One City, Two Stadiums: 2025 Edition Quiz

Answer: St Andrew's

Birmingham:
In 1894, Aston Villa's governing committee began exploring the possibility of leaving their then home of Wellington Road, due to its increasingly poor facilities. They entered negotiations with the owners of the Aston Lower Grounds, a then existing sports facility in the grounds of Aston Hall. After two years of negotiation, the club secured an initial 21-year lease on the site, and began constructing a new stadium. The new stadium, with a main stand and banking surrounding the pitch, could accommodate up to 40,000 - officially still named the Aston Lower Grounds, the name "Villa Park" came into use during the club's first years there, eventually gaining widespread acceptance from around 1907 onwards.

By 1905, Small Heath F.C. had reached a conclusion that their current ground, Muntz Street, was no longer adequate; issues became apparent when a match against Aston Villa saw thousands of spectators attempt to force their way in by climbing walls and forcing turnstiles. So, the club's directors began searching for an alternative site. They settled on a plot in nearby Bordesley near St Andrew's church. Taking out an initial 21-year lease, the club built a grandstand, a 4,000 space terrace at one end, and an enormous 48,000 place terrace known as the Spion Kop at the other, giving a capacity on opening in 1906 of 75,000. The proximity to the church led to the ground being named as St Andrew's, while the club, having moved away from Small Heath, adopted a new identity as Birmingham F.C., becoming Birmingham City in 1943.

Answer: Memorial Stadium

Bristol:
Football has been played at Ashton Gate since 1887, when the original stadium opened as the home of Bedminster F.C. Bedminster was initially an amateur side, for the first decade of its existence, before turning professional in 1898, when they joined the Southern League. By this time, a second club in the south of Bristol had been formed - Bristol South End played their home games at St John's Lane, and renamed themselves as Bristol City in 1898. Two years later, the two clubs merged under the name of Bristol City, with St John's Lane as the new club's home, although some home games were played at Bedminster's old ground. It was in 1903 that the club then elected to move permanently into Ashton Gate, which has remained Bristol City's home ever since.

The majority of the Memorial Stadium's history is as a rugby ground, with rugby having been played on the site for the first time in 1893 by Clifton RFC. Although used as allotments during the First World War, in 1921 a new stadium was built for Bristol RFC - named as the Memorial Ground, it was intended to honour the fallen of Bristol. In 1996, Bristol Rovers F.C. moved into the stadium. Having left their old Eastville home in 1986, the club had played in Bath for ten years before reaching an agreement to return to their own city. Since moving in, Bristol Rovers purchased the stadium itself, while Bristol RFC have moved across the city to share Ashton Gate.

Answer: Dens Park

Dundee:
The area now occupied by Tannadice Park was first used for football in the 1870s, with Dundee East End F.C. securing it as a playing field in 1882. East End played on the site, which was called Clepington Park at the time, over two spells until 1891. It was after this that various clubs began using the site, with Johnstone Wanderers electing to enclose it into a stadium to allow them to charge admission. Renamed Dundee Wanderers in 1894, the club had to compete for local support as, in 1899, the former Dundee East End, since renamed as simply Dundee, opened Dens Park just 200 yards along the same street. Dundee Wanderers left Clepington in 1909, with a new club, Dundee Hibernian, taking their place. The new club rebuilt Clepington into a 10,000 capacity stadium, and made a conscious decision to start a new era by renaming it as Tannadice Park. Dundee Hibernian's first game at Tannadice was against Hibernian in August 1909, while the club itself was renamed as Dundee United in 1923.

Having previously played at the site occupied by Tannadice, Dundee East End moved to their first purpose built ground at Carolina Port in 1891. By 1894, the club had merged with local rivals Our Boys to form Dundee F.C. However, although the facilities at Carolina Port were the best for sports in the city, its location by the harbour proved to make further development difficult. As a result, in 1898 Dundee elected to seek a new location, which they found back in their old home of Clepington. By this time Clepington Park was occupied by Dundee Wanderers, so Dundee built a new stadium 200 yards along the same road, which they opened in 1899 as Dens Park. Dens Park and Tannadice Park are the closest pair of major football grounds in the United Kingdom.

