History Roker Park

roker park (top left) pictured above in 1967

in 1890s, sunderland chairman , brother decided build bigger ground club, replace club s current ground @ newcastle road. club had negotiated buy farmland belonged mr. tennant , part of agreement sunderland have build house on site new stadium. until house built, sunderland still had pay rent on land.

within year of land being bought, roker park had been built, wooden stands taking 3 months build. clock stand had 32 steps, no seats , crush barrier safety. turf brought ireland, , lasted 38 years. pitch designed have slight drop of 1 foot centre of pitch each corner drainage. on 10 september 1898 roker park officially opened charles vane-tempest-stewart, 6th marquess of londonderry. first match @ roker park friendly against liverpool sunderland won 1–0, jim leslie scoring stadium s first ever goal.

the roker end concreted in 1912, , 1913 capacity had risen 50,000. in 1929 old wooden grandstand demolished , replaced new main stand, designed archibald leitch, influence, criss-cross lattice work, can still seen @ ibrox (rangers), home park (plymouth argyle) , goodison park (everton). work on new main stand bankrupted club. time official capacity of roker park 60,000 @ matches have crowds large 75,000. more work continued in 1930s , in 1936 clock stand rebuilt. 114 m (375 ft) long structure officially opened lady raine, husband sir walter raine, chairman of sunderland afc @ time.

sunderland fans during final match @ roker park in 1997

a bomb landed in middle of pitch during second world war, killing policeman walking past ground. in 1952, roker park fitted floodlights, being second ground in country after arsenal s highbury stadium. lights temporary addition, , replaced permanent structures @ end of season after proving success. when england hosted 1966 world cup, improvements made clock stand, involving addition of seats, , roof on fulwell end.

during 1970s, there more improvements roker park. these improvements included installing underground sprinklers, upgrading floodlights european standard lux value, installing electronic crowd monitoring systems, , re-sheeting roof. in 1980s, downturn in club s fortunes (which included season in football league third division), roker park started decline. capacity severely reduced following report in hillsborough disaster of 1989, roker end suffering most.

in 1990s, new football association (fa) rules following publication of taylor report meant stadium have have been upgraded all-seater status, have consisted of smaller capacity sort of attendances sunderland expect, had played in penultimate first division campaign (1990–91 season) before creation of premier league , aiming swift return top flight (although promotion not achieved until 1995–96 season).

the site confined expansion chairman bob murray decided site new stadium. in 1992, plans unveiled build 48,000-seat stadium near nissan car factory in washington, part of mega leisure complex, nissan objected such site being developed near headquarters. instead, 5 years later in 1997, sunderland moved stadium of light, in nearby monkwearmouth, on site of closed monkwearmouth colliery.

the 1996–97 season last @ roker park, sunderland s first ever season in premier league, ending in relegation club. last competitive match @ ground 3–0 victory on everton.

in special ceremony after final farewell game (coincidentally, 1-0 win against liverpool in sunderland midfielder john mullin scored stadium s final goal @ fulwell end) charlie hurley (voted club s player of century) dug centre spot of ground planted @ new stadium. following move stadium of light, roker park demolished , in place built housing estate. commemorate roker park, streets named promotion close, clockstand close, goalmouth close, midfield drive, turnstile mews , roker park close.