St Andrew's is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

stadium in the Bordesley district of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, England. It has been the home ground of

Birmingham City Football Club Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first tea ...

for more than a century. From 2018 to 2021, it was known for sponsorship reasons as St Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium. Constructed and opened in 1906 to replace the

Muntz Street Muntz Street is the popular name of a former association football stadium situated in the Small Heath district of Birmingham, England, taken from the street on which it stood. During its lifetime the ground was known as Coventry Road; the name "M ...

ground, which had become too small to meet the club's needs, the original St Andrew's could hold an estimated 75,000 spectators, housed in one

grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...

and a large uncovered

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk a ...

. The attendance record, variously recorded as 66,844 or 67,341, was set at a 1939

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

tie against Everton. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, St Andrew's suffered bomb damage and the grandstand, housing a temporary fire station, burned down in an accidental fire. In the 1950s, the club replaced the stand and installed

floodlights A floodlight is a broad-beamed, gas discharge lamp#High-intensity discharge lamps, high-intensity artificial light. They are often used to illuminate outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is Night game, being held during low-li ...

, and later erected a second small stand and roofed over the open terraces, but there were few further changes. The ground became dilapidated: a boy was killed when a wall collapsed during rioting in the 1980s. When new owners took the club out of

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

in 1993, they began a six-year redevelopment programme during which the ground was converted to an all-seater stadium to comply with the Taylor Report into safety at sports grounds, and all areas apart from the Main Stand were completely rebuilt. The seating capacity of the modern stadium is 29,409. It has function rooms suitable for business or social events and a club store selling Birmingham City merchandise. A 2004 proposal that the club should sell the ground and move into a multi-purpose

City of Birmingham Stadium The City of Birmingham Stadium was a proposed multi-purpose stadium in the Saltley area of Birmingham, England, originally for Warwickshire County Cricket Club and Birmingham City F.C. to replace the current Edgbaston Cricket Ground and St An ...

came to nothing. In 2013, the ground was listed as an

Asset of Community Value In England, an asset of community value (ACV) is land or property of importance to a local community which is subject to additional protection from development under the Localism Act 2011. Voluntary and community organisations can nominate an ass ...

under the

Localism Act 2011 The Localism Act 2011 (c. 20) is an Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Act of Parliament that changes the powers of local government in England. The aim of the act is to facilitate the devolution of decision-making powers from central gov ...

. St Andrew's has been the venue for England international football matches at all levels below the senior national team, and for semifinal matches in the FA Cup and finals of lesser competitions. It was also used as

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

's home ground for the 2019–20 and

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

seasons. It has played host to events in other sports, including

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

and professional

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

, and more recently has staged music concerts.

History

Former grounds

Small Heath Alliancethe original name of

played their first home games on waste ground off Arthur Street, in the

Bordesley Green Bordesley Green is an inner-city area of Birmingham, England about two miles east of the city centre. It also contains a road of the same name. It is in the Bordesley Green Ward which also covers some of Small Heath. Heartlands Hospital is lo ...

district of Birmingham, very near the site where St Andrew's would be built. In 1876, they made a temporary move to a fenced-off field in Ladypool Road,

Sparkbrook Sparkbrook is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, England. It is one of the four wards forming the Hall Green formal district within Birmingham City Council. Etymology The area receives its name from Spark Brook, a small stream that f ...

, with an estimated capacity of 3,000 spectators; because the field was enclosed, admission could be charged. Interest in the team grew, and a year later they moved again, this time to a rented field in Small Heath, situated on the eastern edge of Birmingham's built-up area, just north of the main road to

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

. This ground, which became known as

, had four sides of open terracing, a small covered wooden stand, and a changing-room for the players. When first opened it could hold approximately 10,000 spectators. Over the years the height of the terracing was raised, which increased the capacity to around 30,000, but this became insufficient to cope with the demand. The attendance at a match in 1905 against local rivals

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

was officially recorded as 28,000 spectators, but several thousand more climbed walls or forced turnstiles to gain entry. The landlords refused to sell the freehold of the ground, nor would they permit major extensions to be made. As the board of directors estimated that staying at Muntz Street was costing the club £2,000 a year (£ at today's prices), they began the search for an alternative site.

