I wasn’t a Doncaster Rovers fan growing up. I had never had the chance to visit Belle Vue, the club’s previous stadium where they played for 84 years until 2006. For longer than some Rovers supporters have been alive, the stadium has now been relegated to football history books.
Nevertheless, it is evident that even after all this time—just over 18 years have passed since its last game—it still holds a special place in the hearts of the fans who visited. Within hours of my making a social media appeal early this year, that much was clear. In order to determine whether people still long for their former homes, I needed to find out what they remembered about them.
Naturally, as you become older, your mind might fool you. Things can get more hazy the more you think back on them and the farther they’ve passed. Perhaps, though, we cling to the “good old days” in an attempt to resist the quick changes that football brings.
Belle Vue was a relic of its time. Hotch-potch stands and uncovered terracing. The overwhelming responses that came in helped paint a far more vivid picture than I could ever hope to get watching back grainy footage of Youtube clips.
On away days, many supporters of rival teams would have mocked the amenities and believed Belle Vue to be a run-down and subpar venue. However, Rovers supporters saw it as “their” run-down and poor pitch. For so long, the sensation of home never truly faded. I don’t think it will.
There will be folks whose newborns have grown up since a ball was last kicked there. Others, however, continue to feel as though no time has gone at all. A lot of fans still long for the ‘Pop side’ stand days.
Because of the close closeness to the pitch, some of the recollections submitted are really basic, like the scent of chips coming from the burger huts or the Deep Heat hitting their nostrils.
But plenty of others cut to the heart of what football is, and always will be, about. It’s about going as a youngster because your Dad dragged you along – but then quickly catching the bug and eventually continuing the legacy with your own offspring. It’s about discovering something you never knew existed but immediately loving the fact that it does. Some even professed to Belle Vue playing the unexpected role of Cupid; the setting for them to meet their future partner.
Many spoke of the famous nights under the lights where noses of the ‘big boys’ were bloodied, especially during the League Cup run in 2005-06.
But others also looked back fondly (or perversely) on the defeats to Rochdale and Hereford in the freezing cold. And maybe that is the beauty of all of this. Nobody is kidding themselves that Rovers won every week, nor that the football was always beautiful. But all the stuff surrounding it, including the unique setting, was undoubtedly special.
Of course, not everyone has a romanticised view of the past. Some Rovers fans will have enthusiastically welcomed the 2007 relocation to the brand-new, all-seater Keepmoat Stadium.
Many accept that change was necessary if the club wished to progress and at this point it’s worth pointing out what a superb stadium the Eco-Power was and still is. It is not just a 15,000-seater complex that serves all the needs of a modern day club but its restaurant, corporate and education facilities make it a community stadium in the truest sense. In effect, it is a world away from Belle Vue. But that doesn’t mean you cannot appreciate both.
Jason Price’s time as a Rovers player overlapped the transition to the new ground in early 2007. “I loved playing at Belle Vue because of the atmosphere. It was a proper old school ground and I have to say, the pitch was like a carpet,” he tells the Free Press.
“But I think moving to the Keepmoat was a smooth transition because we had such a good team. It all just clicked into gear and it was perfect timing really.”
In fact, Rovers’ subsequent run of success was undoubtedly influenced by the mid-season move to the new stadium. In the second half of that season, approximately 20,000 supporters attended two home EFL Trophy games, cheering them on to a final where they would eventually defeat Bristol Rovers.
The first full season in the ground then saw promotion into the Championship, culminating in the superb win over Leeds United at Wembley in the play-off final. That would be the first of seven promotions or relegations witnessed by the new ground, with a new generation making memories just the way people did at their previous home.
Of all the replies about Belle Vue, of which there are far too many to reply individually to, perhaps my favourite was this succinct one: “The best memories that I’ll treasure forever. It was home, simple as that.”
One day these fans will be grey and old but do not bet against them still harbouring that same twinkle in their eye should someone happen to ask them about what Belle Vue was like.
I bet even then they’ll still be able to recall the smell of Deep Heat. And the chips.
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