Carrow Road

***Carrow Road*** is a British football stadium in Norwich, England. It is the home of . The stadium is in the centre of the city, near to Norwich railway station and the River Wensum.
The stadium is on Carrow Road, and is named after the road.  The stadium was built by Norwich City in 1935. Construction took just 82 days. There has been a lot of work done to Carrow Road since 1935. Since 1990 the stadium has been an all-seater. The ground can accommodate 27,244 today and the record attendance is presently 27,091. The record attendance at Carrow Road before it became an all-seater stadium was 43,984 in 1963. The modern Carrow Road site has a club superstore, catering facilities and a Holiday Inn hotel.

## History
### Background
Norwich City F.C. played at Newmarket Road from 1902 to 1908. The record attendance at this time was 10,366 in a match against Sheffield Wednesday in a second round FA Cup match in 1908. After a disagreement over the rent of the Newmarket Road ground, Norwich City moved to a new home in 1908 - a converted disused chalk pit in Rosary Road which became known as The Nest.
By the 1930s, the ground was not big enough for the growing support. Expansion of The Nest was not possible, and there were safety problems with the existing structures. The club began looking for another ground in 1926. Part of the pitch eventually collapsed. from its owners Colman's.

### Initial construction
The new stadium took its name from the street. However, the name "Carrow" originally referred to the former Carrow Abbey that once stood on the riverside.

An aerial photograph from August 1935 shows three sides of open terracing and a covered stand, with a Colman's Mustard advertisement painted on its roof, visible only from the air. The club's association with Colman's has continued into the modern era; in 1997 the club signed a shirt sponsorship deal with the company. The mustard manufacturer's original factory was next to the stadium in Carrow Road, Inglis describes the early Carrow Road as comprising "a Main Stand, a covered end terrace and two large open banks". However, Norwich's success in the 1959 FA Cup secured the financial status of the club and provided sufficient funds for a cover to be built over the South Stand. with a record attendance for an all-seated crowd of 25,522 for the Premiership match against Manchester United in April 2005. The Barclay is often incorrectly referred to as the Barclay Stand.

The original Barclay was built in 1937 and demolished in 1992, when a new two-tier structure, modelled on the River End (now the Norwich & Peterborough Stand) was built at a cost of £2.8m (offset by a £2m grant from the Football Trust).

Floodlights are supported on both corners of the Barclay and the Norwich & Peterborough stands, which are the ends behind the goals.

### Geoffrey Watling City Stand
The single-tiered Geoffrey Watling City Stand was built following a severe fire on 25 October 1984. The fire was apparently caused by an employee of the club leaving a three-bar electric fire switched on overnight. The City Stand (as it was named at the time) cost £1.7 million to build and was used for the first time on 30 August 1986 when City hosted Southampton. It was formally opened by the Duchess of Kent on 14 February 1987. The stand was renamed in honour of Norwich City president Geoffrey Watling, who died in 2004.

The stand is the smallest of the four in terms of capacity, but includes the Directors' Box, Press Area, and various other hospitality suites. This was a landmark for the stadium - it represented the final stand of the original ground to be replaced.

The Jarrold Stand is sponsored by Jarrolds, a local department store. The original 4-year sponsorship deal has now been extended through to 2013. The stand is a cantilever, single-tiered, all-seated stand, that can hold up to 8,000 supporters. and also provides extensive facilities for disabled supporters.

## Other facilities and services
### Holiday Inn Hotel
The club had two options on how to fill the corner between the Barclay and the Jarrold Stand. The club decided not to fill this corner with seats, as this would lead to away supporters being surrounded by home fans.

It was therefore decided to complete the ground's corners with a hotel. It was hoped that a hotel could offer greater financial rewards than ticket sales. In 2005, a contract was signed with the Holiday Inn hotel chain in 2005, and construction commenced in 2006. The hotel opened in 2007 and allows customers with pitch-facing rooms to watch matches.

