ABSTRACT
British football grounds are undergoing the most profound period of change since the beginning of the century. This chapter examines the nature of the process of change particularly with respect to English and Welsh clubs. One of the main reasons for the wave of change is quite simply that English grounds are the oldest in the world. There is a strong sense in British football that a football club belongs to the community in which it was raised to professional status. British football fans would not tolerate the movement of a franchise from one city to another, which is a regular occurrence in sport in the USA. Originally, the British government instructed the Football League that all First and Second Division clubs were to be all seater by August 1994, and Third and Fourth Division clubs by August 1999.