Answer: Tynecastle Park

Edinburgh:
Hibernian played their first games at The Meadows, a public park to the south of Edinburgh city centre. By 1880, the club had elected to move, and found a location near Easter Road, using a stadium called Hibernian Park, which was a spot equidistant from the club's two main areas of support - the Old Town of Edinburgh, and the Irish communities in Leith. However, the club was forced to fold and reform in 1892, which led to the lease of Hibernian Park expiring. The reformed Hibs then took a site called Drum Park, upon which they were able to construct a new stadium that they named as Easter Road. The first game at the new stadium was a friendly against Clyde in February 1893. But, because the club were only tenants, they had little desire to undertake major redevelopment of the stadium, and were on the lookout for alternative locations. Ultimately, the long-term future of Easter Road was only secured in 1922 when the club obtained a 25-year lease that allowed them to raise three large banks of terracing and build a 4,480 seat Main Stand, bringing the capacity to 45,000.

Having played at three different sites across Edinburgh since the club's formation seven years previously, in 1881 Heart of Midlothian moved to a new location in Gorgie, which they named as Tynecastle Park. At this stage, Gorgie was located to the west of Edinburgh proper, and so the club initially charged lower admission prices than their local rivals Hibernian as a result of being "out of town". Five years later, with tenements being built in the area, the club moved locations across the Gorgie Road to a new site, retaining the Tynecastle name. Over the next few years, Tynecastle began to be redeveloped - a clubhouse was constructed in 1891; the South Stand had a roof installed in 1892; a new stand and pavilion were built in 1903; the two end terraces had their capacities increased in 1906, while in 1914 a new Main Stand was built in place of the old pavilion. Although hemmed in by narrow streets, Tynecastle was, by the time Hearts purchased the stadium in 1926, capable of accommodating more than 50,000.

Answer: Ibrox Stadium

Glasgow:
Upon their formation in November 1887, Celtic obtained the lease of a site close to the Eastern Necropolis in Glasgow's Parkhead area. The club played at this site, which they named as Celtic Park, from May 1888 until they were forced to move in 1892 owing to a rent increase. They moved 200 yards away to a disused brickyard on Janefield Street, with the first turf to be laid having been transported from County Donegal. Commenting on the new stadium, a journalist of the time said it was "like leaving the graveyard to enter paradise", which led to the ground, although retaining the official name of Celtic Park, being given the nickname "Paradise". Celtic's first game at their new home was in August 1892 against Renton; initially terraced on three sides with a pavilion and seated stand on the north side, in 1899 an enclosed stand was built on stilts on the south side. In May 1904, a fire destroyed the North Stand - a new structure was completed in its place the following year, while the stilted stand was bought outright. This though was demolished as unsafe in 1927, when a new Main Stand was constructed, which also replaced the original pavilion of 1892.

Having played at a number of locations around Glasgow since the club's foundation in 1872, Rangers moved to the Ibrox area of the city in 1887, building a stadium that they opened with a friendly against Preston North End. Although an initial success, in 1892 their local rivals Celtic opened their new ground, which led to Rangers electing to build a new stadium of their own. Selecting a site just to the west of the existing ground, the new Ibrox Park opened in December 1899. With an initial capacity of 40,000, Ibrox followed the pattern of the time in being oval, with a seated stand and pavilion along one side, and terracing making the remainder. However, to maximise revenue, new terraces were built behind each goal to raise the capacity to 75,000 by 1902. At an international game in April 1902 between Scotland and England, the new East Terrace, which was made of wood, collapsed, leading to 25 people being killed. This led to the club then removing all of Ibrox's wooden terraces, taking capacity down to 25,000, with instead the noted architect Archibald Leitch designing for them a revamped stadium using earth slopes for terracing. This led to Ibrox's capacity increasing to 63,000 by 1910.

