Bramall Lane - Sheffield United Football Club's home - is rich in history. It remains one of the oldest grounds in the world still used for professional football.
The Bramall Lane ground opened in 1855 with a cricket match that saw 'the 11' play 'the 22' - the lease for the land was taken on by the Ground Committee on a 100 year lease at the cost of £70 per annum.
It saw its first football match take place on 29th December 1862 - incidentally, it was also possibly the first ever charity game in football as Sheffield FC played Hallam FC to raise monies for the 'Lancashire Mills Distress Fund'. The game lasted for three hours and finished in a 0-0 draw!
Mansfield Town's Field Mill ground, now known as the One Call Stadium, is the oldest professional football ground in the world. Field Mill has been used as a football ground since 1861 (and as a cricket ground for a few years before that).
Field Mill also staged the first competitive match to be played under artificial light in this country when the North Notts League Senior Cup final was played at Field Mill under floodlights in 1930.
Portman Road is a football stadium in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, which has been the home ground of Ipswich Town F.C. since 1884. The stadium has also hosted many England youth international matches, and one senior England friendly international match, against Croatia in 2003. It staged several other sporting events, including athletics meetings and international hockey matches, musical concerts and Christian events.
The stadium underwent significant redevelopments in the early 2000s, which increased the capacity from 22,600 to a current figure of 30,311, making it the largest-capacity football ground in East Anglia. Its four stands have since been converted to all-seater, following the recommendations of the Taylor Report.
Turf Moor is the home ground of Premier League club Burnley, who have played there since moving from the Calder Vale ground in 1883. This unbroken service makes Turf Moor the longest continuously used ground of any of the 49 teams which have played in the Premier League. The stadium, which is situated on Harry Potts Way, named so after the club's longest serving manager, has an official capacity of 21,944, all seated. It was one of the last remaining stadiums in England to have the players' tunnel and dressing rooms behind one of the goals, until it was covered for seating in time for the 2014–15 Premier League season and rebuilt between the Cricket Field and James Hargreaves stands.
Deepdale is "widely recognised as being the oldest 'continuously used' football stadium in the world. But like most coveted historic accolades, it is fiercely contested". [3] For example, Maidenhead United F.C. have played at their York Road ground since 1871, but they are not a professional club, unlike Preston North End.
The land on which the stadium stands was originally Deepdale Farm. It was leased on 21 January 1875[4] by the town's North End sports club and originally used for cricket and rugby. It hosted its first association football match on 5 October 1878.
