Highfield Road

Ground opened: 1899 (as Highfield Road)

Ground closed: 2005

Number of years at the ground: 106 years

First competitive game played: Coventry City 1-0 Shrewsbury Town, 9th September 1899. Attendance – 3,000.

Last competitive game played: Coventry City 6-2 Derby County, 30th April 2005. Attendance – 22,728.

Record attendance: 51,455 vs Wolverhampton Wanderers, Division 2, April 29th, 1967.

The club moved to: The Ricoh Arena, now The CBS Arena.

Distance from Highfield Road to the CBS Arena: 3.3 miles.

The Main Stand at this incredible old stadium held the title for the stadium’s largest stand, holding over 7,000 fans at its peak. The Main Stand was initially built to house around 2,000 fans and at that time in 1899, the cost to build was £100 which left the club in dire financial straits. In 1968, there was a fire at Highfield Road which caused significant damage to the Main Stand which cost around £150,000 to rebuild and also saw the club lose a lot of club records as well as their Championship trophy.

This stand housed the fans who wanted to create an atmosphere to cheer their team on. In 1922 this stand was described as a steep, scarred, and shapeless mess. The iconic stand was built using waste concrete from the relaying of the city’s tram track.

The East Stand was built in its finest form in the summer of 1994 replacing a boarded fence which saw behind the goal for some time. Before 1994, the East Stand was a full terraced stand with no roof. At the center of the stand towards the back sat a large screen. Due to the stand’s proximity to the pitch, fans in the East Stand could get close to the goal with the wall keeping the fans from entering the pitch sitting just a couple of yards away from the net.

The West Stand was a large two-tiered stand which was an all-seated stand. The roof covered the entire stand except for two little corner sections of the stand. Fans could gain access to the upper tia via stairs in either corner. A large concourse area was situated just behind this stand.

Like many old stadiums that have been demolished, Highfield Road has been turned into a large housing estate. In the middle of the housing estate is a green area where kids can play football and play in the park that is also on the green area. This green area is located directly where the potch was with a bricked stand being placed where the center spot was located. On the bricked stand once stood a plaque to show that this estate was the Highfield Road site, unfortunately, the plaque was taken a few years ago as this YouTube video explains.

Highfield Road then

Highfield Road was home to Coventry City from 1899 to 2005. The ground became the first all-seater in England in 1981. Terraces later returned but a wholesale refurbishment in the 1990s saw seating take hold once more, as can be seen here. The site is now covered by housing. pic.twitter.com/0HS1B22mhH

— Paul Groundtastic (@paul_gtastic) July 19, 2019

Highfield Road now

Highfield Road now #Coventry ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/SNddGAvh3g

— FootballFootball (@BigUpAFootball) December 4, 2022

When Highfield Road first opened, the capacity was very low compared to later years. The capacity was around 3,000 when the stadium first opened. In 1910, just over a decade since Highfield Road opened its doors, used proceeds from an FA Cup run to finance a new barrel-roofed main stand on the north side to bring the capacity up to 19,000. Just short of 30 years later, £14,000 was spent to build a new main stand with the club also forking out more money to introduce a lattice-board standing extension to the Kop, known as the “Crows Nest”. A canopy extension was then built onto the main stand which allowed the capacity to be upwards of 40,000. At the end of the 1960s, the old covered terraced West Stand was demolished and replaced with a two-tiered stand that could house 3,2000 on top of the terracing. In 1981 the controversial decision was made which was Highfield Road converted into England’s first all-seated stadium and an extra 8,000 seats were installed for £400,000 which reduced the capacity from 36,000 to 20,600. All grounds in England’s top division needed to be all-seater stadiums by August 1994 following The Taylor Report.

This report meant Coventry City was well placed to carry out the works from 1990.

30th April 2005, Coventry City welcomed Derby County to Highfield Road for the very last time. The game had nothing on the line for the Sky Blues who had finished in 19th position in the Nationwide Divison one table, now the EFL League One. This game was the perfect send off for what was an iconic stadium with Coventry City winning by six goals to two. Dele Adebola scored once with Gary McSheffrey and Stern John both grabbing a brace. The final goal scored at Highfield Road was scored by Andy Whing who was a Coventry City academy graduate.