Ewood Park

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Ewood Park
The Wood

Full name	Ewood Park
Location	Blackburn Lancashire England BB2 4JF
Built	1882
Opened	1882
Owner
Tenants	Blackburn Rovers (1890-present)
Capacity	31,367^[1]
Field dimensions	115 x 76 yards

Ewood Park is a football stadium in Blackburn, Lancashire and has been the home of Blackburn Rovers football club since they moved there from Leamington Road in the summer of 1890. The stadium opened in 1882 and is an all seater multi-sports facility with a capacity of 31,367. It comprises four sections: Darwen End, Riverside Stand (named as such because it stands practically on the banks of the River Darwen), Blackburn End, and Jack Walker Stand, which is named after Blackburn industrialist and club supporter, Jack Walker. The football pitch within the stadium measures 115 yards (105 m) x 76 yards (69 m).

Blackburn Rovers is one of only two football clubs, the other being the Wanderers, to have won the English FA Cup 3 times in 3 consecutive seasons, and for this achievement it is the only club in the English Football League with permission to display its club crest on the corner flags. This rule is still applicable at Ewood Park, despite the victories being achieved whilst at the club's previous Leamington Road ground.

The stadium hosted three matches during the Women's Euro 2005 competition— two England matches in group play, and the final.

Ewood Park is the oldest home to a Premier League club. Though both Anfield and Stamford Bridge were constructed earlier (1884 and 1877), their current tenants (Liverpool FC and Chelsea FC) did not start playing there until 1892 and 1905, respectively.

1 Details
2 Footnotes
3 External links

[edit] Details

[edit] Records

Record Attendance: 62,522 v Bolton Wanderers, 2 March 1929 (FA Cup 6th Round).^[2]

[edit] Average attendances

2003-04: 24,376
2004-05: 22,315
2005-06: 21,015
2006-07: 21,275
2007-08 (as of 26/02/08) 23,571

The average attendance for 2006-07 was approximately 21,275.[1] This represents a 5,000 decline in average attendance in just four years, despite the success experienced by Blackburn Rovers in the 2005-06 Premiership. Rovers have taken action to reverse this by reducing ticket prices by 25% for the coming season, a move which has been commended by everyone involved in the game. An adult Season ticket now costs £250.00 in the Fraser Eagle Stand, £300.00 in the Blackburn End, and £350.00 in the Jack Walker Stand, Adult Matchday Prices Range from £15.00 to £35.00

Although Ewood Park is the 14th largest facility in capacity in the Premiership, it generally has the lowest average attendance as a percentage of capacity. On average, more than 25% of the seats remain unsold. [2]. On the other hand, the attendance Blackburn attracts to Ewood Park is one of the highest in proportion to town/city size. Blackburn has a population of 105,085 [3], so the attendance accounts for a fifth of the town's population.

[edit] Redevelopment

The Jack Walker Stand

Like many English stadia, Ewood Park remained relatively unchanged for most of the 20th century until outside factors forced change. In the summer of 1984, part of the Nuttall Street Stand was damaged by fire. Instead of rebuilding the stand, the club's directors decided to install two banks of executive boxes in place of the destroyed section. Later in the decade, the old Riverside stand was deemed unsafe in high winds and needed to be rebuilt. The steel for the new stand was provided by Walkersteel, then owned by Jack Walker, who was later to buy the club. The newly-named for 2007-08 season Fraser Eagle Stand provides 5,000 seats and is now the only part of Ewood Park to date from before the nineties. [4]

After Jack Walker bought Blackburn in 1991, Ewood Park was extensively rebuilt for the modern Premiership era. Three of the four stands - the Darwen End now seating 8,000 and all allocated to Away fans, the Blackburn End a mirror image of the Darwen End Seating 8,000, and the Nuttall Street Stand - were demolished and rebuilt. The Nuttall Street stand was renamed the Jack Walker stand in his honour. It seats 11,000 fans and houses the players dressing room and media facilities. The old boardroom was dismantled piece by piece and, when rebuilding was finished, reassembled in the Blackburn End of the ground. [5]