Landskrona IP

Landskrona IP

I.P
Landskrona IP
Location	Landskrona, Sweden
Capacity	11,000
Opened	July 20, 1924 (1924-07-20)

Aerial view of Landskrona IP around the inauguration in 1924

Landskrona IP (short for "Landskrona Idrottsplats", "Landskrona Sports Ground"), locally known as "I.P." can refer to both the football stadium that is the home of Landskrona BoIS football club, and the larger surrounding general sports ground, which includes the stadium. As a sport ground it is the largest out of three sports ground in Landskrona, Sweden. The two other sports grounds in Landskrona are labeled as Exercisfältets IP or simply "Exan" locally, and Ulkavallen.

The stadium is almost only used for football, and holds 11,000 people (3500 seats) and is the home stadium of Landskrona BoIS. It is located about 3–4 km from the town's center and 2 km from Landskrona's railway station.

History of the stadium

It was opened by Gustav VI Adolf, who at the time was Sweden's crown prince, in the summer of 1924.^[1] It replaced the old sports ground Velocipedbanan or just "Banan", where the pitch was in the middle of a simple cycling track.^[2]

By 1924 the stadium was considered as modern and suitable for football, bicycle racing and some athletics. The southern stand was a seater, but originally only partly covered. At the northern side and behind the eastern curve terraces was constructed of earthwork stones and some concrete. Parts of the eastern curve simple was earthwork with grass on. In the western curve was no stands of any kind.

As Allsvenskan, the Swedish top football league, began in 1924–25, with Landskrona BoIS as one of its twelve original clubs, attendances soon called for more attendance space (especially at the long sides), the all-seater became fully covered and above the earthwork terraces, wooden terraces was constructed above the earthwork. Later the grass parts of the earthworks was supplied with wooden terraces. For high attendances games, also the western curve was provided with mobile smaller stands of steel and wood, and temporary benches could be used at the running tracks. This was how the stadium appeared at the time of the attendance record. It was set during a qualification game for Allsvenskan in 1959, as 18 535 spectators turned up for the event.^[3] Between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, crowds of 15,000 were not uncommon, and occurred even when Landskrona BoIS played in Sweden's second-tier league.

Photo of the north terraces stand during the late 1950s. Below the stand, at the running tracks, several bench rows have been provided. The upper part of the stand was divided in two sections until 1972. The changing rooms and showers for players and the referees was located behind this stand. A kind of mobile fenced corridor prevented the crowd to reach the players

In the mid 1960s the four floodlight pillars were first erected . But some of them fell during a hurricane just a year or two later. When they were re-erected, they became secured by a system of steel cables and has survived ever since.

In 1973, a new southern all-seater stand for 4013 spectators and journalists was built. Until 1989, the arena had clay tracks for athletics (and originally also for cycle races, though it has never been anything like a velodrome). The stadium was rather useless for athletics, as the tracks were both narrow and notably shorter than the optimal 400 meters, and the throwing events were held behind the stadium, if any athletic competition ever was held at IP. The running tracks were mainly used by nearby schools.

In 1989 the owner, Landskrona Town, removed the tracks after requests by Landskrona BoIS. The 1973 all-seater now turned out to be a bit longer than the pitch. Further seats vanished a some years later, when the original benches were substituted with individual seats. And a few hundred meters away, a good facilities for athletics was constructed. Behind both short sides of the stadium lower wooden terraces were mounted behind the short sides. And in the following year, 1990, the northern long side terrace stand, whose lower part was built of a combination of earthwork, stone and concrete and its upper part of wood, was replaced by a concrete terrace stand (which is possible to transform into an all-seater stand, although this never has been done at Landskrona IP, but the same construction is used at Olympia, in neighbouring city Helsingborg, and here the terraces at occasions has been transformed into all-seater stands). A covering roof was about to be built some years later, but instead the southern seater from 1973, got a prolonged cover. And by 1998 Landskrona BoIS no longer required a cover for the terrace stand, although their supporters complained.

After Landskrona BoIS returned to the top tier of Swedish football in 2002, the low wooden terraces behind the eastern goal was replaced with a bit higher concrete terrace. Behind the western goal a larger temporary wooden terrace was used for the season premiere but was then removed. During a game during the summer 2002, parts of the 10.000 attenders couldn't see the pitch. Hence the police removed some commercials behind the western end, where now no stand existed. The chairman of the club apologized to the sponsors, however not to the spectators that had paid their entry fee, but couldn't see much. The temporary stands behind the western goal were reintroduced again. In spring 2003 Landskrona BoIS themselves paid for a permanent western concrete terrace. (All other stands are owned by Landskrona Town).

However, before the 2011 season the club replaced the western stand with a building. And as of April 2014, the stadium still lacks cover of the northern and eastern terraces, and there is no attendance possible behind the western side.