Construction

Director Harry Morris identified a site for a new ground in Bordesley, some three-quarters of a mile (1 km) from Muntz Street towards the city centre. Covering an area of , bounded by Cattell Road, Coventry Road, Tilton Road, Garrison Lane and the railway, and near St Andrew's church, the site was where a

brickworks A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for cl ...

had once operated. Though Morris described the land itself as "a wilderness of stagnant water and muddy slopes", the ''Sporting Mail'' considered it "very favourably situated for obtaining easy communication with the city and many of the suburbs, and will be served by an excellent service of electric cars

rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)gypsies, evicted from the site before work could begin, laid a 100-year curse on the club; although gypsies are known to have camped nearby, there is no contemporary evidence for their eviction by the club, and construction began in February 1906. StAndrews1913Map

Artesian springs, which kept the land flooded, had to be drained and blocked off with tons of rubble before soil could be laid on top. To create height for the terracing on the Coventry Road side of the ground, the club offered the site as a tip: local people paid a total of £800 (£ today)for dumping an estimated 100,000 loads of rubbish. This embankment was known from the beginning as the Spion Kop, stood 110 terraces high at its highest point, and had a reported capacity of 48,000 spectators, each paying 6d (£ today). The Grandstand, on the Garrison Lane side of the ground, was in length. It held 6,000 seats divided among six sections, priced from 1s to 2s (£ to £ today), and all accesses were lit by electricity. In front of the stand was space for 5,000 to stand under cover. Beneath the stand were refreshment rooms, changing rooms, a training area with plunge bath, a billiard room donated by brewery magnate Sir John Holder, and the club's boardroom and offices, which hitherto had been maintained in premises in Birmingham city centre. Behind the goal at the railway end of the ground was space for a further 4,000 standing spectators, and access to the ground was gained via turnstiles on three sides of the ground. Total capacity was estimated at 75,000, and construction cost at £10,000 (£ today). The playing surface, at , was one of the largest in the country, had a four-yard (3.7 m) grassed border, and was surrounded by a cinder running track.

Early years

St Andrew's was officially opened by Sir John Holder on 26 December 1906, when Birmingham played

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

in a First Division fixture. There had been heavy snowfall overnight, and dozens of volunteers, including members of the club's board, worked all morning to clear the pitch. The game finally kicked off an hour late, finishing goalless in front of 32,000 spectators. The '' Birmingham Daily Post'' editorial next day suggested that "the fact that so many spectators attended under such adverse conditions augurs well for the step that the directors have taken", and that the directors were "to be congratulated in having provided their supporters with a ground second to none in the country".

The Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...

chose St Andrew's to host the 1907 FA Cup semifinal between The Wednesday and Woolwich Arsenal; Wednesday won 3–1, and went on to win the tournament. This was the first

tie to be played at the ground, as Birmingham had lost their opening match away from home. Three more semifinals took place at St Andrew's before the Second World War, in

1911 A notable ongoing event was the Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott Expeditions, race for the South Pole. Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ...

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

and

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

. The club bought the freehold of the ground in 1921 for a price believed to be less than £7,000 (£ today). In the 1930s, roofs were erected over the Kop and Railway End terraces, and in February 1939, the ground attendance record of 66,844 or 67,341, was set at the fifth-round FA Cup tie against Everton.

