Roker Park
Kick-off at Sunderland v. Arsenal, August 1976
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| Location | Sunderland, England |
|---|---|
| Owner | Sunderland A.F.C. |
| Capacity | 22,500 Record attendance: 75,118 |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Opened |
1898 closed = 1997 |
| Demolished | 1998 |
| Architect | Archibald Leitch |
| Tenants | |
| Sunderland A.F.C. (1898–1997) | |
1898
Roker Park was an English football stadium situated in Roker, Sunderland. The stadium was the home of the English football club Sunderland A.F.C. from 1898 to 1997 before the club moved to the Stadium of Light. Near the end of the stadium's history, its capacity was around 22,500 with only a small part of the stadium being seated. The stadium's capacity had been higher in previous years, attracting a record crowd of 75,118.
In the 1890s, the then Sunderland chairman and his brother decided to build a bigger ground for the club, to replace what was then the club's current ground at Newcastle Road. The club had negotiated to buy farmland that belonged to a Mr. Tennant and part of the agreement was that Sunderland would have to build a house on the site as well as their new stadium. Until this house was built, Sunderland still had to pay rent on the land.
Within a year of the land being bought, Roker Park had been built, with the wooden stands only taking three months to build. The Clock Stand had 32 steps, no seats and a crush barrier for safety. The turf was brought from Ireland, and lasted for 38 years. The pitch was designed to have a slight drop of about one foot from the centre of the pitch to each corner to help with drainage. On 10 September 1898 Roker Park was officially opened by Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry. The first match at Roker Park was a friendly against Liverpool which Sunderland won 1–0, with Jim Leslie scoring the stadium's first ever goal.
The Roker End was concreted in 1912, and by 1913 the capacity had risen to 50,000. In 1929 the old wooden grandstand was demolished and replaced by a new Main Stand, which was designed by Archibald Leitch, whose influence, the criss-cross lattice work, can still be seen at Ibrox (Rangers), Home Park (Plymouth Argyle) and Goodison Park (Everton). The work on the new Main Stand nearly bankrupted the club. By this time the official capacity of Roker Park was 60,000 but at some matches they would have crowds as large as 75,000. More work continued in the 1930s and in 1936 the Clock Stand was rebuilt. The 114 m (375 ft) long structure was officially opened by Lady Raine, whose husband was Sir Walter Raine, the Chairman of Sunderland AFC at the time.
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