Emirates Stadium

The Emirates Stadium (known as Ashburton Grove prior to sponsorship) is a football stadium in Holloway, London, England, and the home of Arsenal Football Club. With a capacity of 60,260, the Emirates is the third-largest football stadium in England after Wembley and Old Trafford.

In 1997, Arsenal explored the possibility of relocating to a new stadium, having been denied planning permission by Islington Council to expand its home ground of Highbury. After considering various options (including purchasing Wembley Stadium), the club bought an industrial and waste disposal estate in Ashburton Grove in 2000. A year later they won the council's approval to build a stadium on the site; manager Arsène Wenger described this as the "biggest decision in Arsenal's history" since the board appointed Herbert Chapman. Relocation began in 2002, but financial difficulties delayed work until February 2004. Emirates Airline was later announced as the main sponsor for the stadium. Work was completed in 2006 at a cost of £390 million.

Football team

A football team is the collective name given to a group of players selected together in the various team sports known as football.

Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-star team or even selected as a hypothetical team (such as a Dream Team or Team of the Century) and never play an actual match.

There are several varieties of football, notably Association football, Gridiron football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby league, and rugby union. The number of players selected for each team within these varieties and their associated codes can vary substantially. In some, use of the word "team" is sometimes limited to those who play on the field in a match and does not always include other players who may take part as replacements or emergency players. "Football squad" may be used to be inclusive of these support and reserve players.

The term football club is the most commonly used for a sports club which is an organised or incorporated body with a president, committee and a set of rules responsible for ensuring the continued playing existence of one or more teams which are selected for regular competition play (and which may participate in several different divisions or leagues). The oldest football clubs date back to the early 19th century. The words team and club are sometimes used interchangeably by supporters, although they typically refer to the team within the club playing in the highest division or competition.

Arsenal F.C.

Arsenal Football Club is a professional football club based in Holloway, London. The club play in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. One of the most decorated clubs in English football, they have won 41 domestic and two European trophies, including 13 First Division and Premier League titles and a record 12 FA Cups.

Arsenal were founded in 1886 in Woolwich and in 1893 became the first club from the south of England to join The Football League. In 1913, they moved north across the city to Arsenal Stadium in Highbury. Herbert Chapman changed their traditional red and white kit in 1933 to include white sleeves. In 2006, they moved to the Emirates Stadium in nearby Holloway. Arsenal contest the North London derby with rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

They have never left the top flight since 1919 – the ongoing longest run in English Football. This has helped them accumulate the second most top flight wins and points, and finish the 20th century with the highest average league position. In the 1930s, they won five League Championships and two FA Cups, and another FA Cup and two Championships after the war. In 1970–71, they won their first League and FA Cup Double. George Graham and Arsène Wenger then oversaw five League titles, seven FA Cups, two more Doubles, and a Champions League Final. Under Wenger, Arsenal also set the current top flight records for longest win streak and longest unbeaten streak, and completed a 38 match season unbeaten, surpassing Preston North End from 115 years before.

Stadium

A stadium (plural stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.

Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event at the ancient Greek Olympic festival was the race that comprised one length of the stade at Olympia, where the word "stadium" originated.

Etymology

"Stadium" is the Latin form of the Greek word "stadion" (στάδιον), a measure of length equalling the length of 600 human feet. As feet are of variable length the exact length of a stadion depends on the exact length adopted for 1 foot at a given place and time. Although in modern terms 1 stadion = 600 ft (180 m), in a given historical context it may actually signify a length up to 15% larger or smaller.

The equivalent Roman measure, the stadium, had a similar length — about 185 m (607 ft) - but instead of being defined in feet was defined using the Roman standard passus to be a distance of 125 passūs (double-paces).

Arsenal

An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (US spelling) are mostly regarded as synonyms, although subtle differences in usage exist.

Sub-armory is a place of temporary storage or carrying of weapons and ammunition, like any temporary Post or patrol vehicle which is only operational in certain times of the day.

Etymology

From Italian: arsenale, and French: arsenal, from Arabic: دار الصناعة‎, dār aṣ-ṣināʕa, meaning "manufacturing shop".

Types

A lower-class arsenal, which can furnish the materiel and equipment of a small army, may contain a laboratory, gun and carriage factories, small-arms ammunition, small-arms, harness, saddlery tent and powder factories; in addition, it must possess great store-houses. In a second-class arsenal, the factories would be replaced by workshops. The situation of an arsenal should be governed by strategic considerations. If of the first class, it should be situated at the base of operations and supply, secure from attack, not too near a frontier, and placed so as to draw in readily the resources of the country. The importance of a large arsenal is such that its defences would be on the scale of those of a large fortress.