Wartime

During the First World War, the club supported the war effort by allowing the ground to be used as a rifle range for military training. On the outbreak of the Second World War, all outdoor sport was banned by the Government until safety implications could be assessed. When football resumed a few weeks later, Birmingham's Chief Constable ordered the ground's closure because of its proximity to air-raid targets such as the BSA munitions factories. The matter was first raised in Parliament in November 1939, but the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

felt unable to intervene. By March 1940, when St Andrew's had for some time been the only football ground in England still closed, the Chief Constable bowed to public pressure, and a crowd of 13,241 witnessed Birmingham's first home game in more than six months. In 1941, St Andrew's suffered 20 direct hits from

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

bombing, which destroyed the roof of the Kop, badly damaged the Railway End, and forced the team to play elsewhere. It was therefore a surprising choice of venue for a wartime international match between England and Wales; on safety grounds, spectators were required to purchase tickets in advance, and numbers were limited to 25,000. Three months later, the Main Stand, which was being used as a temporary

National Fire Service The National Fire Service (NFS) was the single fire service created in Great Britain in 1941 during the Second World War; a separate National Fire Service (Northern Ireland) was created in 1942. The NFS was created in August 1941 by the amalga ...

station, burned down, destroying the club's records and equipment"not so much as a lead pencil was saved from the wreckage"when a fireman mistook a bucket of

petrol Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

for water when intending to damp down a brazier. The team returned to the ground in 1943.

Improvements

The replacement Main Stand, built in the early 1950s, used a propped

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

roof design, which meant fewer pillars to block spectators' view of the pitch.

Floodlights A floodlight is a broad-beamed, gas discharge lamp#High-intensity discharge lamps, high-intensity artificial light. They are often used to illuminate outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is Night game, being held during low-li ...

were installed, and officially switched on for a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

in October 1956. By the early 1960s, a stand had been built at the Railway End to the same design as the Main Stand, a new roof erected over the Kop, and the Tilton Road end covered for the first time. A scoreboard and clock were installed at the City end of the ground in memory of Birmingham and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

player Jeff Hall, who died of

polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...

during the 1958–59 season. In the 1970s, the Asda chain proposed to share the cost of a new stand as part of a supermarket development on land behind the Kop made vacant by

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

; in the face of opposition from commercial rivals, the proposal fell through.

Modernisation

The last home game of the 1984–85 promotion season, against Leeds United, was marred by rioting, culminating in the death of a boy when a wall collapsed on him; this was on the same day as the

Bradford City stadium fire The Bradford City stadium fire occurred during a Football League Third Division match on Saturday, 11 May 1985 at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, killing 56 spectators and injuring at least 265. The stadium was k ...

, and the events at St Andrew's were included in the remit of the Popplewell inquiry into safety at sports grounds. In response to this and the later Taylor Report, the capacity of St Andrew's was cut to 26,000, but it was accepted that the stadium had to be brought up to modern standards. Club chairman David Gold recalled his first visit in March 1993: St Andrews home of Birmingham City FC

Though relegation to the

Third Division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

meant the club was no longer bound by the Taylor Report's 1994 deadline for conversion to all-seater, new owner David Sullivan continued the £4.5 million development as planned. After the last home game of the 1993–94 season, the Kop and Tilton Road terraces were demolished, helped by fans who took home a significant proportion as souvenirs, the land was clearedthe rubbish tip beneath the Kop which had earned the club £800 in 1906 (£ at 1994 prices) cost £250,000 to decontaminateand by the start of the new season, 7,000 seats in the Tilton Road Stand were ready for use. On completion of the Kop Stand, the stadium was formally re-opened in November 1994 by

Baroness Trumpington Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...

, representing the

Department of National Heritage , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

, who unveiled a commemorative plaque and presented a cheque for £2.5 million on behalf of the Football Trust; the ceremony was followed by a friendly match against Aston Villa, attended by a crowd of 20,000. Planning permission for an all-seater Railway Stand was granted in March 1995, but work was delayed by a dispute over land owned by

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

and the stand opened only in 1999.

The 21st century

In 2004 a proposal was put forward to build a "sports village" comprising a new 55,000 stadium for the club, to be known as the

, other sports and leisure facilities, and a

super casino In the United Kingdom, a regional casino (super casino or mega casino) was the largest category of casino permitted under law – equivalent in size to the larger casinos in Las Vegas. The first regional casino was proposed in 2007 for Manchester ...

