New Brighton Tower F.C.

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New Brighton Tower F.C. were an English football club based in New Brighton that folded in 1901. The club played at the Tower Athletic Grounds.

[edit] History

Like Chelsea and Thames, New Brighton Tower were formed to play at an already-built stadium, with a massive capacity of 80,000. The owners of the New Brighton tower, a seaside attraction built to rival the Blackpool Tower, decided there was a need to provide winter entertainment, and had built a stadium adjacent to the tower. The football club were formed to provide the entertainment, and joined the Lancashire League at the start of the 1897/8 season. After finishing as champions in their first season, the club were elected to the Second Division of The Football League when the League was expanded by four clubs. The team were very poorly supported averaging gates of 1000.

The club signed a number of new players, including some who had played international football, and was reasonably successful, finishing 5th (out of 18) in its first season, and 4th in their third season. However, the cost of maintaining a professional football club became too high for the Tower's owners, and the club was disbanded in the summer of 1901, and replaced by Doncaster Rovers.

The tower was taken down during WWI, and the rest of the complex destroyed by fire in the late 1960s.

New Brighton later produced another Football League club, New Brighton F.C., who played in the League from 1923 until 1951.