Derby County's Pride Park
By Kate Jackson
September 21 2009
Pride Park may just appear to be just your normal bowl ground, but it is a bit different and actually has a quite a bit of character. Infact, it is one of my favourite grounds to visit, not only because it's decent, not only because there's a good atmosphere, but there's also the bonus it isn't too far from Lincoln.....although I did live in Nottingham at the time of the only visit so far.
DATES VISITED GROUND | ||
DATE | MATCH WATCHED | SCORE |
12/8/2008 | Derby County vs Lincoln City | DC 3 LC 1 |
City drew Derby County in the League Cup and it gave me a chance to visit Pride Park for the first time. Pictures had made it seem like an old, unattractive stadium but I was quite surprised by what I found. I say found, I mean what I eventually stumbled on after trying to find a car parking space, not an easy task. Getting to the Derby area is easy enough and I lived in Nottingham at the time, and it was only a 20 minute journey from there, and the Brian Clough Way bought you out near enough directly at the stadium. It's also right off of the motorway, so in terms of easy of getting to it, it's certainly up there.
Going from the train station is a relatively easy journey, although long, with the potential for a 15 minute journey at minimum, not the first thing you need when getting off of a train.
I even had a friend who supports Derby and he says he wouldn't dream of trying to get parked around Derby for a home League game, going as far as saying he'd rather get a bus and walk, rather than find a parking space. This friend also lives outside of Derby, which again goes to tell it's own story if he's not prepared to drive in.
All the car parks seemed privately owned and some of them were extremely hefty in terms of price, with the most expensive amongst them being a whopping £10 and you must be out of there within half an hour of the game ended. I'd imagine this would be quite difficult to do due to the shear number that Derby get at home.
Anyway, there's quite a bit to do around the stadium with several restaurants and a retail park within a few minutes walking distance. At the ground itself, they have a relatively small club shop for their level. It makes a nice change for the bowl style grounds to have something to around them as most are right on the outskirts of town, often not even within the borders of the town/city.
The ground itself is fairly large and the away end offers a great view of not only the action, but the rest of the ground. It's unlike most other new grounds due to the unusual stand to the left of away fans. I believe this makes the ground stand out in a division where a lot of the grounds are the same. It may not look unusual but it doesn't fit in with the rest of the ground and the two corners of this stand also bring a bit of character to the ground.
I will grant you that it doesn't make it different enough to notice that it's not a bowl style stadium, but at least it is something ever so slightly different, which can only be a good thing by the standards of the same identikit stadiums.
As for the atmosphere, it was quite decent considering that there were only about 8,900 home fans. The Derby fans were vocal and passionate about the club and the away end also allows for a decent amount of noise to be created. I have watched games at this ground on TV several times, and have always been impressed with the level of noise that was created by their fans was excellent.
I definitely liked Pride Park and would certainly be keen on visiting this in the future, although the parking situation certainly needs to be sorted. If they got that sorted then this would one of the almost near perfect grounds in the Football League.
Also, here's something interesting for you to look for when you go. Outside the away end is a big metal fence that runs around the entire stadium. There is a sign saying "Car Parking" and then an arrow pointing left, ten feet to the left it is another sign that says "Car Parking" but an arrow pointing right.
The club shop is one of the biggest outside of the Premier League, with plenty of items spread around, and the fans are friendly enough, best of all they don't have a massive ego and think that they're a massive club, unlike their neighbours from down Brian Clough Way.
SCORES | |||
| Ease of getting to the area | 8 | Friendliness of fans (outside ground) | 7 |
| Ease of getting to the ground once in area | 9 | Friendliness of fans (inside ground) | 6 |
| Transport in local area | 7 | Feeling of safety | 7 |
| Ease of parking | 1 | Atmosphere (noise) | 7 |
| Stuff to do near the ground | 7 | Atmosphere (chant variety) | 4 |
| Club Shop | 8 | Facilities in away end | 7 |
| Quality of Away End | 7 | Quality of food | 8 |
| View from "Away End" | 7 | Stewards | 6 |
| Rest of the Ground | 8 | Quality of games on visits | 8 |
| Programme | 6 | Chances of a non-Lincoln visit | 6 |
| Total (out of 200) | 134 | ||
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