[themaclad]

LAST TIME OUT

BIRMINGHAM CITY 2 STOKE CITY 0

FORM GUIDE

STOKE 10 PNE 6

BET 365 STADIUM

The Bet365 Stadium (stylized as bet365 Stadium) is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City. The stadium was previously called the Britannia Stadium but was renamed on 1 June 2016 when the club entered into a new stadium-naming-rights agreement with its parent company, Bet365.[4] It has a capacity of 30,089 following the completion of expansion works in 2017.[5][6]

The stadium was built in 1998 at a cost of £14.8 million as a replacement for the Victoria Ground. Former player Sir Stanley Matthews' ashes were buried beneath the centre circle of the pitch following his death in February 2000; he had officially opened the stadium on 30 August 1997.[7] In European competitions it is known as the Stoke Ground due to UEFA regulations on sponsorships.[8][9]

History

Q-railing Stand exterior
The all-seater stadium cost nearly £15 million to build and brought the club up to standards with the Taylor Report of January 1990 to end 115 years at the Victoria Ground. Along with the possibility of converting the Victoria Ground into an all-seater stadium, relocation had was being considered by 1995 and by early 1996 the decision to build a new stadium elsewhere had been confirmed.[10]

Construction of the stadium was underway during the 1996-97 season.[11] In August 1997 it opened its doors for the first time as the Britannia Stadium thanks to a £1 million, 10-year sponsorship deal with the Britannia Building Society which was instrumental in the overall funding of the project. Another £4.5 million was given as a grant by the Football Trust.[11]

The stadium's opening did not go according to plan, as from the outset there was concern about getting there, as the plans covered only one access road from the nearby A50, and as a result, spectators arriving from the city or the motorway had to travel up the A50 for over a mile to a roundabout at Sideway and double-back the other way, which caused huge congestion.[10] The stadium was officially opened by club legend Sir Stanley Matthews, then aged 82. After he died in March 2000, his ashes were buried beneath the stadium's centre circle and a statue showing different stages of his career was put up in his honour outside the ground.[12] On 27 August 1997, Rochdale were the visitors for the historic first-ever competitive match a 1–1 draw in the League Cup watched by 15,439 – and four days later the first-ever league game took place against Swindon Town before a crowd of 23,859.[11] The first season at the new ground was a bad one as Stoke were relegated from the First Division, losing 5–2 at home to Manchester City on the final day of the season, with the visiting side also going down after the relegation-threatened sides above them all won their final games.

The club's supporters protested against chairman Peter Coates, who stood down afterwards, only to return in 2006.[11]

Four seasons of third-tier football followed with Gunnar Gíslason taking control of the club in November 1999.[10] In May 2006 he sold control of the club back to Peter Coates, and soon after the club obtained full ownership of the stadium in a deal worth £6 million following the previous joint-partnership with the Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Stoke-on-Trent Regeneration Ltd.[13] The name of the ground was changed to the Bet365 Stadium in June 2016.[14]


FAMOUS STOKE PERSON

Hanley Stafford (born Alfred John Austin, September 22, 1899 - September 9, 1968), was an actor principally on radio.

He is remembered best for playing Lancelot Higgins on The Baby Snooks Show. Stafford also assumed the role of Mr. Dithers, the boss of Dagwood Bumstead on the Blondie radio program. He is commemorated by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[1]

Early life
Stafford emigrated from England to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1911. He enlisted in the 43rd Battalion of the Canadian Scottish Infantry in 1915, was wounded in the Third Battle of Yprès in 1916 and returned to England in 1918. Until 1924 he toured Canada in drama productions and landed in Los Angeles that year. He played in stock for eight years and then in tent shows.[2] He was appearing on KFWB radio in Los Angeles by April 1932 then went to Phoenix to manage a stock company,[3] the Delmas-Lawless Players, before returning to Los Angeles to resume stage and radio work the following August.[4]

Career
After starring in the New York-originating radio detective series Thatcher Colt from September 1936 to March 1937, Stafford again returned to Los Angeles.[5][6] He began the father role on The Baby Snooks Show on December 23, 1937 and played it until the final broadcast on May 22, 1951, two days before the death of star Fanny Brice.[7]

Between 1950 and 1963, Stafford appeared on various television series, beginning with The Popsicle Parade of Stars and Hollywood Premiere Theatre (1950–51), and concluding with his role as Kenneth Westcott in the episode "Lucy Is a Chaperone" of CBS's The Lucy Show. In between, he was cast on episodes of the ABC/Warner Brothers series Cheyenne, Maverick, Sugarfoot, and 77 Sunset Strip, in the latter as Admiral Thomas Kyle in the 1962 episode "Dress Rehearsal". Stafford guest starred on the CBS sitcoms The Brothers, The Betty Hutton Show, and Angel, in which he portrayed Mr. Corwin in the 1961 episode "The Second Marriage". He was cast in 1957 as Colonel Farnsworth in "The Regina Wainwright Story" of CBS's The Millionaire.[8]

The 1940 U.S. Census records report him as living at 6200 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, California, with his mother Emily Austin, 60, and his sister Anne Standing, 36, his age was given as 40. He reported his 1939 income to census takers as a minimum $5,000, the equivalent of $86,952.88 in 2016 dollars.[9]

Personal life
Stafford was married to radio actress and singer Veola Vonn on April 12, 1940[10] after his second wife Bernice failed to get a divorce decree granted the previous April set aside.[11] He died of a heart attack at his home in Los Angeles on September 9, 1968.[12] He had one son by his marriage to his first wife, Doris.[13]