### Catering
Catering at Carrow Road is provided by Delia's Canary Catering, which is part of Norwich City Football Club PLC. The service is described: "All menus are made up from Delia Smith's own published recipes (6,000 in all) and as we are in an agricultural area we take pride in using the finest ingredients and local seasonal produce." Earlier restaurants in the same place were called 'Strikers' and 'Scores'.

#### Delia's Restaurant and Bar
Delia's Restaurant and Bar is a restaurant in the Norwich & Peterborough Stand.

#### The Gunn Club
The Gunn Club is a catering facility behind The Barclay. With access restricted to members and season-ticket holders, "The Gunn Club" offers a slightly more up-market catering experience, available for hire on non-match days. The club offers facilities and features including video screens, appearances by current and former club members and (by popular demand) real ale.

### Other merchandising
The 68-page match programme for Norwich City matches costs £3.

## Future plans for construction
The club have, in the past, stated that they have plans to increase the capacity of the stadium should the club win promotion back to the Premier League, using the increase in funds to finance the expansion. Specifically, these plans include building a second tier on the Jarrold Stand or the Geoffrey Watling City Stand. The club have stated that the Geoffrey Watling stand has foundations designed to support a second tier, and that the roof can be removed and replaced after a second tier is added. At the time the original stand was built the inner ring road ran next to the ground, and any extensions of an upper tier outside the existing footprint of the stand would have caused planning difficulties. Since the road was re-routed in the late 1990s an extension to the stand is less likely to raise planning objections.

## Other uses
### International football
Carrow Road has never hosted a match involving the England national football team, but the England national under-21 football team has played at the stadium on three occasions. The first was in 1983 in a UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualifying match against Denmark national under-21 football team, which England won 4-1. As part of their preparations for the 2007 finals of the European Championship tournament, the England Under-21s played Slovakia national under-21 football team in a friendly match at the ground in June 2007. England won 5-0 in front of a crowd of 20,193 people.

Games involving the England Under-19 team and the full England women's national football team have also been played at the stadium. The women's team have played there on two occasions; the first a 1-0 defeat to Nigeria women's national football team in 2002, in front of 8,000 fans, and the second a 1-0 victory over Iceland national women's football team in 2006. The latter game's attendance of 9,616 was the largest crowd that had watched a friendly game involving the women's team. Elton John, supported by Lulu, appeared at the venue in 2005, performing what was at the time the largest concert ever to have been staged in Norwich. George Michael gave a performance there on June 12 2007, supported by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. The John and Michael concerts both attracted crowds of over 20,000 people. Andrew Cullen, the director of sales and marketing for the Carrow Road ground, told BBC Radio Norfolk prior to the George Michael performance that he hoped such concerts would become an annual summer event for the venue, if big enough star names could be attracted.

## Statistics
### Summary of ground records
* Attendance 43,984 Norwich City 0–2 Leicester City, FA Cup Sixth Round, 30 March 1963
* Attendance 27,091 Norwich City 1-1 Arsenal (all-seater)
* Attendance (first home game of season, all-seater) 27,036 (2015-16)
* Margin of victory
* Goals in a game

### Average attendances since 2000
:2014-15: 26,367 (Sky Bet Championship)
:2013-14: 26,805 (Barclays Premier League)
:2012-13: 26,672 (Barclays Premier League)
:2011-12: 26,548 (Barclays Premier League)
:2010-11: 25,386 (npower Championship)
:2009-10: 24,756 (Coca-Cola League 1)
:2008-09: 24,542 (Football League Championship)
:2007-08: 24,527 (Coca-Cola Championship)
:2006-07: 24,544 (Coca-Cola Championship)
:2005-06: 24,833 (Coca-Cola Championship)
:2004-05: 24,350 (Barclays Premiership)
:2003-04: 18,866 (Football League First Division) (Jarrold Stand rebuilding for first half of the season)
:2002-03: 20,352 (Football League First Division)
:2001-02: 18,629 (Football League First Division)
:2000-01: 16,525 (Football League First Division)

## References
## Other websites
* Norwich City Homepage 
* Football Ground Guide to Carrow Road 
* Satellite view of Carrow Road