Priestfield Stadium
Encyclopedia
Priestfield Stadium is a football stadium
in Gillingham, Kent
. It has been the home of Gillingham Football Club
since the club's formation in 1893, and was also the temporary home of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club
for two seasons during the 1990s. The stadium has also hosted women's and youth international matches.
The stadium underwent extensive redevelopment during the late 1990s, which has brought its capacity down from nearly 20,000 to a current figure of 11,582. It has four all-seater stands, all constructed since 1997, although one is only of a temporary nature. There are also conference and banqueting facilities and a nightspot named the Blues Rock Café. Despite having invested heavily in its current stadium, Gillingham F.C. has plans to relocate to a new stadium.
played Grays
, followed immediately by the first match for the club's first team, against Woolwich Arsenal
's reserves. The admission charge for the two matches was 3d. A newspaper report on the matches noted that the club had recently purchased an additional acre and three-quarters of ground and had accepted a contract for the construction of a stand containing 500 seats. Most spectators stood on terracing, banked earth, or simply along the perimeter of the pitch, as was the case at most football grounds at the time. In order to raise funds to assist with the running of the football club, New Brompton allowed the ground to be used for other events, such as smoking concerts, fêtes, athletics meetings and a ladies' football match. Sheep were allowed to graze on the pitch during the week, a common practice at many grounds at that time. In 1899, a second stand was added along part of the Gordon Road side of the ground, reportedly built by off-duty dock workers in exchange for beer and cigarettes.
By 1908, the total number of seats had been increased to 800 and terracing added at the Rainham end of the ground. In 1912, the club's first Supporters' Association was formed, its initial project being to raise the necessary funds to construct terracing at the opposite end of the ground. Two years later the club, which had changed its name to Gillingham F.C. in 1913, secured a bank loan of £1,570 which was used to build a new grandstand, but just a month after it was completed the stand was severely damaged by high winds, which ripped off the roof and twisted most of the ironwork. The club sued the contractors, but it took a further three months for the damage to be repaired.
A new attendance record was set in 1924 when an FA Cup
match against First Division
leaders Cardiff City
drew a crowd of 19,472. This record stood until 1948, when 23,002 fans watched Gillingham take on Queens Park Rangers
in the FA Cup
, with many more turned away. In the same year the club, which had lost its place in the Football League ten years earlier after failing to gain re-election, produced a glossy brochure as part of its bid to be elected back into the league. The facilities at Priestfield were highlighted as one of the club's strengths in the brochure, which listed the ground's capacity as "between 25,000 and 30,000" but stated that plans had been drawn up to increase the capacity to 50,000, with 5,000 seats.
The ground underwent its most extensive redevelopment to date in 1955, at a total cost of £28,500. The previously sloping pitch was levelled, the terracing that occupied part of the Gordon Road side of the ground replaced, and new covered accommodation, known as the Stanley Stand, erected between the Rainham End and Gordon Road Stand. The first floodlights were erected in 1963, at a cost of over £14,000, but this was to be the last significant development work at Priestfield for over thirty years. By the early 1980s the capacity of the ground was listed as 22,000, although this was reduced to 19,000 when the Gordon Road Stand was closed for safety reasons. In 1987, a clock was erected at the corner of the Rainham End and the Stanley Stand, dubbed the Lord Sondes Clock in honour of Henry Milles-Lade, 5th Earl Sondes
, a member of the club's board of directors. The clock was removed during later stadium redevelopment work and its current whereabouts are unknown.
New owner Paul Scally
took over at the club in 1995 and soon instigated a programme of redevelopment which completely transformed the formerly run-down ground. The closed stand was replaced with a new Gordon Road Stand in 1997 at a cost of more than £2 million. Two years later the Rainham End terracing was replaced with a new all-seater stand, with the sports centre behind it demolished and replaced with a car park.
The main stand on the northern side of the pitch was demolished in 1999, along with a section of away terracing, to be replaced with a new state-of-the-art facility dubbed the Medway Stand, but the work was beset by problems. Due to serious delays with the building of the new stand, the club was forced to spend most of the subsequent season first with that side of the ground completely empty, then later with building work ongoing. Supporters were not able to sit in the new stand until the latter stages of the 1999–2000 season, and even then many of the facilities had not been finished. The stand also caused severe financial problems for the club, as its facilities eventually cost significantly more than the original estimate.