Answer: Hill Dickinson Stadium

Liverpool:
Anfield was originally opened in 1884 as a result of Everton needing a new stadium to replace their then existing home at Priory Road. The new location was owned by John Orrell, a friend of John Houlding, a member of the club's board, with the first game played between Everton and Earlestown in September 1884. Capable of accommodating up to 20,000, Anfield was widely regarded as one of the country's premier venues for football at the time, with Everton rapidly improving on the pitch after moving there. However, in 1892, when the club entered negotiations to buy the stadium, a dispute quickly began that led to Everton deciding to leave Anfield and move to a new stadium on the other side of Stanley Park. Orrell, left with a stadium that had no team, then decided to form his own club and, in September 1892, Liverpool played their first home game at Anfield against Rotherham Town. In 1895, a new main stand was built, with further new additions coming in 1903 at the Anfield Road end, and 1906 on the Kemlyn Road side and at the Walton Breck Road end. This second large terrace was quickly christened as the "Spion Kop", after the South African hill that was the site of a noted battle during the recent Boer War. The Kop, as it came to be known, was further expanded in 1928, to accommodate up to 30,000 spectators.

Everton had played at Goodison Park since leaving Anfield in 1892. But, by the mid 1990s it was becoming apparent that the ground would require replacement, as the Taylor Report reduced its capacity to less than 40,000, while its location, hemmed in on three sides by terraced housing, left no room for it to be expanded. A number of new stadium proposals were mooted, including one at King's Dock in the city, another for a site in Kirkby, and a third proposal for a shared stadium with local rivals Liverpool, before the club finally settled on Bramley-Moore Dock as a location. Construction of the new Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium eventually began in July 2021 - however, the construction of the stadium became a factor in the loss of UNESCO World Heritage Site status for the area known as Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City. The stadium, which received the name Hill-Dickinson Stadium after a corporate sponsor, has a capacity of 52,000, with a 13,000 seat single tier stand at one end. Everton's first game was a friendly against AS Roma in August 2025.

Answer: Etihad Stadium

Manchester:
From their founding in 1878 as Newton Heath, Manchester United played in two grounds at North Road and Bank Street, both of which were regarded as having wretched conditions for professional football. In 1909, the club's new chairman decided that Bank Street was unfit for a team that had recently won both the league title and FA Cup, and so provided the funding for a new stadium, eventually settling on a site close to the Bridgewater Canal in Old Trafford. Designed by the famed stadium architect Archibald Leitch, the new ground was intended to have a capacity of 100,000, with an all-seated, covered south stand, and three sides of uncovered terracing. However, the cost of a 100,000 capacity stadium was regarded as too high, which led to it being reduced to 80,000. The stadium, which came to be called simply Old Trafford, hosted its first game in February 1910. Refurbishment began in the mid-1930s, when the north side and the south-east and south-west corners were covered. However, Old Trafford suffered severe damage during the Second World War which led to it requiring major rebuilding work during the late 1940s.

A new stadium in Manchester had been planned as far back as the mid-1980s as part of the city's bid for the 1996 Summer Olympics. A second bid, for the 2000 Olympics, again saw a stadium proposal, this time focusing on a brownfield site that had been occupied by a former colliery. Although unsuccessful for the Olympics, Manchester successfully bid for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, with the proviso that the new stadium be converted afterwards to allow for a football club to move in. After the Commonwealth Games, work began on converting the City of Manchester Stadium, as it came to be known, to a football only venue. Manchester City, who had originally planned to expanded their existing stadium at Maine Road, abandoned these proposals to serve as the tenant of the new stadium, eventually moving there in 2003, with the stadium officially named as the Etihad Stadium after the club's main sponsor. Since the club moved in, the capacity has been expanded from 48,000 to 55,000 through the addition of a third tier to the south stand.

Answer: Meadow Lane

Nottingham:
Although Nottingham Forest is one of the oldest professional football clubs in the world, having been founded in 1865, it took more than 30 years until they moved to the site of what came to be called the City Ground. For its first decade and a half, the club played at the Forest Recreation Ground located in Nottingham itself, and from where the club took its name. The club then enjoyed a nomadic existence, playing five different locations between 1879 and 1897. It was then that, having been given notice to leave their then home, the Town Ground in The Meadows area, the club obtained use of a site on the south bank of the River Trent adjacent to Trent Bridge cricket ground. In December 1897, the club's members approved the move, along with pledging to raise the money required to build a new stadium, which was named as the City Ground. The stadium was officially opened in September 1898 with a league game against Blackburn Rovers, and featured a seated main stand, a half roofed terrace on the east side of the ground, and a narrow terrace at the Trent end.

