(Image: onedayinwatford; abandoned football stadium on Seamer Road, Scarborough)
There are few sadder sights for football fans than the scene of an abandoned stadium, its storied pitch overgrown with weeds and empty stands falling into increasing dereliction and decay. But the demise of Scarborough FC in June 2007 was a double whammy for supporters; not only was the 6,400-capacity stadium abandoned, the club itself also came to an end.
(Image: onedayinwatford; the ground was home to Scarborough FC for over 100 years)
The Athletic Ground opened in 1898 when Scarborough FC, which had shared the local cricket ground, made it their permanent home. Almost a century later, a 1988 sponsorship deal with McCain Foods saw the ground on Seamer Road renamed the McCain Stadium. But by the first decade of the millennium, the fortunes of the Conference North club had begun to wane.
(Images: onedayinwatford; renamed the McCain Stadium, it was abandoned in 2007)
In 2006, as Scarborough FC’s debts mounted, the football club sought to sell the McCain Stadium to developers for £4.1 million in a bid to cover its operating losses. Plans were drawn up to purchase 15 acres of land in nearby Eastfield, some of which would be occupied by a new 4,000 seat stadium, while the rest would be available for commercial lease.
(Image: onedayinwatford; this derelict terracing was known as “the Cow Shed”)
But a covenant on the Seamer Road ground meant the McCain Stadium could only be used for sporting activities. After Scarborough Borough Council refused to grant permission for housing development at the site, the struggling club was dissolved in June 2007 with debts of £2.5 million. Then, the abandoned McCain Stadium on Seamer Road was left to rot.
(Images: onedayinwatford; the abandoned football stadium was quickly vandalised)
The story didn’t end there, however. Dedicated fans managed to establish a new club – Scarborough Athletic FC – which now plays in the Northern Premier League Division One North. The liquidators, Begbies Traynor, meanwhile, applied to have the covenant lifted but were blocked by the council, which purchased the abandoned football stadium in December 2009.
(Image: onedayinwatford; the derelict McCain Stadium, formerly the Athletic Ground)
As the wheels of bureaucracy slowly turned, the abandoned McCain Stadium became increasingly vandalised, having also suffered fire damage in October 2008. Security at the ground was heavily criticised during that period, and though Scarborough FC considered a return to their historic stadium, its increasing state of dereliction made the move untenable.
(Images: onedayinwatford; bushes and weeds sprouting from the abandoned pitch)
By late 2011, the council had opted to demolish the abandoned football stadium and the bulldozers moved in. Rather than regenerate the historic ground, Scarborough Borough Council reinvested the money in other projects and the Seamer Road site where the abandoned football stadium had stood rotting for several years became poised for its next adventure: a Lidl supermarket.
(Images: onedayinwatford; the abandoned football stadium was demolished in 2011)
Related – 10 Abandoned Rugby Stadiums, Derelict Grounds & Overgrown Pitches
The post Silent Terraces: The Abandoned Football Stadium of Scarborough FC (Now Demolished) appeared first on Urban Ghosts Media.