The fourth side of the ground was redeveloped in 2003 when the Town End terracing was removed and a temporary stand put in its place, named after the late football commentator and Gillingham supporter Brian Moore
. It was hoped that work would begin on a permanent Brian Moore Stand in 2004, but due to talk of relocating the club to a new ground and the club's current financial problems, this has been put on hold.
On 1 June 2007, the stadium was officially renamed KRBS Priestfield Stadium as part of a sponsorship deal that lasted three years with the Kent Reliance Building Society
. In 2011 another such deal led to the rebranding of the stadium as MEMS Priestfield Stadium.
– the Medway Stand, the Rainham End, the Gordon Road Stand and the Brian Moore Stand. All are covered with the exception of the Brian Moore Stand. The Medway Stand, which replaced the old Main Stand and part of the terracing at each end, is the largest and northernmost of the four. It has two tiers with a row of twenty executive boxes between the top and bottom tier. The stand also contains the changing rooms, physiotherapy facilities, club offices and club shop. The Rainham End, located behind the goal at the eastern end of the pitch, opened in 1999 and houses 2,400 fans. This stand, like the terrace it replaced, is known for housing the club's most vocal supporters. The Gordon Road Stand, which seats 2,600, was opened in 1997 and is opposite the Medway Stand. Due to planning requirements, the stand had a height restriction placed upon it, making it significantly lower than the other three sides of the ground, and due to the road layout behind it is narrower at one end than the other. A gantry for television cameras is located on the roof of this stand.
Opposite the Rainham End is the Brian Moore Stand. This stand is a temporary one, and accommodates visiting supporters. It occupies the site of the former Town End terracing, which was unusual in that it had a pronounced slope, with one end of the terracing being higher up than the other. In 1955 the pitch, which previously sloped at that end of the stadium, was levelled out but the gradient of the Town End was left unchanged.
The state of the stadium's pitch caused the club severe problems in 2003. A number of fixtures had to be postponed due to the state of the pitch, which was described as resembling a ploughed field, and the surface had to be heavily sanded before an FA Cup
match against Leeds United
. At the end of the season, taking advantage of the demolition of the old Town End, which allowed better access to the pitch, the club had the drainage system replaced and a completely new pitch laid.
Added to the new stands were several new developments. The Conference and Banqueting Centre, which is located behind the Rainham End, comprises the Great Hall, which can accommodate up to 600 delegates for events, and twenty smaller delegate rooms. The Centre is connected to the Medway Stand, thus allowing views from the banqueting suite onto the pitch, and is also licensed for wedding ceremonies. The Blues Rock Café nightspot, located within the Medway Stand, is open between four and five nights a week and stages live music and screenings of major sporting events. The club purchased many of the fixtures and fittings for these new developments at discounted prices when the furnishings of the Millennium Dome
were sold off upon its closure.
Despite the stadium's new facilities, Priestfield is still viewed in a negative light in some circles. In 2004, it was voted the worst football ground in England by a poll in the Observer
newspaper, although most of the comments made in the poll concerned the town of Gillingham itself, rather than the actual stadium as a building.
has made it clear that he intends to relocate the club away from its current stadium, announcing in September 2003 that "there is no future for the club at the Priestfield". In 2004, the club outlined plans for a new stadium at Cuxton
but abandoned them soon afterwards due to the cost of improving transport links to the site. At the time Scally stated that he anticipated the club moving within four years, but by 2007 the proposed date had been pushed back to 2010.
Despite the proposed move, the club has promoted its facilities, in conjunction with Medway
Council, as a possible training base for athletes competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics
, saying:
In December 2007, Gillingham shareholders passed a resolution to sell the ground to Priestfield Developments Ltd, a company wholly owned by Paul Scally, for £9.8m as part of a restructuring of the club's debts. The deal was to allow three years use of the stadium at £1 p.a., with the club meeting running costs, with tenure secured for a further seven years at a rent as yet unspecified.
's World Cup Qualifier
against Austria
, achieving a gate of 8,068 (a higher attendance than Gillingham's average home gate for the 2005–06
season). Priestfield has also been the venue for home matches for the England youth team
, including a November 2007 match against their counterparts from Ghana
.