Until 1910, Notts County played their home games at Trent Bridge as tenants of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. However, when the football and cricket seasons overlapped, it was cricket that took priority, with County requiring alternative venues when fixtures clashed. So, the Football League insisted that either the club obtain more favourable terms for the use of Trent Bridge, or find an alternative home venue. The point was rendered moot when the cricket club decided to terminate Notts County's lease, giving them two years to find a new home. The club eventually selected a site near to the city's cattle market just across the river, and only three hundred yards from the City Ground, hastily building a stadium that included a temporary stand from Trent Bridge. Notts County's first game at Meadow Lane was a friendly against local rivals Nottingham Forest in September 1910.

Answer: Bramall Lane

Sheffield:
In 1898, Sheffield Wednesday were given notice to leave their stadium at Olive Grove, which was required for an expansion of railway lands. After an extensive search, the club was offered a ten-acre site in the Owlerton area of the city, which at the time was part of the Hillsborough House estate owned by James Willis Dixon. Having been levelled off, a 3,000 capacity stand was built, added to which another 2,000 capacity from Olive Grove was assembled on the new site. The new ground, which was named as Owlerton Stadium, opened in September 1899 with a game against Chesterfield. The ground remained largely as built until 1913 when, as a result of accruing record profits, investment was made in improving the stadium - a new stand was built in place of the old one from Olive Grove, increasing its capacity to more than 5,500, while the banking of the Spion Kop terrace was also increased. The club also installed new offices, dressing rooms and refreshment rooms in the stadium, which was also renamed as Hillsborough, after the new parliamentary constituency in which it was situated.

Bramall Lane originally opened in 1855 as a ground that could be used by local cricket clubs, with six initially taking up residence, one of which was The Wednesday cricket club, the forerunner of Sheffield Wednesday FC. The stadium subsequently became the first home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, which was founded in 1863. Football was first played there in 1862, when a match was staged between Sheffied FC and Hallam FC. As the city's major sports venue, it staged a number of the important local football fixtures, including the first inter-association fixture between the Sheffield FA and the Football Association. It also became the de facto home venue of The Wednesday FC from 1880 until they moved to Olive Grove in 1889. It was in the same year that a decision was taken to form a football club to permanently occupy Bramall Lane. On 22 March 1889, the new club was formed, taking the name Sheffield United after one of the cricket clubs that originally occupied the stadium on its opening.

Answer: Vale Park

Stoke-on-Trent:
In the early 1990s, Stoke City had plans to meet the requirements of the Taylor Report by redeveloping the Victoria Ground into an all-seater venue. However, by 1996 this proposal had been dropped in favour of building a new stadium instead. The site that was selected had previously been occupied by the Stafford No. 2 Colliery, a former coal mine that had closed in 1969. The new stadium took twelve months to build, opening in August 1997 with a League Cup tie against Rochdale. As originally built, the ground, which was given the name Britannia Stadium following a sponsorship deal, had the east side connected to the north end, while the main west stand and the south stand were separate. The first major development came in 2017 and saw the stadium's original capacity of just over 27,000 increased to 30,000 by filling in the corner between the east and south stands, creating a three-sided bowl. At the same time, the stadium's name was changed to the Bet365 Stadium through the signing of a new sponsorship deal.

Since 1913, Port Vale had called the Old Recreation Ground in Hanley home; initially owning the ground, they had been forced to sell the stadium to Stoke-on-Trent city council in 1943 due to financial problems, remaining as tenants. However, the council subsequently announced plans to use the site of the stadium for a new shopping centre, evicting Port Vale in the process. This forced the club to look for a new home, with a site in Burslem chosen. The club managed to raise the money to build the new stadium, which included a stand from the Old Recreation Ground, which featured to side stands and two banks of terracing, with a capacity of 40,000. The stadium's name was revealed as Vale Park on the day it opened in August 1950 with a league game against Newport County. The following few years saw improvements, with the seated capacity increased in the summer of 1951, before a new, all-seated stand was built in 1954, bringing the ground's capacity up to 50,000.