Highbury Stadium

Highbury Stadium is a football stadium in Fleetwood, Lancashire, England with Wyre Borough Council as the landlords. It is the home ground of Fleetwood Town and was also used for home matches by Blackpool F.C. reserves until 2014. As of the opening of the new Parkside Stand on 16 April 2011, the ground has a capacity of 5,327. Highbury Stadium is currently the 112th largest stadium by capacity in England and the twenty third in their league.

History

The ground was opened in 1939, at the culmination of the most successful three-year period in the club's history, having completed a hat-trick of Lancashire Combination Cup wins. Until then the club had played on a ground next to the North Euston Hotel. It is situated on the south-west corner of the Memorial Park, just behind Highbury Avenue, after which it is named.

An unusual feature of the stadium was the 'setback' on the west side of the ground. Both the main stand and the long covered standing area known as the Scratching Shed were set back from the pitch by a large gap. This was the legacy of the short period from 1948 to 1952, when the stadium was used for speedway with Fleetwood Flyers riding in Division Two of the National Speedway league. Fleetwood Flyers started the 1948 season as Wigan Warriors but moved to Fleetwood after racing a few away fixtures billed as Wigan. The Flyers raced in the National League Division Two from 1948 to 1951 without enjoying any great success. In 1952 the venue staged a number of open events with the team renamed the Fleetwood Knights. In 2008, when a new West Stand was built, it was constructed over the set back area, close to the pitch. To construct the stand, the builders had to clear about 5,000 tonnes of cinder and ash still left over from the speedway track.