Fratton Park

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Fratton Park

Full name	Fratton Park
Built	1898
Opened	1898
Capacity	20,288
Home of	Portsmouth F.C.
Pitch size	115 x 73 yards

Fratton Park is the home stadium of Portsmouth F.C., and is situated in the English city-port of Portsmouth.

1 History
2 Future development
3 Details
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

The ground as viewed from the Milton End in September 2006

The stadium currently has four stands, all seated. The pitch runs from east to west. The largest and most modern stand, at the ground's western end, is the Fratton End. Along either side of the pitch are the North and South stands, both of which are two-tiered. At the eastern end is the Milton End, by far the smallest stand, and the only one without a roof (in fact the only roofless stand in the Premiership). This stand is shared between home and away supporters. The original entrance to the Fratton End is notable for its mock Tudor facade.

Fratton Park hosted a first-round football game in the 1948 Olympics (one of only two grounds outside London, the other being the Goldstone Ground). Fratton Park has also hosted some England U-21 internationals in the past but never a full one. Pompey were the first club to stage a Football League match under floodlights, in a February 1956 match at Fratton Park, against Newcastle United.

The stadium is served by Fratton railway station (about 10 minutes' walk away), which is located on the Portsmouth Direct Line.

[edit] Future development

This article or section is about a planned or proposed stadium.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the stadium approaches.

The ground has been home to the club throughout its entire history, and despite improvements is showing signs of age. Therefore at the end of the 2003/04 season, having consolidated their Premier League status, plans to develop a new stadium on the adjacent disused rail-freight depot site were drawn up and approved.

These plans were superseded by a new plan to redevelop, more or less on the existing site, but realigning the pitch 90 degrees to accommodate a larger capacity, funded in part by a "Pompey Village" residential, hotel and retail project on the adjacent site. Work on the stadium is due to commence in the summer of 2006, with the first of the new stands opening before the 2007/08 season.

The first stage of redevelopment should take the capacity to 28,000 and the second to 35,000.