all-seaters, as are most baseball...
football 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...
located on the Pride Park
Pride Park
Pride Park is a business park on the outskirts of the city centre of Derby, UK. It covers 80 hectares of former industrial land between the River Derwent and railway lines.-History:...
business park
Business park
A business park or office park is an area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. All of the work that goes on is commercial, not industrial or residential....
on the outskirts of Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
, England
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...
. It is the current home of Football League Championship
Football League Championship
The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League...
club Derby County
Derby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...
, who moved to the stadium from the Baseball Ground
Baseball Ground
The Baseball Ground was a stadium in Derby, England. It was first used for baseball as the home of Derby County Baseball Club from 1890 until 1898 and then for football as the home of Derby County from 1895 until 1997. It was commonly referred to as the "BBG".As the name suggests, the stadium was...
upon its opening in 1997. With space for 33,597 spectators, Pride Park Stadium has the sixteenth-largest capacity of any English football stadium, the twentieth-largest of any stadium in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and the one hundred and twenty-first-largest in Europe.
The ground has hosted one full England international fixture, played whilst the new Wembley Stadium was under construction, as well as several England U21s fixtures and a friendly match between Brazil
Brazil national football team
The Brazil national football team represents Brazil in international men's football and is controlled by the Brazilian Football Confederation , the governing body for football in Brazil. They are a member of the International Federation of Association Football since 1923 and also a member of the...
and Ukraine
Ukraine national football team
The Ukraine national football team is the national football team of Ukraine and is controlled by the Football Federation of Ukraine. After Ukrainian Independence and breakaway from the Soviet Union, they played their first match against Hungary on 29 April 1992...
.
Planning and development
Prior to moving to the Pride Park Stadium, Derby CountyDerby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...
had been based at The Baseball Ground
Baseball Ground
The Baseball Ground was a stadium in Derby, England. It was first used for baseball as the home of Derby County Baseball Club from 1890 until 1898 and then for football as the home of Derby County from 1895 until 1997. It was commonly referred to as the "BBG".As the name suggests, the stadium was...
since 1895. Although at its peak the ground had held over 40,000 (the record attendance being 41,826 for a match against Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, north London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane....
in 1969) the Taylor Report
Taylor Report
The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry report, better known as the Taylor Report is a document, whose development was overseen by Lord Taylor of Gosforth, concerning the aftermath and causes of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. An interim report was published in August 1989, and the final...
, actioned after the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster
Hillsborough disaster
The Hillsborough disaster was a human crush that occurred on 15 April 1989 at Hillsborough, a football stadium, the home of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. in Sheffield, England, resulting in the deaths of 96 people, and 766 being injured, all fans of Liverpool F.C....
had seen the legal requirement for English football stadia to become all-seater by 1994–95 season resulting in its capacity dwindling to just 17,500 by the mid 1990s, not enough for the then-ambitious second tier club
Football League Championship
The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League...
. An additional problem came with the ground's wooden components (considered unacceptable in the wake of the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985) and, in February 1996, chairman Lionel Pickering
Lionel Pickering
Lionel Victor Pickering was an English businessman, best known as the owner of Derby County F.C. between 1991 and 2003...
made the decision to move the club to a new stadium, having originally planned to rebuild the Baseball Ground as a 26,000-seat stadium.
The club originally planned to build a purpose-built 30,000-seat stadium at Pride Park
Pride Park
Pride Park is a business park on the outskirts of the city centre of Derby, UK. It covers 80 hectares of former industrial land between the River Derwent and railway lines.-History:...
, with 4,000 car parking spaces, restaurant and conference facilities, a fitness centre, a supporters club and new training ground. A year later the stadium plan was changed to become part of a £46 million project by the Stadivarios group that would also include a 10,000-seat indoor arena. However, Peter Gadsby
Peter Gadsby
Peter Gadsby is a millionaire property developer and lifelong Derby County fan who led a consortium to buy out Derby County football club in 2006.- Derby County takeover :...
, the club's associate director at the time and head of the Miller Birch construction company felt the project was both too ambitious and expensive and instead plans were drawn up by new Chairman Lionel Pickering
Lionel Pickering
Lionel Victor Pickering was an English businessman, best known as the owner of Derby County F.C. between 1991 and 2003...
to modernise and extend the Baseball Ground to hold 26,000, at a cost of £10 million. However, despite signing a construction agreement with Taylor Woodrow
Taylor Woodrow
Taylor Woodrow was one of the largest British housebuilding and general construction companies. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but merged with rival George Wimpey to create Taylor Wimpey on 3 July 2007.-Early years:Frank Taylor was...