The stadium has also occasionally been the "home" of clubs other than Gillingham. In 1895, Woolwich Arsenal
played a Second Division
home game against Burton Swifts
at Priestfield after their own Manor Ground
had been closed by the Football League for five weeks after crowd trouble
at a match there earlier that year. Over a century later, during the 1997–98
and 1998–99
seasons Brighton & Hove Albion
played their home matches at Priestfield, as they had entered a ground-share agreement with Gillingham
as a result of the sale of their Goldstone Ground
to property developers. The move, undertaken by the club after a plan to groundshare with nearby Portsmouth
fell through, was a controversial one for Brighton's fans, who faced a 150 miles (241.4 km) round trip to each home game. The two clubs subsequently became embroiled in a dispute over the charges levied by Gillingham for the hire of the ground, which was eventually settled out of court in 2001.
The social and catering facilities are used for a range of business and entertainment events, and the premises is licensed for marriages. The pitch area and the Gordon Road Stand were used for a Christian outreach festival in May 2000.
3rd round on 10 January 1948. The highest Football League attendance was 20,128 against Millwall
in the Third Division South
on 2 September 1950. The record modern (all-seated) attendance is 11,418, set on 20 September 2003 against West Ham United
in the First Division
.
The highest seasonal average attendance for league matches at Priestfield since Gillingham returned to the Football League in 1950 was 12,576 in the 1951–52
season. Gillingham's lowest seasonal average was 2,979 in the 1994–95
season, although Brighton recorded a lower figure of 2,328 in the 1997–98
season.
, which lies on Southeastern
's Chatham Main Line
from London Victoria
to Dover Priory
and Ramsgate
. The station is also the southern terminus of the North Kent Line
, which connects to London Charing Cross
. The stadium has no parking facilities for supporters, and the streets around the ground are subject to a residents-only permit parking scheme on match days, which means that supporters have to park a considerable distance away from the ground. For the 2007–08
season the club introduced a Park and Ride scheme whereby supporters leave their cars in a car park approximately one mile from the ground and are transported to the stadium by taxi. Chairman Paul Scally
has cited the lack of parking as one of the main reasons why a new stadium is essential.
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...
in Gillingham, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. It has been the home of Gillingham Football Club
Gillingham F.C.
Gillingham Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Gillingham, Kent. The only Kent-based club in the Football League, they play their home matches at the Priestfield Stadium...
since the club's formation in 1893, and was also the temporary home of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club
Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.
Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club are an English association football club based in the coastal city of Brighton & Hove, East Sussex. They currently play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system....
for two seasons during the 1990s. The stadium has also hosted women's and youth international matches.
The stadium underwent extensive redevelopment during the late 1990s, which has brought its capacity down from nearly 20,000 to a current figure of 11,582. It has four all-seater stands, all constructed since 1997, although one is only of a temporary nature. There are also conference and banqueting facilities and a nightspot named the Blues Rock Café. Despite having invested heavily in its current stadium, Gillingham F.C. has plans to relocate to a new stadium.
History
New Brompton Football Club, the forerunner of Gillingham Football Club, formed in June 1893. At the same time an area of land in Gillingham was acquired by the club's founders, the purchase being funded through an issue of 1,500 £1 shares. Sources differ on whether the stadium was named after the road on which the land stood, Priestfield Road, or whether the road was named after the stadium, although until 1947 the stadium itself was officially named Priestfield Road. A pitch was laid and a pavilion erected, and the first matches at Priestfield were staged on 2 September 1893. New Brompton's reserve teamReserve team
Large professional sports clubs often have far more players under contract than could possibly play in a match. As a result, many of these clubs create second teams composed of players who need playing time, but have little hope of playing on the first team. The players on this second team are...
played Grays
Grays Athletic F.C.
Grays Athletic Football Club is an English football club currently based in Corringham, Essex after leaving the New Recreation Ground in Grays at the end of the 2009–10 season...
, followed immediately by the first match for the club's first team, against Woolwich Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
's reserves. The admission charge for the two matches was 3d. A newspaper report on the matches noted that the club had recently purchased an additional acre and three-quarters of ground and had accepted a contract for the construction of a stand containing 500 seats. Most spectators stood on terracing, banked earth, or simply along the perimeter of the pitch, as was the case at most football grounds at the time. In order to raise funds to assist with the running of the football club, New Brompton allowed the ground to be used for other events, such as smoking concerts, fêtes, athletics meetings and a ladies' football match. Sheep were allowed to graze on the pitch during the week, a common practice at many grounds at that time. In 1899, a second stand was added along part of the Gordon Road side of the ground, reportedly built by off-duty dock workers in exchange for beer and cigarettes.
