Trolley parks, trains, buses, crocodiles and castles - Football's quirkiest grounds
- Published
Teversal FC's now famous "Tesco Trolley" stand
No two football grounds are the same. An away trip is a great chance to go and see the good, the bad and the bizarre that the beautiful game has to offer.
Not every stadium has a cheese room, a retractable roof or even an immaculate playing surface. Plenty of clubs have features that make their ground unique.
This week, non-league Teversal FC's 'Tesco trolley away end' caused a stir on Twitter. The Mansfield-based club seem to have adopted the supermarket chain's mantra of "every little helps" to keep visitors to their Carnarvon Street home safe from the elements.
We're not sure if you get your pound back when you leave, though.
The Tesco Trolley End could easily have been inspired by Bridlington Town's Queensgate Stadium - a ground that boasts an old bus shelter as part of the furniture behind the dugouts. The bus shelter stand was installed in 2010 and is still going strong today.
The quirky ground is by no means exclusively an English football thing, though. We're sure you've already seen the set-up at TJ Tatran Cierny Balog, a Slovakian amateur side.
The view from the stands is obstructed from time to time by a steam train that passes through, running along a track between the pitch and the crowd. You can do your own full steam ahead/all aboard the promotion train joke here, if you like.
Full steam ahead at TJ Tatran Cierny Balog
Taking 'quirky' to another level are Qatari side Al-Shamal SC. Plenty of teams refer to their home ground as a "fortress." In Al Shamal's case that is quite literally true. Their home ground is an actual castle.
Fortress Al-Shamal SC Stadium
We've saved perhaps the best till last, however. Opened in 2015, Bursaspor's Buyuksehir Belediye Stadium is nicknamed the 'Timsah Arena'. That literally translates to 'The Crocodile Arena'. It looks absolutely incredible and just goes to show that unique stadiums aren't the preserve of tiny clubs improvising on low budgets.
From bus shelters to castles to crocodiles, all of these grounds are unique in their own way, and they'd all make a memorable away day!
Bursaspor's Crocodile Areana