, Gadsby suggested the club make a second attempt at securing the then-redeveloping Pride Park business park
Business park
A business park or office park is an area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. All of the work that goes on is commercial, not industrial or residential....
, settling with Derby City Council for a smaller site than previously agreed. On February 21, 1996, prior to a match against Luton Town
Luton Town F.C.
Luton Town Football Club is an English professional football club based since 1905 at Kenilworth Road, Luton, Bedfordshire. The club currently competes in the fifth tier of English football, the Conference National, for the third consecutive season during the 2011–12 season.Formed in 1885, it was...
at The Baseball Ground, the club announced to supporters the decision to move to a £16 m state-of-the-art stadium for the start of the 1997–98 season.
Derby City Council were paid £1.8 million for the land and the club's four directors – Lionel Pickering, Peter Gadsby, Stuart Webb and John Kirkland each paid £2.5m towards a package deal to pay for the stadium. The stadium itself was based upon Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough F.C.
Middlesbrough Football Club , also known as Boro, are an English football club based in Middlesbrough, who play in the Football League Championship. Formed in 1876, they have played at the Riverside Stadium since August 1995, their third ground since turning professional in 1889...
's Riverside Stadium
Riverside Stadium
The Riverside Stadium is a football stadium in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Middlesbrough F.C. since it opened in 1995...
, which opened in 1995, though it had more than 30 amendments to the original plans. After toying with the idea of naming the new ground "The New Baseball Ground", it was settled that the club's new home would be called The Pride Park Stadium.
Construction
Engaging the same architects as Middlesbrough (The Miller Partnership) Derby's plans predominantly followed those of the Riverside Stadium, with the first stage being a detached main stand facing a horseshoe running unbroken round the other three sides, with the possibility of the corners being filled in later and the ground's capacity being increased if and when necessary by raising the horseshoe roof.Pickering laid the foundation stone in November 1995 and, after decontamination, the first of the more than 1,000 pre-cast concrete piles was sunk in September 1996. This was followed by 6,500 tonnes of concrete and more than 2,100 tonnes of steelwork as the ground began to take shape. Tapping in to the excitement amongst supporters, the club setup a visitors centre which included a computer-generated tour of the stadium taking shape and attracted more than 75,000 fans. The opportunity was also made available for supporters to buy special bricks – on to which they could engrave a message of their choosing – which would be set around the outside of the completed stadium.
The weather of the 1996 winter was not kind to the contractors but extra urgency was provided by the news that the stadium was to be opened by Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
. This news – the first time the Queen had opened a new football stadium – ensured that the workers, at one point behind schedule, had to pull out all of the stops to get the stadium completed in time. The pitch stood at 105 metres long and 68 metres wide, meeting the requirements for an international venue, and measured five yards longer and four yards wider than the pitch at the Baseball Ground. It also came with a three-metre grass margin.
Opening
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
to jokingly ask Taylor Woodrow contract manager Ross Walters, "Haven't you been paid yet?" An overture to the Opening Ceremony came two weeks later, on 4 August 1997, with the first ever game at Pride Park Stadium being played against Italian
Football in Italy
Football is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italian national football team has won the FIFA World Cup 4 times , trailing only Brazil . Italy's club sides have won 27 major European trophies, making them the most successful European nation in the subject of football...
side Sampdoria
U.C. Sampdoria
Unione Calcio Sampdoria is an Italian association football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria...
, the match ending in a 1–0 defeat with Vincenzo Montella
Vincenzo Montella
Vincenzo Montella is a retired Italian footballer. Currently he is the youngest head coach of Serie A, after being named at the helm of Sicilian outfit Catania on 9 June 2011....
scoring the only goal of the game. The attendance of 29,041 was the highest for a Derby County home game in 20 years. The fixture kicked off a tradition of pre-season friendlies being held against European teams at the ground, with Barcelona (twice), CSKA Moscow
CSKA Moscow
CSKA Moscow is a major Russian sports club based in Moscow. It is popularly referred to in the West as "Red Army" or "the Red Army team" because during the Soviet era, it was a part of the Armed Forces sports society, which in turn was associated with the Soviet Army...
, Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Club, also known as Athletic Bilbao, is an association football club from Bilbao in Biscay, Spain. The club has played in the Primera División of La Liga since its start in 1928. They have won La Liga on eight occasions...
