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Rotherham Awaydaze
Thursday, 24th Nov 2016 17:52 by Tim Whelan

Our visit to Rotherham United is on Saturday, and our very good friends at Sky Sports have put the Kick-Off back to 5.30pm.

The club moved back to Rotherham in 2012 after playing their home games at the Don Valley stadium in Sheffield for four years. The ‘New York Stadium’ is close to their old ground at Millmoor, which they were forced to leave in 2008 after running into financial problems and being unable to agree terms with their landlord for a renewal of their lease.

Their new home was built on the site of the old Guest & Chrimes factory, beside the River Don, and it’s good to see a new stadium being sited close to the town centre, convenient for public transport and for traditional pubs and takeaways. The name does of course remind us of a rather more glamorous location across the Atlantic, but this area of Rotherham was historically known as ‘New York’.

To get there by car you need to leave the M1 at Junction 34 and take the A6178 towards Rotherham. At the third roundabout (called Ickles roundabout ) take the first exit onto the A630 Centenary Way (signposted Doncaster) and you will see the stadium on your right. Once you’ve passed the floodlights of Millmoor on your left turn right onto Main Street at the next roundabout. The entrance to the stadium is down on the right.

Car parking at the stadium is for permit holders only. However there are a number of pay & display car parks located around the town centre, including a multi storey car park next to the Interchange Bus Station (£2.80 for four hours). Otherwise there is some street parking available around the area of the old Millmoor ground (see above), which is around a 15 minute walk away.

Rotherham Central railway station is only a five minute walk from the stadium. As you come out of the main station entrance turn right along Bridge Street. Opposite the Bridge Inn is a footpath that goes along one side of the River Don down towards a Tesco Superstore. Walk along this footpath and then head towards the Tesco car park entrance. Turn left going up over the bridge across the river and then take the next right into Market Street. At the bottom of Market Street turn right into Main Street and the stadium entrance is down this road on the left.

But if you’re struggling to find the stadium it’s likely there will be plenty of police to show you the way. Two years ago Chief Inspector Richard Butterworth told the Sheffield Star “I want to reassure the public in Rotherham and Sheffield that we will not tolerate any level of disorder or violence”, and no doubt this still applies.

I’m not sure how many pubs will be open on the day, but the best bet for away fans is normally the CAMRA ‘Bridge Inn’, which you can get to by turning right out of the railway station and then crossing the road. Another option is the ‘Cutlers Arms’ on Westgate (turn right off the Main Street), which usually has a mixture of home and away fans. They normally sell alcohol inside the stadium, but again, it remains to be seen whether they will do so during our visit.

The stadium has a capacity of 12,021, out of which we get 2,200 seats in the Mears Stand at one end. As you would expect from a new stadium the facilities and the view are pretty good, but the angle of the Stand is quite steep, so it’s is a bit of a hike to get to the top. On the concourse there are two refreshment kiosks selling the usual football ground scoff, and you’ll find a shorter queue if you head for the one furthest from the turnstiles.

Tickets for our section cost £23 for adults, with various categories of concessions at £13 £8 and £6. The Leeds allocation was sold by the ‘Away Attendance Tracker’, based on the number of away games we’ve been to so far this season, and has now completely sold out. Home tickets are still on sale, but only to those who are now on their database, and before accepting any new registrations before this game, they cross-checked with Leeds United to make sure they hadn’t come from Leeds fans.

If you’ve managed to get a ticket for anywhere other than the Leeds end you will need to keep quiet, because it says on Rotherham’s official website “Away fans found in home areas will be ejected from the stadium for breaching Ground Regulations. Any home fans purchasing tickets in the home areas of the stadium for away supporters may face further action from Rotherham United Football Club.”

And they finished by saying “The club would like to thank supporters for their understanding and co-operation as we prepare for this exciting fixture.” Which is nice.

The stadium has the necessary foundations for a possible increase in capacity to either 16,000 or 20,000, by adding an extra tier to the North, South and East Stands. They might need to wait until they’ve established themselves in the Championship before they can fund this expansion, but perhaps we can hope that we might enjoy a decent allocation one day, if we still have to come back to Rotherham in the future.

Some of this stuff came from www.footballgroundguide.com .

Photo: Action Images



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