By 1908, the total number of seats had been increased to 800 and terracing added at the Rainham end of the ground. In 1912, the club's first Supporters' Association was formed, its initial project being to raise the necessary funds to construct terracing at the opposite end of the ground. Two years later the club, which had changed its name to Gillingham F.C. in 1913, secured a bank loan of £1,570 which was used to build a new grandstand, but just a month after it was completed the stand was severely damaged by high winds, which ripped off the roof and twisted most of the ironwork. The club sued the contractors, but it took a further three months for the damage to be repaired.
A new attendance record was set in 1924 when an FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
match against 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....
leaders Cardiff City
Cardiff City F.C.
Cardiff City Football Club are a Welsh professional football club based in Cardiff, Wales. The club competes in the English football pyramid and is currently playing in the Football League Championship. Cardiff City is the best supported football club in Wales, averaging approximately 22,500 for...
drew a crowd of 19,472. This record stood until 1948, when 23,002 fans watched Gillingham take on Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers F.C.
Queens Park Rangers Football Club is an English professional football club, based in White City, Hammersmith and Fulham, west London. As the 2010-11 Football League Championship champions, they now play in the top tier of English football the Premier League, for the first time in 15 years...
in the FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
, with many more turned away. In the same year the club, which had lost its place in the Football League ten years earlier after failing to gain re-election, produced a glossy brochure as part of its bid to be elected back into the league. The facilities at Priestfield were highlighted as one of the club's strengths in the brochure, which listed the ground's capacity as "between 25,000 and 30,000" but stated that plans had been drawn up to increase the capacity to 50,000, with 5,000 seats.
Henry Milles-Lade, 5th Earl Sondes
Henry George Herbert Milles-Lade, 5th Earl Sondes , styled Viscount Throwley between 1941 and 1970, was a British peer. He inherited the title upon the death of his father in 1970 and the peerage became extinct when he died without an heir.The fifth earl was considered a colourful character...
, a member of the club's board of directors. The clock was removed during later stadium redevelopment work and its current whereabouts are unknown.
New owner Paul Scally
Paul Scally
Paul Damien Phillip Scally is a London-born businessman who has been the chairman of association football club Gillingham since 1995.-Career:...
took over at the club in 1995 and soon instigated a programme of redevelopment which completely transformed the formerly run-down ground. The closed stand was replaced with a new Gordon Road Stand in 1997 at a cost of more than £2 million. Two years later the Rainham End terracing was replaced with a new all-seater stand, with the sports centre behind it demolished and replaced with a car park.
The main stand on the northern side of the pitch was demolished in 1999, along with a section of away terracing, to be replaced with a new state-of-the-art facility dubbed the Medway Stand, but the work was beset by problems. Due to serious delays with the building of the new stand, the club was forced to spend most of the subsequent season first with that side of the ground completely empty, then later with building work ongoing. Supporters were not able to sit in the new stand until the latter stages of the 1999–2000 season, and even then many of the facilities had not been finished. The stand also caused severe financial problems for the club, as its facilities eventually cost significantly more than the original estimate.
The fourth side of the ground was redeveloped in 2003 when the Town End terracing was removed and a temporary stand put in its place, named after the late football commentator and Gillingham supporter Brian Moore
Brian Moore (commentator)
Brian Moore was a British sports commentator.-Early life:Moore was born in Gillingham, Kent and educated at the Cranbrook School, Kent, which was also the school of fellow commentators Peter West and Barry Davies....
. It was hoped that work would begin on a permanent Brian Moore Stand in 2004, but due to talk of relocating the club to a new ground and the club's current financial problems, this has been put on hold.
On 1 June 2007, the stadium was officially renamed KRBS Priestfield Stadium as part of a sponsorship deal that lasted three years with the Kent Reliance Building Society
Kent Reliance Building Society
Kent Reliance Banking service, also known as KRBS, was a building society based in Kent, England. Incorporating the Chatham Reliance , Dover District , Herne Bay and Kent & Canterbury , KRBS was the fastest growing building society in the UK between 2003 and 2008 and was a member of the Building...