, Lazio
S.S. Lazio
Società Sportiva Lazio, commonly referred to as Lazio, is a professional Italian football club based in Rome. The team, founded in 1900, play in the Serie A and have spent most of their history in the top tier of Italian football...
, Ajax and RCD Mallorca
RCD Mallorca
Real Club Deportivo Mallorca is a Spanish football team based on Palma, Majorca, in the Balearic Islands. Founded on 5 March 1916, the team currently plays in the Spanish first division, holding home games at Son Moix....
all visiting the stadium over the next 6 years.
The first competitive fixture to be completed at the new stadium came on 30 August 1997 and ended in a 1–0 against Barnsley
Barnsley F.C.
Barnsley Football Club are a professional English football club based in the town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Nicknamed the Tykes, they were founded in 1887 under the name Barnsley St. Peter's...
in front of 27, 232, with Stefano Eranio
Stefano Eranio
Stefano Eranio is an Italian former football player, most remembered for his time with AC Milan and Genoa. Eranio played as a winger and represented Italy 20 times between 1990 and 1997. He was voted one of Derby County's 11 greatest ever footballers.-Clubs:Stefano Eranio started his professional...
scoring the only goal from the penalty spot. The stadium's inaugural competitive fixture had come against Wimbledon
Wimbledon F.C.
Wimbledon Football Club was an English professional association football club from Wimbledon, south-west London. Founded in 1889 as Wimbledon Old Central Football Club, the club spent most of its history in amateur and semi-professional non-League football before being elected to the Football...
was called off with the score at 2–1 after the lights went out in the 11th minute of the second half. Referee Uriah Rennie
Uriah Rennie
Uriah D. Rennie is a retired English football referee.-Career:He began refereeing in 1979 in local leagues, then operated in the Northern Premier League until 1994, at which time he was appointed to the Football League List of referees.He was given his first Premiership appointment on 23 August...
abandoned the match following a delay of more than half-an-hour while engineers tried unsuccessfully to restart two failed generators. Gadsby said: "We had 11 maintenance people on duty including six electricians but nobody has yet worked out why both generators failed. There was a bang of such strength that it fused them both." This proved to be the only major problem with the new stadium, which delivered everything which had been promised of it and went on to gain international recognition. Later additions to the ground raised the capacity to 33,597 and a final cost of £28m.
Ownership Issues
Although the financing of the stadium's construction was carefully structured so that the club paid and owned the ground without encroaching on funds reserved for the development of the team, the club's eventual relegation from the top flight in 2002 saw it enter financial crisis and eventually it was temporarily entered into receivershipReceivership
In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...
by The Co-operative Bank, who instantly installed a new board composed of John Sleightholme
John Sleightholme
John Sleightholme was the chairman of Derby County Football Club. He is a barrister and deputy coroner, and was nominally made chairman and owner of two-thirds of Derby County in October 2003, in a move arranged by Murdo Mackay. There were also two other directors, Jeremy Keith, who owned one-third...
, Jeremy Keith
Jeremy Keith
Jeremy Keith became chief executive of Derby County after a corporation he controlled with two others bought the club out of receivership for £3 in 2003. He had previously been a director at Portsmouth and had a financial role at Leeds United....
and Steve Harding, for the cost of £1
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
each. Financial circumstances worsened as the debt spiralled to £30m plus and an unpopular refinancing scheme was put in place which saw the stadium sold to the "mysterious" Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
-based ABC Corporation and the club paying rent of £1m a year to play there, which local journalist Gerald Mortimer described as "an affront.. to those who put everything into building (the ground)." The ownership trio of Sleightholme, Keith and Harding were dubbed "The Three Amigos" and, after came under increasing criticism from the Derby's support, in the form of two separate supporters groups, the RamsTrust and the Rams Protest Group (RPG), they eventually sold out to a group of local businessmen, dubbed "The League of Gentlemen" by the local press, led by former board member Peter Gadsby
Peter Gadsby
Peter Gadsby is a millionaire property developer and lifelong Derby County fan who led a consortium to buy out Derby County football club in 2006.- Derby County takeover :...
, in April 2006. The Gadsby-led consortium returned Pride Park to club ownership. Three years later, Murdo Mackay
Murdo Mackay
Murdo Mackay is a Scottish businessman and sports agent. He worked as director of football at Derby County F.C. between October 2003 and March 2006...
