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Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England has been the home ground of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. since opening in 1899. It is a 39,732 capacity all-seater stadium, making it the largest club ground in England outside of the Premier League. It is located in the Sheffield suburb of Owlerton and takes its name from the parliamentary constituency in which it lay. Although the ground has received little investment since Euro 1996, it is still regarded as "a beautiful ground oozing character." It has two large two-tiered stands and two large single-tiered stands, all of them covered. All four stands are of a similar capacity with the South Stand being the largest and the West stand (used for away fans) the smallest. Only one corner of the ground is filled, between the West and North Stands. This area, known as the North West corner, is uncovered and is only used for visiting supporters when the West Stand's upper and lower tiers are full. On the other corner of the West Stand is a large screen which was installed in 2015. On 15 April 1989, the ground was the scene of the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death at an FA Cup semi-final. This led to a series of safety improvements at the ground and other stadia around the country, including the requirement for top clubs to have all-seater stadia and the withdrawal of perimeter fencing. Plans by the club to renovate the stadium and expand capacity to 44,825 have been approved by Sheffield City Council with the aim of hosting World Cup matches. The stadium previously played host to World Cup and European Championship football in 1966 and 1996 respectively. Following the clubs 2015 take over, the Ground has seen the replacement of the existing 25 year old scoreboard with a 60m^2 LCD screen from stadium technology specialists ADI. The new screen, Is the largest in the whole of the Football League, it is connected to Live Venue, AD's unique high speed fibre network that links every Premier League and Football League stadium to the company's Preston-based sports production hub. The Playing Surface has been upgraded to a Desso GrassMaster including a complete replacement of the Under-soil heating and Drainage System. ==History== During the 1898–99 season Sheffield Wednesday were told that the land rented at Olive Grove would be needed for railway expansions. They were allowed to remain there for the rest of that season but had to find a new ground for the next season. Several locations were considered but fell through for various reasons. An alternative was offered by the Midland Railway Company but it did not meet the requirements of the club. Finally James Willis Dixon of Hillsborough House, owner of the Silversmiths James Dixon & Sons, offered a site at Owlerton, a sparsely populated area of land to the northwest of the city. The land was part of the Hillsborough House estate which was being sold off by the Dixons. It was successfully bought for £5,000 plus costs. Soil was dumped at both ends of the ground to level out the ground which was initially meadowland covered with dandelions. The 2,000 capacity stand at Olive Grove was then transported to the new site and was joined by a newly constructed 3,000 capacity stand for the start of the next season. The first match to be played was on 2 September 1899 against Chesterfield. The match was kicked off by the Lord Mayor of Sheffield William Clegg, himself a former Wednesday player. It was a Chesterfield player, Herbert Munday, who scored the first goal at the new stadium but Wednesday came back to win the game 5–1. Despite the location of the ground several miles outside the city boundaries and a poor public transport service the new ground averaged 3,000 supporters for the first three months.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hillsborough Stadium」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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