| Good morning and welcome to City Football Club. |
| I'd like to give you some useful information about your visit to the stadium today |
| and then we'll start the tour of the areas of the stadium that are open to visitors. |
| I can see lots of children here today, |
| so just to let mums and dads know a few things before we start. |
| The stadium has lots of stairs and the players' tunnel is very dark. |
| Please don't let your children wander off on their own, even for a minute. |
| We don't want any accidents or anyone getting frightened. |
| Cameras are permitted everywhere and you can take pictures of your child shooting a penalty. |
| Assistants are helping to organise this and hopefully the queue won't be too long. |
| It's very hot and sunny out on the pitch today. |
| You can get food and drink at the cafe |
| and I really recommend the healthy lunch boxes for children. |
| Also in the cafe, children are invited to do a football themed drawing. |
| We'll pick the best one at the end of the afternoon |
| so don't forget to put your name and contact details on the back. |
| That way if you've left the stadium before then, we'll send your prize, |
| but sadly we can't return drawings. |
| I'd like to mention some features of the tour. |
| We'll start with the 360 cinema experience, |
| which has been very popular over the years, |
| and then I'll take you to the players' dressing rooms, |
| before going outside to the seating area and the pitch. |
| I should say, if you'd prefer your visit to be self-guided, |
| please collect headphones from the reception, |
| and then you can listen to the pre-recorded information at your own speed. |
| We've only just introduced this feature and would appreciate your feedback. |
| We're thinking of offering tours in other languages in future, |
| so if you have any thoughts on that, we'd welcome those too. |
| If you plan to return another time, you might like to book one of our VIP tours. |
| We've only just started offering these and they can be booked online. |
| Now, the stadium you see today was built in 1989 |
| as part of a 3-year redevelopment project. |
| While that project was going on, |
| the team had to play its matches at the ground of another club. |
| Apart from that, the club has been here on this site since 1870. |
| As some of you may know, |
| that was the start of a really important decade in the history of football in this country. |
| For example, 1870 was also the year that football teams started to include a player whose role it was to guard the goal. |
| It's hard to imagine what the game must have been like without someone in that position, isn't it? |
| In 1872 and 73, |
| many other clubs were established, both here and abroad. |
| And the following year, in 1874, |
| referees were allowed to send players off if they committed certain offences. |
| And also in that year, teams started having to swap ends at half-time. |
| One fact I was interested to discover was that in early football games, |
| the aim was for the scorer to get the ball between two flag posts |
| and later between sticks joined at the top with a piece of tape. |
| In 1875, that tape was replaced with the solid crossbar that we're familiar with today. |
| 1877 saw the founding of further new clubs |
| and the history books tell us that in the same year, |
| all the clubs decided to set a limit of 90 minutes for each match. |
| Before that it was a more casual arrangement |
| and this sometimes caused huge arguments and sometimes fights during matches |
| when one team called the end of the game and the other team wanted to play on to try and score a winning goal. |
| By 1878, the number of teams in the Football League increased again. |
| In addition, referees started using whistles |
| and electric lamps were installed on certain pitches. |
| This was a significant change, |
| as games could then be played in the evenings all year round. |
| In 1880, clubs began to charge fans for admission to games, |
| even though players were still amateurs and had other proper jobs. |
| That's hard to imagine in the modern professional game |
| where top players earn significant sums of money from both playing and commercial activities. |