. In 2011 another such deal led to the rebranding of the stadium as MEMS Priestfield Stadium.
Structure and facilities
The pitch is surrounded by four all-seater standsAll-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...
– the Medway Stand, the Rainham End, the Gordon Road Stand and the Brian Moore Stand. All are covered with the exception of the Brian Moore Stand. The Medway Stand, which replaced the old Main Stand and part of the terracing at each end, is the largest and northernmost of the four. It has two tiers with a row of twenty executive boxes between the top and bottom tier. The stand also contains the changing rooms, physiotherapy facilities, club offices and club shop. The Rainham End, located behind the goal at the eastern end of the pitch, opened in 1999 and houses 2,400 fans. This stand, like the terrace it replaced, is known for housing the club's most vocal supporters. The Gordon Road Stand, which seats 2,600, was opened in 1997 and is opposite the Medway Stand. Due to planning requirements, the stand had a height restriction placed upon it, making it significantly lower than the other three sides of the ground, and due to the road layout behind it is narrower at one end than the other. A gantry for television cameras is located on the roof of this stand.
The state of the stadium's pitch caused the club severe problems in 2003. A number of fixtures had to be postponed due to the state of the pitch, which was described as resembling a ploughed field, and the surface had to be heavily sanded before an FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
match against Leeds United
Leeds United A.F.C.
Leeds United Association Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system...
. At the end of the season, taking advantage of the demolition of the old Town End, which allowed better access to the pitch, the club had the drainage system replaced and a completely new pitch laid.
Added to the new stands were several new developments. The Conference and Banqueting Centre, which is located behind the Rainham End, comprises the Great Hall, which can accommodate up to 600 delegates for events, and twenty smaller delegate rooms. The Centre is connected to the Medway Stand, thus allowing views from the banqueting suite onto the pitch, and is also licensed for wedding ceremonies. The Blues Rock Café nightspot, located within the Medway Stand, is open between four and five nights a week and stages live music and screenings of major sporting events. The club purchased many of the fixtures and fittings for these new developments at discounted prices when the furnishings of the Millennium Dome
Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome, colloquially referred to simply as The Dome or even The O2 Arena, is the original name of a large dome-shaped building, originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium...
were sold off upon its closure.
Despite the stadium's new facilities, Priestfield is still viewed in a negative light in some circles. In 2004, it was voted the worst football ground in England by a poll in the Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
newspaper, although most of the comments made in the poll concerned the town of Gillingham itself, rather than the actual stadium as a building.
Future
Gillingham chairman Paul ScallyPaul Scally
Paul Damien Phillip Scally is a London-born businessman who has been the chairman of association football club Gillingham since 1995.-Career:...
has made it clear that he intends to relocate the club away from its current stadium, announcing in September 2003 that "there is no future for the club at the Priestfield". In 2004, the club outlined plans for a new stadium at Cuxton
Cuxton
Cuxton is a village in the unitary authority of Medway. It lies on left bank of the River Medway in the North Downs. It is served by the A228, and Cuxton railway station on the Medway Valley Line between Strood and Maidstone...
but abandoned them soon afterwards due to the cost of improving transport links to the site. At the time Scally stated that he anticipated the club moving within four years, but by 2007 the proposed date had been pushed back to 2010.
Despite the proposed move, the club has promoted its facilities, in conjunction with Medway
Medway
Medway is a conurbation and unitary authority in South East England. The Unitary Authority was formed in 1998 when the City of Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with Gillingham Borough Council and part of Kent County Council to form Medway Council, a unitary authority independent of Kent County...
Council, as a possible training base for athletes competing in 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...
, saying:
In December 2007, Gillingham shareholders passed a resolution to sell the ground to Priestfield Developments Ltd, a company wholly owned by Paul Scally, for £9.8m as part of a restructuring of the club's debts. The deal was to allow three years use of the stadium at £1 p.a., with the club meeting running costs, with tenure secured for a further seven years at a rent as yet unspecified.
Other uses
In April 2006, the ground hosted the England women's teamEngland women's national football team
The England women's national football team represents England in international women's football. The side has been quite successful of late, qualifying for three World Cups, 1995, 2007 and 2011...
