Sheffield football: New figures reveal how safe Bramall Lane and Hillsborough Stadium are

A ranking table has been released looking at which of the UK’s football stadiums are the ‘safest’ on match days –and it seems Sheffield could find room to improve. The study by scams.info, which looks at online gambling sites, compared the average number of attendants at each football ground year round against the average number of incidents annually – including anti-social behaviour, assault and carrying a weapon.

The ‘safest’ grounds in England was the Amex Stadium for Brighton and Hove Albion, with only 180 incidents a year out of some 445,000 visitors. In comparison, the ‘roughest’ in England is reportedly Hereford United’s Edgar Street, where despite only seeing an average of 40,000 people a year it reports 3,129 incidents annually – or 7.74 incidents per 100 people.

Manchester United’s Old Trafford is the second safest stadium in the UK with just 0.06 incidents per 100 attendants, on average. Old Trafford has an average of 1,418,806 yearly attendants making it the largest stadium in the UK. This is 60 per cent fewer crimes than within 1km of the Etihad Stadium (0.15 per 100), home to United’s derby rivals Manchester City.

In Sheffield, the ‘rougher’ of the Steel City’s two stadiums is reportedly the Blades’ Bramall Lane. The study determined that the home of Sheffield United sees 6,250 incidents annually against 644,600 visitors – an average rate of one person spoiling the fun per 100 guests.

Meanwhile, Hillsborough Stadium, home of the Owls, had 2,200 incidents a year against 516,000 visitors – meaning one in 200 people cause a problem on average. Bramall Lane’s estimated crime rate is twice as much as Hillsborough despite only being around 15 per cent busier every year.

Other statistics – which were gathered by looking at police crime maps for all incidents recorded at the stadiums or within 1km of it on its surrounding streets – showed the total number of incidents in the past 10 years. Bramall Lane recorded 74,972 incidents against Hillsborough’s 26,399.

Anti-social behaviour was the most recorded incident in and around both stadiums, followed by theft, then violent crime. None of this distinguishes between whether the incidents are centered around the home or away stands.