History

The land at Dean Court was given to the club (called Boscombe FC as it was then) in 1910 by a local landowner Mr J.E. Cooper-Dean. At the time it was wasteland, which the supporters cleared by hand to build a pitch. The team didn't have any facilities and used the Portman Hotel (still in existence) at the edge of the park as their changing rooms. A main stand was added in 1927 with steel framework salvaged from a restaurant at the national Wembley Exhibition.

1936 saw the old South End built, a home terrace behind the goal originally built to hold 11,000 supporters. The Brighton Beach End was a less grand affair at the other end of the pitch. It earned its nickname thanks to being built out of cement and large pebbles. A ramshackle construction, called New Stand, was the last to be built running along the pitch opposite to the Main Stand.

The stadium as it then stood was full to bursting point when Manchester United helped notch the club's record attendance of 28,799 at Dean Court in the Cherries 6th round FA Cup tie with the Busby Babes in 1957.

In the 70's plans were laid out to redevelop Dean Court with £1 million terrace built replacing the Brighton Beach End. It was heady times for Bournemouth with Ted MacDougal knocking them in for fun under John Bond's management in what was possibly our golden period. But Bond upped and left for Norwich taking most of the team with him and leaving a distaste for Canaries that has lasted till this day. Those that stayed suffered relegation. And there the progress on the new stand halted with problems on the pitch proving a death knell to the grandiose plans. The rusting steel girders were left standing for some time, almost as a memorial to what many fans describe as our best team ever to play for the club.

After decades of neglect, the Football Licensing Authority, who threatened to shut large sections of the crumbling Dean Court down for safety reasons, forced the club into action in the 90's. The club's centenary year in 2000 saw plans to completely rebuild Dean Court, turning the ground round 90 degrees. The park though was a protected area (it even has its own Act of Parliament!) and persuading the council to support a new stadium took much lobbying from supporters groups.

Eventually they agreed and funding for the new build came from the Football Stadia Improvement Fund, the local council (again after much arm twisting by fans) and from supporters to build the new stadium. Demolition started in March 2001 with the club travelling 30 miles to play its home fixtures at Dorchester for the start of the 2001-2 season.

Three sides were eventually erected but a funding shortfall meant that the fourth stand (behind the South End) was never built. Recently thanks to sponsorship, a temporary stand is in place at the South End.

The debts caused by building a ground without all the finance in place meant that the club owed a substantial amount to several creditors. In 2005 the stadium was sold to a London-based property company Structadene with the club paying rent to use the ground. Even now, five years after the new ground was opened, there are still areas left unfinished, particularly behind the East Stand.

Modernisation/Improvements

There are plans in the pipeline to sell off some land behind the East Stand for housing to bring in much needed funds. Also there is a scheme in the pipeline to build a hotel and fourth stand complex but this requires money and unless the club can find an investor, this won't happen. A huge room in the Main Stand is currently being fitted out as a supporters' bar whilst a similar amount of space also lies unused inside the East stand.

General Ground Information

Rather unusually, the ground only has three permanent stands (the club ran out of money) with a temporary stand behind one goal (the South End). The three existing stands are of a similar nature to those you'd see at Yeovil and Plymouth and anywhere else built by Barr Construction ? a fairly generic design that?s neither particularly ugly nor particularly pleasing to look at.

The Ticket Office operates from the windows to the left of the main stand entrance on matchdays. There is no entry by cash into the ground at all which means that before each game, there is a mad scramble at the ticket office with hundreds of fans queuing up.

Away fans in particular are well advised to buy their tickets early on the day before they set off to the pub or do anything else. The ticket office is on the other side of the ground to the away area and this catches a lot of visitors out. We often see away fans try and gain entry into their stand ten minutes before kick off waving cash, only to be told that they need a ticket from the ticket office. A mad dash round to the ticket office ensues and normally they miss kick off. It?s a silly system but according to the club, there is no facility to take cash on the gates anymore ? a system that?s becoming increasingly common. Arrangements for away fans may be changing soon though with a ticket office opening up behind the East Stand.

Home fans can buy tickets over the internet or telephone and collect them from Collections windows (the right hand windows as you?re facing it) but again, as kick off gets nearer, queues often form at these windows.

Turnstiles generally open 1 hour before kick off and you will have the usual bag search and a quick check by stewards before you enter.

Matchday security is operated mainly by stewards with the police in attendance for higher risk games. The stewards are well trained and generally a friendly bunch. If you?re an away supporter you should have no problems standing in your seat. However home supporters, particularly in the North Stand, are often targeted by stewards for standing. Recent events have even seen supporters being filmed and threatened with banning orders for standing too much throughout games.

With regards to taking musical instruments into the ground the club does allow most things. We?ve heard trumpets, bells, trombones, bugles and various percussion instruments at Dean Court in the past but it?s worth checking with the club first.

The Cherries players, directors and VIP?s park in the car park immediately behind the Main Stand (closed to the public). The home players walk from this car park past the tall poplar trees to the Main Stand entrance and are normally very receptive to autograph hunters. The away team coach pulls up outside of the Main Stand entrance about an hour and a half before kick off and again, they are generally okay about autographs.

The matchday programme is available from inside the Club Shop, from the Club Caravan (painted red and black) near Thistlebarrow Road or from sellers outside the ground. Sellers don?t normally operate inside the ground and the programme will sell out for busy games. The programme price is £3.

The Cherries operate a matchday draw, costing ?1 and if you?re number is drawn at half time you win half of the money raised in ticket sales which is usually a couple of hundred quid. The numbers are called out over the tannoy and a board is walked around the ground with the results on. If you miss that, then the results are also posted up on the club's official website.

An innovative scheme called Playershare also holds an instant raffle outside the club shop with all sorts of prizes to be won. They also sell nifty items like autograph sheets and stickers with all the money raised going to pay for new players.

Smoking has recently been banned in all areas of the ground. At the time of writing the club have no plans to allow smokers anywhere to go to enjoy a quick fag at halftime, a fact that has angered many supporters.