Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2010–11 campaign. It was their debut season in the Premier League, and it was their first appearance in England's top flight since 1971. They hold the record for being the only club in English football to be promoted through all four divisions via the play-offs. The club's home ground has been Bloomfield Road since 1901, and their main nicknames are the Seasiders, the 'Pool and the Tangerines, the latter in reference to the colour of their home kit, which is often mistaken for orange. Their motto is Progress, as featured on the club crest. They have a fierce local rivalry with Preston North End, who currently play in the third tier. Meetings between the two clubs are known as the West Lancashire derby.
Bloomfield Road is an all-seater football stadium in the English town of Blackpool, Lancashire. It has been the permanent home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901 and is named after the road on which the stadium's main entrance used to stand. The stadium has been in a process of redevelopment since 2000. June of that year saw the demolition of the Spion Kop at the north end of the ground; an all-seated stand has now replaced it. The rebuilding of the West Stand was completed in August 2002. In March 2010, the South Stand, whose original structure was pulled down in 2003, was opened by Jimmy Armfield, the former Blackpool player for whom the stand is named. A temporary East Stand is currently in place, opened on 28 August 2010, with a capacity of 5,120 seats, initially increasing capacity to 16,220 with further hospitality seating in the South Stand to be installed later in the year. Bloomfield Road is currently the 54th-largest stadium by capacity in England and the 22nd-largest in the Championship.
Before moving to Bloomfield Road, Blackpool had called two other grounds home during their short existence. Firstly, between 1896 and 1897, they played their fifteen home Football League matches at Raikes Hall Gardens (also known as the Pleasure Gardens). In 1897, they moved to the Athletic Grounds at the present-day Stanley Park, which hosted thirty-two League matches over two seasons. After a short spell back at Raikes Hall Gardens in 1899, during their season out of the League, and again for all but the first home game of the 1900–01 campaign, Blackpool made the permanent move to Bloomfield Road.