By 2005, Landskrona BoIS presented a reconstruction of all uncovered terraces and replacing the northern stand with an all-seater stand. Total capacity would be 12.000. But as Landskrona BoIS got relegated from Allsvenskan down to Superettan, the club abandoned that idea.

Just before the 2011 season, the western concrete terrace (built in as late as in 2003, and which at least gave shadow for its spectators during games played in hot summer days) was removed and a temporary building has prevented spectators from watching the game from that view ever since. During the autumn of 2013, the board and previous chairman of Landskrona BoIS announced that due to the need of ground heating, the natural grass also needed to be replaced with artificial turf. An alleged investigation, made by Landskrona BoIS former leading, meant that this was a necessity for the 2014 season, which caused a storm of protests from supporters of the club as well as others.^[4][5] And in November 2013 the municipality council instead decided to invest in ground heating, but rejected the idea of artificial turf.^[6] When the "investigation" was presented, it soon was revealed that the heating costs for natural grass were included, but excluded for the "artificial turf alternative". Further, some of the outgoing figures was based "on a few phone-calls". (And how the annual the costs of a grass pitch for football could be almost as expensive as keeping the 36 greens of Landskrona Golf Club open the entire year, including some 3-5 annual snowfalls, nobody from the club leading could explain)

On 14 April 2014, the second ever natural grass pitch at the football stadium at Landskrona IP was inaugurated, with ground heating beneath.

1974 UEFA Youth tournament

This tournament for boys up to the age of 17 was hosted by southern Sweden (all games played in Scania or Blekinge). Two games were played at Landskrona IP. The Group D game, between Sweden and Portugal (which ended in a 1:0 Swedish victory) and one of the semi-finals was played at Landskrona IP. In the latter the former Yugoslavia defeated Greece 1:0.^[7] All 4000 seats were sold and equally split in two halves. But the approximately 14,000 ground attendance terraces were open for local residents only, and very few came this rainy day, 29 May 1974. The Yugoslavian goal came late in the match, and the posse of police dogs was put in action.^[8]

Faroe Islands Euro 1992 qualification home

During the qualification for the Euro 1992, Faroe Islands participated for the first time in international football. A problem for them was that no UEFA-approved grass pitch arena existed at this North Atlantic country. For unknown reasons Faroe Islands then chose Landskrona IP as their temporary home ground. Their first opponents were Austria, a team who were expected to win against this small nation, who were new to international football, but Faroe Islands won their first ever competition game 1:0 "home" at Landskrona IP, on 12 September 1990.^[9] This led to a fast decision, to build a usable home ground in Thorshavn within weeks. However UEFA decided that it would not be fair for the other national teams to have to play at the new stadium at Faroe Islands, hence another three international competition games were played at Landskrona IP, against Denmark, Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland.^[10]

Other facilities

Apart from the stadium, the facility offers several other football pitches (the so-called B-pitch even has stands of terrace type for approx 6000 attenders and is the home pitch for the small football club BK Landora), six tennis courts (currently only clay, but a grass court has previously existed), a modern athletic field, an indoor ice rink and an indoor arena for handball, basketball, table tennis and wrestling etc. Below the stadium's south stand, also an indoor 25-metre swimming pool and a so-called "adventure bath" are located. Everything is owned by Landskrona municipality and available for the public (for fees and within certain limitations). The stadium pitch and the B-pitch has natural grass. There are also two pitches with artificial turf and minor floodlights and another four grass pitches. A Greyhound racing pitch, equipped with floodlights also exists, but is currently no longer in use. A drill-house for horse jumping with associated stables and some fields are also located whithin the larger area. At a neighbouring upper secondary school, another indoor sports hall are available for indoor activeties. And for the special type of 7-men football, that in Sweden is known as Korpfotboll, four smaller grass pitches are available. Since these pitches, during the season (late April until mid September) is heavily used, the pitches are moved around at a larger field. If necessary, the entire field for "Korpfotboll", can accommodate four full-size football pitches. (During July this have happened during summuer youth tournaments)

The floodlight system at the stadium produces a lighting of 823 lux^[11] and consists of four 30-metre-high (98 ft) pillars and additional lights at the roof of the south stand. Some of the floodlight pillars fell down during a storm in the mid-1960s, a few years after they were built. Since then, the steel construction pillars have been reinforced by a system of long steel wires, at two levels (at approx. half their height and at the top) between each other in a rectangular pattern, and are anchored in huge blocks of concrete. They are currently (late summer 2013) the highest floodlight pillars used for football in Sweden.

Attendances

In recent seasons Landskrona BoIS have had the following average attendances at Landskrona IP:

References

Coordinates: 55°53′24″N 12°50′15″E / 55.889934°N 12.83761°E / 55.889934; 12.83761