. The project would be jointly financed by Birmingham City Council, Birmingham City F.C. (via the proceeds of the sale of St Andrew's) and the casino group Las Vegas Sands. The feasibility of the plan depended on the government issuing a licence for a super casino as permitted under the Gambling Act 2005, and Birmingham being chosen as the venue, but this did not happen. The club have planning permission to redevelop the Main Stand, and a derelict building behind the stand has been demolished, but club and council continued for a time to seek alternative sources of funding for the City of Birmingham Stadium project. In 2013, the Birmingham City Supporters' Trust's application for listing St Andrew's as an

(ACV) under the

was approved by Birmingham City Council. The legislation defines an ACV as a building or other land whose main use "furthers the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community" and where it is realistic to believe it could do so in the future. It requires any proposed sale to be notified to the council, and provides for a six-month moratorium on that sale to allow the Trust and other community groups to submit their own bid. For sponsorship reasons, the stadium was officially renamed the St. Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium in June 2018.
During the 2018–19 season, in a further move to reduce the club's losses in light of breaches of the EFL's Profitability and Sustainability Regulations, the stadium was sold for £22.8 million to Birmingham City Stadium Ltd, a new company wholly owned by the football club's parent, Birmingham Sports Holdings, and would be leased back to the club for £1.25 million per year for 25 years. Having failed to reach an agreement with the club's landlords,

Wasps RFC Wasps Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022 the club entered administration, resulting in r ...

, to continue playing at the Ricoh Arena,

Coventry City F.C. Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed the ...

played their matches at St Andrew's in 2019–20 and 2020–21.
An annual survey conducted during the 2020–21 season revealed the need for repairs to remedy the effects of water ingress on both Kop and Tilton Road Stands. Although the upper tiers were expected to be usable by the first home match of the 2021–22 season, resulting in a temporary reduction of total capacity to 19,000, the deadline for full completion was not until May 2022.

However, the upper Tilton did not reopen until a month into the season, the upper Kop took a further six weeks,
and May 2022 ended with the club still awaiting full results of site investigations.

Structure and facilities

The stadium has four stands. The Main Stand (renamed the Garrison Lane Stand from 2010 to 2012), a free-standing structure on the north side of the playing area, was completed in 1954 and has seating for fewer than 5,000 spectators. The upper tier contains the media area and an area of corporate seats as well as standard seating. The lower tier, known as the Paddocks, consists of a few rows of seats placed on the uncovered terraced area in front of the stand; the view from this area can be obstructed by the central tunnel and the

dugouts Dugout may refer to: * Dugout (shelter), an underground shelter * Dugout (boat), a logboat * Dugout (smoking), a marijuana container Sports * In bat-and-ball sports, a dugout is one of two areas where players of the home or opposing teams sit whe ...

. A row of

executive box The luxury box (or skybox) and club seating constitute the most exclusive class of seating in arenas and stadiums, and generate much higher revenues than regular seating. Club ticketholders often receive exclusive access to an indoor part of th ...

es was added at the back of the Paddocks in the 1970s. The family area is divided between the eastern end of the Main Stand and the Paddock beneath. The club planned £1.3 million worth of restructuring and refurbishment work on the stand, which contained

hospitality Hospitality is the relationship between a guest and a host, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill, including the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis de Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de J ...

areas and offices, during the 2009 closed season, and seating was replaced in 2010. The broadcasting gantry is situated in the roof of this stand. StAndrew's Main Stand and Clock

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Jeff Hall's death, the club commissioned a memorial clock to replace the original which did not survive the 1990s renovations. Placed centrally above the Main Stand, it was unveiled in September 2008 by Hall's teammates

Alex Govan Alexander Govan (16 June 1929 – 10 June 2016) was a Scottish professional footballer who played at outside left. Most of his career was spent with Plymouth Argyle (in two spells) and with Birmingham City during their most successful peri ...

and

Gil Merrick Gilbert Harold Merrick (26 January 1922 – 3 February 2010) was an English footballer and football manager. Considered one of the best goalkeepers in the UK during the mid-1950s, Merrick was one in a long line of great Birmingham City keepers ...