, Jeremy Keith
Jeremy Keith
Jeremy Keith became chief executive of Derby County after a corporation he controlled with two others bought the club out of receivership for £3 in 2003. He had previously been a director at Portsmouth and had a financial role at Leeds United....
and finance director Andrew McKenzie were charged with taking a secret commission worth £440,625 from the club and were each sentenced to a combined seven and a half years in prison. As of August 2009, the club still owed £15m on the mortgage of The Pride Park Stadium which was later revealed to be due to be paid off in 2016.
Pride Plaza Redevelopment and Ground Expansion
During the 2006–07 season, in which Derby earned promotion back to the Premier League after 5 years, the club released details of a proposed £20m development of the area surrounding the stadium, to include the building of a 165-bed hotel, bars, restaurants and office space, to create a local service centre for employers located on the Pride Park business park. Three squares would also be introduced which would be named after legendary figures associated with the club – all-time leading goalscorer Steve BloomerSteve Bloomer
Steve Bloomer was an English footballer and manager who played for Derby County, Middlesbrough and England during the 1890s and 1900s. Bloomer remains a legend at Derby County and the club anthem, Steve Bloomer's Watchin', is played before every home game...
, the club's greatest manager Brian Clough
Brian Clough
Brian Howard Clough, OBE was an English footballer and football manager. He is most notable for his success with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. His achievement of winning back-to-back European Cups with Nottingham Forest, a traditionally moderate provincial English club, is considered to be...
and former-Chairman Lionel Pickering
Lionel Pickering
Lionel Victor Pickering was an English businessman, best known as the owner of Derby County F.C. between 1991 and 2003...
, who had died in 2006. The club insisted no money would be taken away from the team to pay for the development. On November 9, 2007, Derby City Council agreed to let the plans go ahead. Following promotion to the Premier League in the 2006–07 season, the club announced plans to expand the capacity of the stadium up to 44,000 for the start of the 2008–09 season, if the club successfully survived. The plans included adding rows of seats to the north, south and east stands and would have allowed the club to break its current club record attendance. However, the club failed to maintain its top-flight status and when, in January 2008, was sold into new American ownership, in the form of General Sports and Entertainment both the Plaza plan and the Ground expansion initiatives were scrapped.
In 2008 a 9'0 high bronze statue of Brian Clough
Brian Clough
Brian Howard Clough, OBE was an English footballer and football manager. He is most notable for his success with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. His achievement of winning back-to-back European Cups with Nottingham Forest, a traditionally moderate provincial English club, is considered to be...
and Peter Taylor – who had managed the club between 1967 and 1973 – was commissioned to adorn the north west portion of the ground to be called Unity Plaza. The statue was designed by Andrew Edwards and features both Clough and Taylor holding Football League First Division
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
which they won with the club in 1972
1971-72 in English football
The 1971–72 season was the 92nd season of competitive football in England.-FA Cup:Leeds United overcame holders Arsenal to win the 1972 FA Cup Final...
. It was unveiled on August 27, 2010.
2018 World Cup and 2012 Olympic bids
In 2009, Pride Park was earmarked as a possible World CupFIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
venue when Derby County
Derby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...
announced its intention to apply to be one of the host cities as part of England's bid
English 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bid
England 2018 was the Football Association's unsuccessful bid for the right to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. FIFA invited bidding countries to bid for either the 2018 or the 2022 finals, or both...
for the 2018 World Cup Finals, with Derby Chief Executive Tom Glick saying that "What we [the board] know is that Derby already has the core elements to be a host city... We are going to find out what the requirements are but we are certainly expecting that the requirement would be at least 40,000 seats. The ability to do that at Pride Park Stadium exists, the land exists. So we know that if we were successful, that is something that could be done".
The Football Association
The Football Association, also known as simply The FA, is the governing body of football in England, and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It was formed in 1863, and is the oldest national football association...
, along with Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
and Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
. Tom Glick later commented, "We're all greatly disappointed. Thousands of hours of hard work has been put in across the city from a number of agencies. We need to get some feedback as to why the bid was not successful."
The club was later unsuccessful in its attempt to be the midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
football venue for the 2012 Summer Olympics
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...
, losing out to Coventry City
Coventry City F.C.
Coventry City Football Club, otherwise known as the Sky Blues owing to the traditional colour of their strip, are a professional English Football league club based in Coventry...
