Deva Stadium

The Deva Stadium (also known as The 1885 Arena for sponsorship purposes) is an association football stadium in Chester, England, that is the home of Chester F.C., the effective successor club to the liquidated Chester City. The name Deva comes from the original Roman name for the fort Deva Victrix, which became the city of Chester.

The Deva Stadium opened in 1992, two years after the closure of Chester City's Sealand Road stadium; in the intervening two seasons the club had played at Macclesfield Town's Moss Rose stadium.

History

When a new owner took over Chester City in March 1990, plans were announced to sell its Sealand Road stadium for redevelopment as a supermarket and build a new stadium at nearby Bumpers Lane. While the new stadium was being built they played at Moss Rose stadium in Macclesfield, 45 miles to the east. Sealand Road closed at the end of the 1989–90 season, and Chester played at Macclesfield for the following two seasons.

Construction of the new stadium began in January 1992 and it opened seven months later in time for the 1992–93 season.

It was the first English football stadium to fulfil the safety recommendations from the Taylor Report, which was commissioned after the Bradford Fire of 1985 and after the Hillsborough disaster of 1989. Walsall's Bescot Stadium had opened in August 1990, seven months after the report was published, but construction had started before the end of 1989.

The stadium was officially opened on 24 August 1992 by Conservative Party peer Morys Bruce, 4th Baron Aberdare.

The stadium hosted its first game the next day, when Chester lost 2–1 in the League Cup to Stockport County. 11 days later, Chester beat Burnley 3–0 in the first Football League match on the ground. On 13 October 1992, Chester beat a Manchester United XI 2–0. Its tenth anniversary in August 2002 was celebrated with a special friendly against a Liverpool XI, with Chester winning 1–0.

Between 2004 and 2007 it was officially known as the Saunder

This page also has a version in other languages :  Стадион Дева (russian)