Terrace (stadium)

A terrace or terracing in sporting terms refers to the standing area of a sports stadium, particularly in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It is a series of concrete steps, with intermittent safety barriers installed at specific locations to prevent an excessive movement of people down its slope.

Terraces carry particular importance in football stadiums, where they have tended to be located in the areas behind the two goals as a cheaper alternative to sitting in the stands which were traditionally located at the sides of the field. As standing on the terraces was cheaper and provided a greater degree of freedom to move and congregate with fellow supporters, over the decades of the 20th century they became the most popular areas for younger working class men and teenage boys to watch the games.

After the Hillsborough disaster and subsequent Taylor report, terraces were banned from football grounds in the top two divisions in England.^[1] The report stated that standing areas were not intrinsically unsafe and laid the majority of the blame for the disaster with the police and the stadium itself.^[2] Despite that finding, the report made a number of recommendations for the future of football in England including a conversion to all-seater venues which provided a basis for the government ban on terracing. In the 1990s, UEFA banned standing areas for games in its competitions which led to the removal of terraces from many stadiums around Europe, including the Bernabéu and the Estádio da Luz.^[3][4]

There is currently a growing demand for the introduction of a hybrid model of terracing/seating to the top divisions of English football, based on several different stadium designs in Germany and other European countries, dubbed "safe standing" areas.^[5] Genuine terraces continue to be built in modern Irish stadiums such as Hill 16 in Croke Park, Thomond Park and the redeveloped Páirc Uí Chaoimh.^[6]