's Ricoh Arena
Ricoh Arena
The Ricoh Arena , home to Coventry City F.C., is a stadium complex situated in the Rowleys Green district of the city of Coventry, England containing a 32,609 seater football stadium, a 6,000 square-metre exhibition hall, a hotel, a leisure club, and a casino...
, with the Selection Committee citing the fact the stadium "has fewer dressing rooms and no hotel" in comparison to the Coventry-based stadium.
Additional ground developments
On January 17, 2009, a bust of Steve BloomerSteve Bloomer
Steve Bloomer was an English footballer and manager who played for Derby County, Middlesbrough and England during the 1890s and 1900s. Bloomer remains a legend at Derby County and the club anthem, Steve Bloomer's Watchin', is played before every home game...
was unveiled next to the home dugout.
The Plaza @ Pride Park development
On 3 October 2011, Derby County announced that they had submitted plans to Derby City Council for a £7 million development of land outside the stadium, which the club named "The Plaza @ Pride Park".These plans include five cafes
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
/restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s, two convenience store
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
s and 2,000 square metres of office space
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
. These plans have been scaled down from the planned £20 million pound development proposed in 2007. Derby County CEO Tom Glick, said that these plans would help the club deal with the new Financial Fair Play regulations which will be introduced in 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...
from 2012, as revenue from the Plaza will be reinvested back into the club.
This planned development also coincides with a plan from the City Council to build a multi-use sports arena on the same site as the proposed Plaza.
Records
The highest attendance at Pride Park Stadium for a competitive Derby County match is 33,378 in a Premier League match against LiverpoolLiverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
on March 18, 2000.
Average league attendance
| Season | Average Attendance | Division | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997–1998 | 29,105 | FA Premier League | 9th |
| 1998–1999 | 29,195 | FA Premier League | 8th |
| 1999–2000 | 29,351 | FA Premier League | 16th |
| 2000–2001 | 28,551 | FA Premier League | 17th |
| 2001–2002 | 29,816 | FA Premier League | 19th (R) |
| 2002–2003 | 25,470 | Football League First Division | 18th |
| 2003–2004 | 22,330 | Football League First Division | 20th |
| 2004–2005 | 25,219 | Football League Championship | 4th |
| 2005–2006 | 24,166 | Football League Championship | 20th |
| 2006–2007 | 25,945 | Football League Championship | 3rd (P) |
| 2007–2008 | 32,432 | Premier League | 20th (R) |
| 2008–2009 | 29,445 | Football League Championship | 18th |
| 2009–2010 | 29,230 | Football League Championship | 14th |
| 2010–2011 | 26,023 | Football League Championship | 19th |
Non-Derby County Matches
As one of the largest football grounds in the Midlands, Pride Park has also hosted some notable matches not connected to Derby County.Pride Park has hosted one full England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
international; a 4–0 friendly victory over Mexico
Mexico national football team
The Mexican national football team represents Mexico in association football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation , the governing body for football in Mexico. Mexico's home stadium is the Estadio Azteca and their head coach is José Manuel de la Torre...
on 25 May 2001, when the national side toured the country during the building of the new Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
. The match also holds the record for the highest attendance at the stadium: a full-house of 33,598.
The ground has hosted five England U21
England national under-21 football team
England's national Under-21 football team, also known as England Under-21s or England U21, is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team....
matches. The first was on 9 February 1999, a friendly match against France
France national under-21 football team
The France national under-21 football team , known in France as Les Espoirs , is the national under-21 football team of France and is controlled by the French Football Federation. The team competes in the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years...
, which ended in a 2–1 victory to England. The crowd of 32,865 was the highest to watch the U21 in England since 1983. The next two fixtures were both European Championship
UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship
The European Under-21 Football Championship is a football competition organised by the sport's European governing body, UEFA. It is held every two years. The competition has existed in its current form since 1978. It was preceded by the Under 23 Challenge Cup which ran from 1967 to 1970...
Qualifiers, with 30,155 seeing a 1–1 draw with Germany
Germany national under-21 football team
The Germany national under-21 football team represents the under-21s of Germany in the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship and is controlled by the German Football Association , the governing body of football in Germany....
on 6 October 2000 and 32,418 saw a 1–0 victory over Holland
Netherlands national under-21 football team
The Netherlands national under-21 football team is the national under-21 team of the Netherlands and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association. The team competes in the European Under-21 Championship, held every two years....
on 13 November 2001. The U21's then played Holland U21s again four years later, on 8 February 2005, in a friendly, with a crowd of 33,184 seeing the home side lose 2–0. The most recent match was on 6 February 2007, when 28,295 saw a 2–2 friendly draw between England U21
England national under-21 football team
England's national Under-21 football team, also known as England Under-21s or England U21, is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team....
and Spain U21
Spain national under-21 football team
The Spain national under-21 football team, is the national under-21 football team of Spain and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. The team, nicknamed La Rojita , competes in the biannual European Under-21 Football Championship.Following the realignment of UEFA's youth...
