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.
Terracing at the bottom and seating at the top of a stand at the RheinEnergieStadion in Germany, home of Bundesliga club 1. FC Köln
The Stadion Rote Erde, home of Borussia Dortmund from 1937 to 1974. The Westfalenstadion situated beside it features the largest terrace in Europe.
Hill 16 in Croke Park, a modern terrace built in 2004 to replace the old terrace and Nally Stand
The South Bank terrace at Molineux
The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the two standing-only central pens within the Leppings Lane stand allocated to Liverpool supporters. Shortly before kick-off, police match commander David Duckenfield ordered exit gate C to be opened in an attempt to ease crowding, which led to an influx of supporters entering the pens. This resulted in overcrowding of those pens and the fatal crush; with a total of 97 fatalities and 766 injuries, the disaster is the deadliest in British sporting history. Ninety-four people died on the day; another person died in hospital days later, and another died in 1993. In July 2021, a coroner ruled that Andrew Devine, who died 32 years later, after suffering severe and irreversible brain damage on the day, was the 97th victim. The match was abandoned and restaged at Old Trafford in Manchester on 7 May 1989; Liverpool won and went on to win that season's FA Cup.
The Leppings Lane end inside Hillsborough Stadium during the disaster (goalposts centre)
The West Stand of Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough Stadium, where the disaster unfolded, seen two years later in 1991
The scene outside the ground as the disaster began
Liverpool supporters try desperately to climb the fence to reach the safety of the pitch while being stopped by the police.