. However, adverse reaction to the clock's size and position provoked the club into ordering a larger replacement to be incorporated in a proposed big screen. St Andrew's Railway Stand across the railway

St Andrew's Railway Stand across the railway

The Railway Stand, on the west side of the stadium nearest to Birmingham city centre, is also free-standing. It was opened in 1999 and holds some 8,000 spectators in two tiers; the upper tier, a small area known as the Olympic Gallery, overhangs the lower, at the back of which is a row of executive boxes. From the 2009–10 season, the Railway Stand was renamed the Gil Merrick Stand, in honour of the club's appearance record-holder and former manager. Visiting supporters are housed in the lower Railway Stand, segregated from home fans by netting over the seats. StAndrew's Kop Stand

The Kop Stand and the Tilton Road Stand, opened in 1994, form a continuous L-shaped single-tier stand, with seating capacity for nearly 17,000 spectators, round the remaining half of the pitch. A walkway separates back and front sections. The Kop seating includes the directors' box and a row of executive boxes, within the stand are a number of function rooms and hospitality areas, and there are electronic perimeter advertising boards in front. The stadium has floodlight pylons only on the north side; the south side is lit by a row of lights along the front of the Kop roof. The Tilton Road Stand has 9,000 seats, and is the only one without hospitality boxes. The various function rooms and corporate boxes are available for hire for business or social events, and the stadium is licensed as a venue for civil weddings. There are accessible entrances, wheelchair areas and accessible toilets in all parts of the stadium, and commentary headsets for visually impaired spectators are available. The pitch measures . It was relaid three times in 2007. The first attempt, made because the surface had deteriorated to a dangerous condition, was unsuccessful because of freak rainfall which resulted in the postponement of the next matchthe first time such an event had happened in senior English football. The work had to be repeated, and then done for a third time in the closed season. The postponement of an FA Cup-tie in January 2009 highlighted the lack of under-soil heating, which was installed in June. In 2017 the surface was converted to use the SISGrass hybrid grass reinforced turf system.

Other uses

Teams representing England have played international matches at St Andrew's, though not at

senior level Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

. In 1957, England B defeated

Scotland B The Scotland national football B team, controlled by the Scottish Football Association, is run occasionally as a second team for the Scotland national football team. During the period when Berti Vogts was manager of the national team, it was also ...

under floodlights in front of nearly 40,000 spectators. England's junior sides have played there on several occasions, at under-23, under-21the 4–0 defeat to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in 2001 was the England under-21 team's worst home defeatand youth levels. Before competitive football resumed after the First World War, a Scottish Football League XI beat their English counterparts, including Birmingham players

Frank Womack Francis Womack (16 September 1888 – 8 October 1968) was an English association football player and manager born in Stannington, Sheffield, Yorkshire. He still holds the league appearances record for Birmingham City playing 491 games and hold ...

and Billy Morgan, 3–1 at St Andrew's. As of 2009, four FA Cup semifinals have taken place at St Andrew's, and the ground has hosted semifinal replays on five occasions, most recently in 1961. It was the venue for the 1987 play-off final replay, in which

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

beat Leeds United to remain in the

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

, and for the final of the

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...

in 2004 and 2006. The ground has also been used for other sports. Small Heath Harriers athletic club, whose headquarters had been at the Muntz Street ground, trained at St Andrew's until the 1920s. The 1960

South African __NOTOC__ South African may relate to: * The nation of South Africa * South African Airways * South African English * South African people * Languages of South Africa * Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...

touring

team beat a Midland Counties XV by 16 points to 5 on a muddy St Andrew's pitch in front of a 17,000 crowd. In 1949,

Dick Turpin Richard Turpin (bapt. 21 September 1705 – 7 April 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher ear ...

beat

Albert Finch Albert Finch (16 May 1926 – 23 January 2003) was a British boxer from Croydon in South London, who was active from 1945 to 1958. He fought as both a middleweight and light-heavyweight, becoming British middleweight champion in 1950. He was ...

on points to retain his British and

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have be ...