, a match which was the first match under the tenure of current England U21 manager Stuart Pearce
Stuart Pearce
Stuart Pearce OBE is an English football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of the England national under-21 team and the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic football team...
. Partly as a result of Derby's successful hosting of international U21 football, Pride Park was selected as a host venue as part of the English bid to host the 2013 European U21s Championship.
Away from the England national side, the stadium hosted a friendly between Brazil
Brazil national team
The Brazilian national team may be one of the following:*Brazil national football team**Men**Women*Brazil national basketball team**Men**Women*Brazil national handball team*Brazil national rugby union team**Men**Women...
and Ukraine
Ukraine national football team
The Ukraine national football team is the national football team of Ukraine and is controlled by the Football Federation of Ukraine. After Ukrainian Independence and breakaway from the Soviet Union, they played their first match against Hungary on 29 April 1992...
on 11 October 2010. The match ended in a 2–0 victory for Brazil, Daniel Alves
Daniel Alves
Daniel Alves da Silva , commonly known as Dani Alves, is a Brazilian footballer. He plays as an attacking right defender for FC Barcelona and the Brazilian national team. Before joining Barcelona, Alves spent a successful six year spell with Sevilla FC, winning two UEFA Cups and the Copa del Rey...
and Pato
Alexandre Pato
Alexandre Rodrigues da Silva , commonly known as Alexandre Pato or simply Pato, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Italian Serie A club Milan and the Brazilian national team. His nickname, Pato, refers to his place of birth, Pato Branco...
scoring the goals, in front of a crowd of 13,088 live spectators and TV viewers in over 100 countries. Though Brazil coach Mano Menezes bemoaned the low turnout ("I expected more fans but I think it was a good game.") though Derby Chief Executive Tom Glick declared himself relatively pleased with the turnout, stating "I think everybody was hoping that we'd have a sold out crowd of over 30,000 but, realistically, time was working against us. We only had 13 days to sell the tickets and a big crowd just wasn't on the cards. But I think we've proven that we can turn it around, operationally. The promoter, Kentaro, has seen that. So we have done ourselves a favour in terms of bringing something else like this back again and we will continue to pursue things like this."
Away from international football, on 4 May 2009, Pride Park hosted the 39th FA Women's Cup Final
FA Women's Cup
The Football Association Women’s Challenge Cup Competition, commonly referred to as the FA Women's Cup, is the top cup competition for women's football clubs in England – designed as an exact equivalent to the FA Cup created 99 years earlier...
, which saw Arsenal
Arsenal L.F.C.
Arsenal Ladies Football Club are an English women's association football club affiliated with Arsenal F.C.. Founded in 1987, they are the most successful club in English women's football having won 34 major trophies to date; which are 12 FA Women's Premier League titles, 11 FA Women's Cups, ten...
run out 2–1 victors over Sunderland
Sunderland A.F.C. Women
Sunderland AFC Women is a women's football club based in Sunderland, North East England. They play their home games at The Hetton Centre in Hetton-le-Hole, Tyne and Wear.-History:...
to win the cup for a record fourth consecutive time, in front of a crowd of 23,291.
Notable non-football events
Although primarily a football venue, Pride Park Stadium has also hosted events away from sport. It first hosted Rod StewartRod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
on the 26th June 2005, whilst touring his Stardust: The Great American Songbook, Volume III album. This was followed by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
, who played at the ground as part of the tour
Stadium Arcadium Tour
The Stadium Arcadium tour was a 2006-2007 concert tour by the band Red Hot Chili Peppers in support of their album Stadium Arcadium. It was composed of seven legs, one for promotional shows around the world, three in Europe, one in Australia, New Zealand and Asia, and the other two in the US and...
for their Stadium Arcadium
Stadium Arcadium
Stadium Arcadium is the ninth studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. The album was released on May 9, 2006, on Warner Bros. Records. The album produced five singles: "Dani California", "Tell Me Baby", "Snow ", "Desecration Smile", and "Hump de Bump"...
album on the 5th June 2006.