Blackpool's Bloomfield Road and Fleetwood's Highbury Stadium among most dangerous English football stadiums

Blackpool's Bloomfield Road and Fleetwood's Highbury Stadium are two of the most dangerous football stadiums in the UK, according to experts at Live Football Tickets.

Their data suggests Blackpool had the 11th most football-related arrests out of 86 UK clubs between 2021 and 2023, when the club hosted more than 200,000 supporters annually.

Bloomfield Road averaged around 8.55 incidents per 100 spectators - a staggering 18,951 over the last three years.

But the data compiled by the experts includes any incidents reported within a 1km radius of the stadium - including the town centre, Prom, Central Pier and Pleasure Beach.

Therefore it's safe to say many incidents will have been unrelated to Blackpool FC and matchday at Bloomfield Road.

However, experts at Live Football Tickets say their data helps fans better understand which places have the safest and least safe matchday experience.

Fleetwood fared worse with 7,246 criminal incidents within 1km of Highbury Stadium - making it the 8th most dangerous football ground in the UK, according to the data.

This was based on an average of 72,543 annual spectators visting the ground between 2021 and 2023.

You can view the full data on the Live Football Tickets website here.

The only other Lancashire club to make the top 15 was Accrington Stanley whose Crown Ground came 15th with 3,382 incidents.

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Top 15 most dangerous grounds

At the top of the crime table is Victoria Park, home of Hartlepool United, with around 18 crime events per 100 spectators in a season.

Despite drawing a substantial 88% fewer spectators on average (76,774 yearly) than Stadium of Light (683,340 attendees) in its neighbouring county, Victoria Park experiences nearly double the amount of crime incidents (13,907) than in the vicinity of the Sunderland venue, which registered around only 7,000 crimes over the last three years.

Aldershot Town’s Recreation Ground comes second, with violence and sexual offences (2,656 incidents) being the most common reason for arrests within 1km of the venue, followed by anti-social behaviour (802 incidents).

Hosting an average of 44,150 fans per annum, a relatively high crime rate of 14.91 incidents per 100 attendees signals a red flag for visitors.

In third place is Field Mill, the world’s oldest professional football ground, attracting approximately 14.47 crimes per 100 spectators.

Despite hosting a significant 87% fewer spectators annually (71,394 attendees on average) compared to another East Midlands venue - King Power Stadium (which draws 560,351 attendees) - it’s concerning to see crime figures at Field Mill (10,330) surprisingly close to those at Leicester City’s home ground (11,327) - only 8% lower.

Rounding off the top five ‘roughest’ venues are Broadfield Stadium and Priestfield Stadium, witnessing 11.94 and 11.84 crimes per 100 spectators, respectively.

Crawley Road’s Broadfield Stadium, with the fourth lowest attendance (37,608) year round, tallies an alarming 4,489 incidents, while Priestfield Stadium sees twice the amount at 9,954.

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What about the safest football stadiums in the UK?

Manchester United's Old Trafford was found to be the safest football stadium with just four incidents per 1,249,353 supporters visiting the ground annually.

In second place were rivals Manchester City with seven incidents per 831,099 fans annually, followed by Greater Manchester neighbour Wigan Athletic in third place.

You can view the full data on the Live Football Tickets website here.