Stadium of Light

Sunderland AFC

The Stadium of Light is a football stadium in Sunderland (England ) and the home of British football club Sunderland AFC. By UEFA Stadium is classified as a four- star stadium.

History

Planning and construction

After the events of the Hillsborough disaster on 15 April 1989, the club and the city plans for a renovation of the Roker Park developed. The old stadium of Sunderland AFC consisted largely of stands with standing room. However, a complete conversion of the standing room in seats meant a reduction in the capacity of the stadium and because of the adjacent houses could not expand the stadium also. So they decided on a new stadium and the club began to look for appropriate building sites.

In the end, they decided on a plot beside NMUK, a car factory of Nissan. The new stadium with 30,000 spectators was announced as the " Wembley of the North". But Nissan officially laid a complaint against the plans and the club had to find another location for the new building. In 1995, they decided on the site of the former colliery Monkwearmouth, which ceased operations on 24 November 1993. The area on the north bank of the River Wear had the benefit of only a few hundred meters from the old stadium to lie and stopped in front of enough space for possible future expansion. On 13 November 1993, the Chairman of Sunderland AFC has announced the award of the contract to the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation ( TWDC ), which then developed a plan for a 34,000 -seat stadium forming.

The construction contract was awarded to Ballast Wilts Here PLC, which had already built the Amsterdam Arena in the Netherlands. In June 1996, the construction of the now 40,000 -seat stadium began. The capacity was increased again to 42,000 spectators in early 1997. Due to the simple design of the stadium, it can be increased without great expense to a maximum of 64,000 spectators.

During the construction of the stadium got no name yet, but was simply called by the followers of Monkwearmouth stage. The current name was found within a competition. Although the name " Stadium of Light " the translation of the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon corresponds ( Luz is the district of Lisbon, where the stadium is located and means " light " ), is the " Light" not the light meant to be, but a lamp of the miners. This one remembers the location of the stadium, have worked on the thousands of fans. Even today there is a huge miner's lamp on the ticket booth outside the stadium. And the words on the west grandstand ( "Into the Light" and "For us all" ) were also at the entrances to the main elevator of Monkwearmouth mine.

Extension

The Stadium of Light was officially opened on 30 July 1997 by Prince Andrew. In the first match, the Sunderland AFC Ajax Amsterdam and parted with 0:0.

In the first season, the audience figures were an average of 30,000 spectators, a considerable value because Sunderland played at this time in England's second league.

After promotion to the Premier League in 1999 followed an average of over 40,000 spectators, the Games of the association and many games were sold out. In the season 1999/2000 Sunderland achieved the third highest number of audience in England to Manchester United and Newcastle United, the only clubs with bigger stadiums. Because of this huge demand, it was decided to expand the stadium, and in 2000 the expansion of the North Stand was completed. The stadium now has a capacity of 49,000 spectators.

The first match in the new stadium took place in 1999, when England took in a friendly match against Belgium. An uproar there was in April 2003 when qualifying match for EURO 2004 between England and Turkey at the English fans chanted racist slogans. The English Football Association has been sentenced by UEFA to pay a fine of 150,000 Swiss francs.

In 2002, a further expansion of the stadium to 55,000 seats should be. The plans were, however, dropped to the second division because of the descent of the association. Since then, the club always oscillates between the first two leagues in England, so that a stable economic base for further expansion to date is missing. However, in 2002 two metro stations were due to the relatively central location of the stadium and lack of parking built and furnished an extensive park-and -ride system.

Since 2004, the University of Sunderland their graduation ceremonies holds in the stadium.

The design of the stadium

The stadium consists of four stands, some of which were named after the names of sponsors, or still are. In the west stand any premises necessary for the operation of a stadium are housed. Among other things, here are the changing rooms, the press rooms and the administrative offices of the Association. In the north stand is popular by the fans Black Cats Bar, named after the nickname of the team.

From the outside the stadium looks smaller than it really is. The reason is that the football field several meters below the ground level.

Each food booth in the stadium is named after a famous player from Sunderland AFC or after a grandstand of the old stadium.