City Ground, Cambridge
Encyclopedia
The City Ground is a football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 stadium in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is the home of Southern League Premier Division club Cambridge City F.C.
Cambridge City F.C.
Cambridge City Football Club is an English football club currently playing in the Southern League Premier Division.-History:The club was founded in 1908 Cambridge Town F.C., as Cambridge had not been granted city status at that point, and were committed to amateur sport...


History

The City Ground has been Cambridge City's home ground since 1922. It is located in the Chesterton area of the city, approximately 1km north of the city centre. The ground was one of the largest outside the Football League and was estimated to have a capacity in excess of 20,000, although the highest recorded attendance was 12,058 against Leytonstone
Leytonstone F.C.
Leytonstone F.C. was an English football club based in Leytonstone, Greater London. Founded in 1886, the club ceased to exist in 1979 when it merged with Ilford to form Leytonstone-Ilford, which later became Redbridge Forest after also absorbing Walthamstow Avenue...

 in 1961. From the late 1960s the ground was used for greyhound racing, and crowds were often higher than for football matches. However, dwindling gates and crippling debts led to part of the site being sold for development in 1985. The ground was demolished and a much smaller but functional ground was built in its place, at 90° to the former ground, with the remainder of the site being developed for offices. The club has a bar and lounge which is open on match days, and available for hire to the general public.

The ground itself has a capacity of 2,300. The Main Stand, together with its recent extension (built to house the Cambridgeshire FA) seats approximately 500 people. Opposite the Main Stand, a narrow terrace provides covered terracing for approximately 220 supporters. The middle section is popularly, though not officially, known as "The Shed" and attracts City's more vocal supporters. At each end of the ground, the School End and the Westbrook End are narrow and have no cover or formal terracing.

The club are currently involved in a legal dispute with their landlords over the ground, which was sold by a previous Board of Directors for £2.2 million despite professional estimates of the site's value being around £12 million. The landlords, Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

 company Ross River, which is linked to former City Director and property developer Brian York, gave City a lease to stay at Milton Road only until 31 May 2007, but the club fought this. After several months a High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...

 ruling stated that "the club is entitled to rescind the [sale of the land] - having been induced to make it by a fraudulent misrepresentation for which Ross River are responsible". The consequence of this is that City are able to stay at the City ground until 2010, and can share in 50% of future profits from development of the site.

In April 2008 the City Ground failed an FA ground inspection. As a consequence Cambridge City were automatically demoted from the Conference South to the Southern League Premier Division, despite the club appealing the decision.

The club have been involved in negotiations to move to a new Community Stadium on the edge of the city, which they could potentially share with local football rivals Cambridge United and/or Cambridge rugby union football club. Their long-term position after they leave the City Ground on 31 March 2010 remains uncertain.

In February 2010, Cambridge City announced a three year groundshare with local team Newmarket Town F.C. at their Jockeys Cricket Field Road ground in Newmarket for the 2010-2011 season. This ground will need work to bring it up to the required standard. During this time Cambridge City will continue to look for a permanent home closer to Cambridge.

In January 2011 the club agreed to extend the lease at the City Ground until the end of the 2012-2013 season, moving to Cricket Field Road for the 2013-2014 season.
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