boxing title; Turpin's brothers Jack and future world champion

Randolph Randolph may refer to: Places In the United States * Randolph, Alabama, an unincorporated community * Randolph, Arizona, a populated place * Randolph, California, a village merged into the city of Brea * Randolph, Illinois, an unincorporated commun ...

fought on the

undercard In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

. In 1965,

Henry Cooper Sir Henry Cooper (3 May 19341 May 2011) was a British heavyweight boxer, best remembered internationally for a 1963 fight in which he knocked down a young Cassius Clay before the fight was stopped because of a cut eye from Clay's punches. Coo ...

defeated Johnny Prescott at St Andrew's to retain his British and Empire

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...

title; the fight took place two days after originally scheduled, having been rained off at the last minute, which prompted debate as to the feasibility of outdoor boxing promotions in light of the uncertain British weather. St Andrew's was the location for the rally scene in Peter Watkins' 1967 film '' Privilege''. It has hosted a number of music concerts: performers and events include UB40, supported by

The Pogues The Pogues were an English or Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band fronted by Shane MacGowan and others, founded in Kings Cross, London in 1982, as "Pogue Mahone" – the anglicisation of the Irish Gaelic ''póg mo thóin'', meaning "kiss my arse". T ...

, in 1989,

Duran Duran Duran Duran () are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger ...

in 2005, and the 2002 Party in the Park, featuring

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporarily di ...

and Sugababes among others.

Records

The record attendance at St Andrew's was set at the fifth-round FA Cup tie against Everton on 11 February 1939; the actual figure is variously reported as 66,844 or 67,341. The highest attendance recorded for a league match is 60,250, against

in the First Division on 23 November 1935. The highest average attendance over a league season, 38,821, was set during the 1948–49 First Division season, and the lowest, 6,289, was recorded in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

in 1988–89. Since the stadium was converted to

all-seater An all-seater stadium is a sports stadium in which every spectator has a seat. This is commonplace in professional association football stadiums in nations such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands. Most association football and Ame ...

, the record attendance is 29,588, set against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

on 22 November 2003. St Andrew's was the venue for the first use of a penalty shootout to determine the winner of an FA Cup match. For five seasons, between 1970 and 1974, the losing FA Cup semifinalists were obliged to play off for

third and fourth place Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

; Birmingham City finished third in the

1971–72 FA Cup The 1971–72 FA Cup was the 91st season of the world's oldest football cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup. Leeds United won the competition for the first time, beating holders Arsenal 1–0 in th ...

by beating

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

4–3 on penalties following a goalless 90 minutes.

Transport

The nearest railway station to the stadium is Bordesley, on the

Birmingham to Stratford Line The North Warwickshire Line (also known as the Shakespeare Line) is a suburban railway line in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom. It runs from Birmingham to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, now the southern terminus of the line, al ...

between Moor Street and Small Heath stations, which has regular services only on match days. The stadium is a 30-minute walk from New Street station, which is served by direct trains from most parts of the country, and slightly less far from Moor Street, which is served by

Chiltern Railways Chiltern Railways, formally The Chiltern Railway Company Limited, is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. Chiltern Railw ...

trains from

London Marylebone Marylebone station ( ) is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network it is also known as London Marylebone an ...

Birmingham Coach Station Birmingham Coach Station (formerly Digbeth Coach Station) is a major coach interchange in Digbeth, Birmingham, England offering services to destinations throughout the island of Great Britain and also to Belfast and Dublin. National Express, the ...

, served by

National Express coaches National Express is an intercity and Inter-regional coach operator providing services throughout Great Britain. It is a subsidiary of National Express Group. Most services are subcontracted to local coach companies. The company's head office is ...

, is a 20-minute walk away, and buses run from the city centre past the ground. There is no parking at the stadium itself.

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * * *

References

External links

Birmingham City F.C. official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Andrews Birmingham City F.C. Coventry City F.C. Football venues in Birmingham, West Midlands Sports venues completed in 1906 English Football League venues Premier League venues 1906 establishments in England