's World Cup Qualifier
FIFA Women's World Cup
The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the...
against Austria
Austria women's national football team
The Austria women's national football team represents Austria in international women's football.The team is made up mainly of players from the Austrian and German Women's Bundesligas. As yet the team has never qualified for any major tournament .-World Cup record:-Current squad:- External links :*...
, achieving a gate of 8,068 (a higher attendance than Gillingham's average home gate for the 2005–06
2005-06 in English football
The 2005–06 season was the 126th season of competitive football in England.-Overview:*The rebuilt Wembley Stadium was due to open in time for the FA Cup final in May. However, in August 2005, The Football Association reserved the Millennium Stadium as a backup, as there was some doubt whether...
season). Priestfield has also been the venue for home matches for the England youth team
England national under-18 football team
-Latest squad:The following players were named in the squad for the friendly match against Slovakia.-Recent call-ups:The following players have also been called up to the England under-18 squad and remain eligible.-References:...
, including a November 2007 match against their counterparts from Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
.
The stadium has also occasionally been the "home" of clubs other than Gillingham. In 1895, Woolwich Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
played a Second Division
Football League Second Division
From 1892 until 1992, the Football League Second Division was the second highest division overall in English football.This ended with the creation of the FA Premier League, prior to the start of the 1992–93 season, which caused an administrative split between The Football League and the teams...
home game against Burton Swifts
Burton Swifts F.C.
Burton Swifts were an English football club from Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. The club ceased to exist in 1901 when they merged with Burton Wanderers to form Burton United.-History:...
at Priestfield after their own Manor Ground
Manor Ground, Plumstead
The Manor Ground in Plumstead, south east London was a football stadium which, between 1888 & 1890, and 1893 & 1913, was the home of the football club formerly known as Royal Arsenal, renamed Woolwich Arsenal in 1893, and later simply Arsenal F.C...
had been closed by the Football League for five weeks after crowd trouble
Football hooliganism
Football hooliganism, sometimes referred to by the British media as the English Disease, is unruly and destructive behaviour—such as brawls, vandalism and intimidation—by association football club fans...
at a match there earlier that year. Over a century later, during the 1997–98
1997-98 in English football
The 1997-1998 season was the 118th season of competitive football in England.-Premier League:Arsenal overhauled Manchester United's lead during the final weeks of the season to win the Premiership title...
and 1998–99
1998-99 in English football
-Premier League:Manchester United overcame close competition from Arsenal, Aston Villa and Chelsea to win their fifth Premiership title in seven seasons thanks to the comeback of Roy Keane after his long-term injury and a transfer raid totalling nearly £30 million which netted Aston Villa striker...
seasons Brighton & Hove Albion
Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.
Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club are an English association football club based in the coastal city of Brighton & Hove, East Sussex. They currently play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system....
played their home matches at Priestfield, as they had entered a ground-share agreement with Gillingham
Gillingham F.C.
Gillingham Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Gillingham, Kent. The only Kent-based club in the Football League, they play their home matches at the Priestfield Stadium...
as a result of the sale of their Goldstone Ground
Goldstone Ground
The Goldstone Ground was a football stadium and home ground of Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. between 1902 and 1997. The club currently plays at American Express Community Stadium, a stadium on the outskirts of the city, following the move from their temporary stadium in the Brighton suburb of...
to property developers. The move, undertaken by the club after a plan to groundshare with nearby Portsmouth
Portsmouth F.C.
Portsmouth Football Club is an English football club based in the city of Portsmouth. The club is nicknamed Pompey. Portsmouth's home matches have been played at Fratton Park since the club's formation in 1898. The team currently play in the Football League Championship after being relegated from...
fell through, was a controversial one for Brighton's fans, who faced a 150 miles (241.4 km) round trip to each home game. The two clubs subsequently became embroiled in a dispute over the charges levied by Gillingham for the hire of the ground, which was eventually settled out of court in 2001.
The social and catering facilities are used for a range of business and entertainment events, and the premises is licensed for marriages. The pitch area and the Gordon Road Stand were used for a Christian outreach festival in May 2000.
Records
The highest attendance recorded at Priestfield was 23,002 for a match against Queens Park Rangers in the FA CupFA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
3rd round on 10 January 1948. The highest Football League attendance was 20,128 against Millwall
Millwall F.C.
