Highfield Road was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

in the city of

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It was the home ground for Coventry City for 106 years.

History

It was built in 1899 in the Hillfields district, close to the city centre, and staged its final game on 30 April 2005 when Coventry City beat Derby County 6–2 in the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Betting & Gaming, Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, i ...

with the last goal appropriately being scored by Andy Whing, a product of Coventry City's youth academy. A concert by pop star

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

was held at the stadium afterwards. The club then moved to the

Ricoh Arena The Coventry Building Society Arena (often shortened to the CBS Arena or just simply Coventry Arena, and formerly known as the Ricoh Arena) is a complex in Coventry, West Midlands, England. It includes a 32,609-seater stadium which is currentl ...

, at Foleshill in the north of the city. Highfield Road had one of the largest playing surfaces in the English leagues and was the English league's first

all-seater stadium An all-seater stadium is a sports stadium in which every spectator has a seat. This is commonplace in professional association football stadiums in nations such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands. Most association football and Amer ...

(the first all-seater in the UK was

Clydebank Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...

Kilbowie Park Kilbowie Park, also known as New Kilbowie Park, was a association football, football stadium in Clydebank, Scotland. It was the home ground of Clydebank F.C. (1965), Clydebank. New Kilbowie was built for Clydebank Juniors F.C., Clydebank Junior ...

). The all-seater policy introduced by

Jimmy Hill James William Thomas Hill, Order of the British Empire, OBE (22 July 1928 – 19 December 2015) was an English football in England, footballer and later a television personality. His career included almost every role in the sport, including pla ...

was later abandoned when

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

fans tore-out several hundred seats after losing their First Division game to Coventry City 4–0 in 1981, only months after the seats had been installed. Standing accommodation returned to Highfield Road in 1983, but it became all-seater once again eleven years later when all top division clubs were required to have all-seater stadiums as a result of the

Taylor Report The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry report is the report of an inquiry which was overseen by Lord Justice Taylor, into the causes of the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989, as a result of which, ...

, which was the response to the

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the tw ...

of 1989. The stadium's record attendance was 51,455 when Coventry City played their West Midlands rivals

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

in a Football League Division 2 game in 1967. However, after it was converted to an all-seater stadium for the second time in the mid-1990s, its maximum capacity was 23,489 at the time of its closure, and all of the pre-1990 seats had been replaced in 1995. The stadium had by then been well-developed with one corner filled to provide a more modern look and feel. However, it lacked facilities compared to the new stadia of similar-sized clubs, which was one of the main causes of the move to the

. Another reason for relocation was that parking facilities in the local area were inadequate. When the stadium was first given the go-ahead in 1999, it had been planned to build a 45,000-seat stadium as part of England's bid to host the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams represe ...

. However, England's failure to win the bid to host the tournament – combined with Coventry's relegation in 2001 – saw the stadium's capacity scaled down. Demolition work began in February 2006 and was completed by the end of the following month.

Post-stadium housing development

The site of the stadium was regenerated by George Wimpey plc to provide housing on the areas which were originally the car parks and stands. The area which was the playing surface was relaid with grass so that the local children can continue the tradition of playing football on that space. Image:Former pitch of coventry city 27a07.JPG, New buildings around the site of the former football pitch.
(photo April 2007) Image:New buildings on thackhall st 27a07.JPG, View eastward along Thackhall Street in April 2007; the stadium was on the right and a car park was on the left.

References

External links

Stadium Guide Article
* * {{Coventry City F.C. Coventry City F.C. Defunct football venues in England Sports venues in Coventry Premier League venues Sports venues completed in 1899 Sports venues demolished in 2006 1899 establishments in England 2005 disestablishments in England English Football League venues Demolished sports venues in the United Kingdom Demolished buildings and structures in the West Midlands (county)