English soccer stadium, home of
Sheffield Wednesday.
Hillsborough was created in 1899 when
Sheffield Wednesday moved from across the
city, purchasing the land from the
Duke of Norfolk. Initially nothing more than a
playing field, the addition of
spectator's
stands on three sides of the ground and the creation of 'The
Spion Kop', a huge mound of
terraced earth at one end of the pitch, transformed
Hillsborough into one of the largest
stadia in
English football.
Successive
boards of the
football club put great stock in the continued development of the
stadium, and from 1961 (when the first
cantilever stand in British football was opened) until 1989, Hillsborough was regarded as the most modern and impressive stadium in the country.
April 15th 1989 saw the
Hillsborough Disaster, in which 96
Liverpool fans lost their lives in a tragic crush at the
Leppings Lane end of the ground. The resulting
Taylor Report into ground
safety made
all-seater stadia compulsary and along with
Rupert Murdoch's
Sky TV money, kickstarted the transformation of football into the phenomenon it is today.
Today's redeveloped
Hillsborough holds 40,000
spectators and is once again one of the most admired stadia in
British sport.