Millwall Football Club is an English professional football club based in South Bermondsey, south east London, that plays in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its name despite having last played in the...
in the Third Division South
Football League Third Division South
The Football League Third Division South was a level of English professional football which ran in parallel to Third Division North from 1921 to 1958....
on 2 September 1950. The record modern (all-seated) attendance is 11,418, set on 20 September 2003 against West Ham United
West Ham United F.C.
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Upton Park, Newham, East London. They play in The Football League Championship. The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks FC and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United. In 1904 the club relocated to their current...
in the 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....
.
The highest seasonal average attendance for league matches at Priestfield since Gillingham returned to the Football League in 1950 was 12,576 in the 1951–52
1951-52 in English football
The 1951–52 season was the 72nd season of competitive football in England.-Honours:Notes = Number in parentheses is the times that club has won that honour...
season. Gillingham's lowest seasonal average was 2,979 in the 1994–95
1994-95 in English football
-Premiership:Blackburn Rovers ended their 81-year wait for the league title thanks to the strike partnership of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton which scored a total of more than 50 league goals. Manchester United would have made it three league titles in a row if they had been able to turn a 1-1 draw...
season, although Brighton recorded a lower figure of 2,328 in the 1997–98
1997-98 in English football
The 1997-1998 season was the 118th season of competitive football in England.-Premier League:Arsenal overhauled Manchester United's lead during the final weeks of the season to win the Premiership title...
season.
Transport
The stadium is approximately 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) from Gillingham railway stationGillingham (Kent) railway station
Gillingham railway station in the town of Gillingham , north Kent, is on the Chatham Main Line between and Rainham stations. Train services are provided by Southeastern....
, which lies on Southeastern
Southeastern (train operating company)
London & South Eastern Railway Limited, trading as Southeastern is a train operating company in south-east England. On 1 April 2006 it became the franchisee for the new Integrated Kent Franchise , replacing the publicly owned South Eastern Trains on the former South East Franchise...
's Chatham Main Line
Chatham Main Line
The Chatham Main Line is a British railway line that runs from either London Victoria to Dover Priory / Ramsgate or London St Pancras to Faversham, with both services travelling via Medway...
from London Victoria
Victoria station (London)
Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. It is named after nearby Victoria Street and not Queen Victoria. It is the second busiest railway terminus in London after Waterloo, and includes an air terminal for passengers...
to Dover Priory
Dover Priory railway station
Dover Priory railway station is the main station in Dover in Kent, with the other station being Kearsney situated on the outskirts of Dover. . All train services are provided by Southeastern...
and Ramsgate
Ramsgate railway station
Ramsgate railway station serves the town of Ramsgate in Thanet in Kent, England, and is located about 10 minutes away on foot from the town centre. The station lies on the Chatham Main Line 127 km east of London Victoria, the Kent Coast Line, and the Ashford to Ramsgate line...
. The station is also the southern terminus of the North Kent Line
North Kent Line
The North Kent Line is a railway line which connects central and south east London with Dartford and Medway.-Construction:The North Kent Line was the means by which the South Eastern Railway were able to connect its system to London at London Bridge...
, which connects to London Charing Cross
Charing Cross railway station
Charing Cross railway station, also known as London Charing Cross, is a central London railway terminus in the City of Westminster, England. It is one of 18 stations managed by Network Rail, and trains serving it are operated by Southeastern...
. The stadium has no parking facilities for supporters, and the streets around the ground are subject to a residents-only permit parking scheme on match days, which means that supporters have to park a considerable distance away from the ground. For the 2007–08
2007-08 in English football
The 2007–08 season was the 128th season of competitive football in England.-European competitions:In October 2007 Arsenal equalled the UEFA Champions League record victory with a 7–0 win over Slavia Prague at the Emirates Stadium. The record was broken the following month when Liverpool...
season the club introduced a Park and Ride scheme whereby supporters leave their cars in a car park approximately one mile from the ground and are transported to the stadium by taxi. Chairman Paul Scally
Paul Scally
Paul Damien Phillip Scally is a London-born businessman who has been the chairman of association football club Gillingham since 1995.-Career:...
has cited the lack of parking as one of the main reasons why a new stadium is essential.