An
all-seater stadium is a sports stadium in which every spectator has a seat. This is commonplace in
footballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
stadiums in nations such as the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. Most soccer and
American footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
stadiums in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
are all-seaters, as are most
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
and
track and fieldTrack and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
stadiums in those countries. A stadium that is not an all-seater has areas for attendees holding standing-room only tickets to stand and view the proceedings.
Some European countries, such as
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, do not have all-seater stadiums. German fans expressed a preference to stand while watching football, so the country's grounds have large terraced areas.
All-seater stadiums in Britain
In 1977,
ClydebankClydebank Football Club are a Scottish football club based in the town of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, near Yoker. The present club, formed in 2003, is a member of the Scottish Junior Football Association, and currently plays in West Super League Premier Division...
, a relatively small club, were promoted to the Scottish Premier Division. At that time, the grounds of clubs playing in the highest tier in Britain were required to comply with the Safety of Sports Grounds Act if their capacity was above 10,000. Clydebank, faced with a large bill to ensure compliance, decided to reduce the capacity of
Kilbowie ParkKilbowie Park, also known as New Kilbowie Park, was a football stadium in Clydebank, Scotland. It was the home ground of Clydebank F.C..New Kilbowie was built for Clydebank Juniors in 1939. In 1964, Clydebank merged with East Stirlingshire and entered the Scottish Football League. A record...
to 9,950 by bolting wooden bench seating to their terraces, which were open to the elements. Kilbowie thereby became the first all-seater ground in Britain, albeit as a response to an unforeseen problem rather than a long-term plan.
AberdeenAberdeen Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Aberdeen...
followed suit in 1978, putting benches on the open south terrace as the final part of a longer-term plan to make the ground all-seated. Subsequent to this, the south side of the ground was covered over, and
Pittodrie StadiumPittodrie Stadium is an all-seated football stadium situated in the Scottish city of Aberdeen. It was first used in 1899 and from 1903 has been the home of Aberdeen Football Club...
was proclaimed as the country's first all-seated, all-covered ground, although the southern corners of the ground remained open to the skies. In 1981,
Coventry CityCoventry City Football Club, otherwise known as the Sky Blues owing to the traditional colour of their strip, are a professional English Football league club based in Coventry...
converted
Highfield RoadThe Highfield Road Stadium was a football stadium in the city of Coventry, England. It was the home ground for Coventry City F.C. until the club moved to the new Ricoh Arena after the 2005-06 season...
to all-seating, the first club in England to do so, at the instigation of the then chairman,
Jimmy HillJames William Thomas "Jimmy" Hill OBE is an English association football personality. His career has taken in virtually every role in football, including player, union leader, coach, manager, director, chairman, television executive, presenter, analyst and match official.-Early life:Hill was born...
. This move, forced on the fans, proved unpopular, with attendances declining, and terracing was reinstated at one end by 1985.
The other ground often cited as all-seated in Britain before 1990 was
IbroxIbrox Stadium is a football stadium located on the south side of the River Clyde, on Edmiston Drive in the Ibrox district of Glasgow. It is the home ground of Scottish Premier League club Rangers and has an all-seated capacity of 51,082...
, home of
RangersRangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
. However, although Ibrox had no terracing after the redevelopment which was completed in 1981, there was still a significant standing area in the 'Enclosure', the front portion of the old Main Stand.
All-seater stadiums have been compulsory in the English Premiership since the start of the 1994-95 season as a result of the
Taylor ReportThe Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry report, better known as the Taylor Report is a document, whose development was overseen by Lord Taylor of Gosforth, concerning the aftermath and causes of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. An interim report was published in August 1989, and the final...
, which gave recommendations to improve stadium safety after the
Hillsborough disasterThe Hillsborough disaster was a human crush that occurred on 15 April 1989 at Hillsborough, a football stadium, the home of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. in Sheffield, England, resulting in the deaths of 96 people, and 766 being injured, all fans of Liverpool F.C....
. The initial plan, drawn up in 1990, had recommended that standing areas should be banned from stadiums in the upper two tiers of the league from 1994 onwards, while stadiums in the lower two tiers had until 1999 to meet these requirements. A review of the proposals in 1992 saw non-Premiership and second tier clubs retain the option to have standing areas. From time to time there are calls for Premiership stadiums to be allowed to have standing areas, but these have always been rejected.
Worldwide
FIFAThe Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
and
UEFAThe Union of European Football Associations , almost always referred to by its acronym UEFA is the administrative and controlling body for European association football, futsal and beach soccer....
also mandate that all matches in competitions that they control be held in all-seater stadiums. This means that in countries where standing terraces are commonplace, either the stadiums cannot be used at all, or the standing areas must be closed to spectators. Either temporary seats have to be installed (as is the case with
Croke ParkCroke Park in Dublin is the principal stadium and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association , Ireland's biggest sporting organisation...
, home to the
Republic of Ireland national teamThe Republic of Ireland national football team represents Ireland in association football. It is run by the Football Association of Ireland and currently plays home fixtures at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, which opened in May 2010....
during the Lansdowne Road redevelopment), or the standing areas must be converted to seating (as is the case with several of the larger stadiums in Germany, many of which were used in an all-seater configuration for the
2006 FIFA World CupThe 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 won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...
).
Many
cricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
stadiums in
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, New Zealand and
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
are not all seaters, many areas of the ground provide grass banks offering cheaper entry, this means that spectators can sit on the grass and enjoy the sunshine. Classic examples of this include the
Adelaide OvalThe Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
, the
WACA GroundThe WACA is a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia. WACA are the initials of its owners and operators, the Western Australian Cricket Association....
in
PerthPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
and the
Basin ReserveThe Basin Reserve , is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand, used for Test, first-class and one-day cricket. Some argue that its proximity to the city, its Historic Place status and its age make it the most famous cricket ground in New Zealand...
in
WellingtonWellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
.
North American stadiums rarely have standing-room terraces; rather, many stadiums have
bleacherBleachers is an American term used to describe the raised, tiered rows of seats found at sports fields or at other spectator events...
seating, which are tiered seating areas using flat benches and are usually uncovered. In most large facilities, bleachers are in a relatively small section far from the playing field, and are often referred to as the "cheap seats". (In baseball stadiums, generally, the bleachers are often located along the
outfieldThe outfield is a sporting term used in cricket and baseball to refer to the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield...
. One example of this is in San Diego, where the only ground-level bleachers are located beyond the right field corner, and others are on the top of a historic building in the left field corner.) Because standing-room terraces are so uncommon, the term "all-seater" is not generally used. When standing-room areas do exist, they are generally not sold separately from seats, but rather are provided for spectators who wish to view a portion of the game from a different angle, or are admission-free (such as an area at San Francisco's AT&T Park, where the game is visible from a public waterfront walk, through a series of fenced archways which form a part of the outfield wall).