Editing Baseball Ground (section)

===Closure===
Derby County remained at the stadium until 1997, when they moved to the [[Pride Park Stadium]]. The site had first been identified in August 1993, although difficulties with decontaminating the land led to the project being abandoned within 18 months in favour of rebuilding the Baseball Ground into a 26,000-seat stadium. In the meantime, the Baseball Ground had been gradually converted into an all-seater stadium, although its capacity was reduced to just over 18,000 - inadequate for a second-tier club with ambitions of winning promotion back to the top flight.

However, these plans were abandoned in February 1996 and Pride Park was confirmed as the location for a new stadium. Construction work began later in 1996, with the new stadium scheduled to be ready in time for the 1997–98 season. It was, however, confirmed that the Baseball Ground would be retained for reserve and youth team matches for at least a few years after the new stadium's completion. Construction of the new stadium began later that year.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dcfc.co.uk/page/the-baseball-ground |title=The Baseball Ground, 1895 to 1997 |website=[[Derby County F.C.]] |access-date=27 May 2018}}</ref>

The last league match to be played there was a [[Premier League]] fixture against [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]] (where 18,287 people watched Derby lose 3–1, although their top flight status was secured one season after promotion), though the stadium continued to be used for reserve team games for a few seasons afterwards.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oldgrounds.co.uk/baseball_ground_derby.htm |title=Baseball Ground - Derby County |website=Old Football Grounds |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090627084608/http://www.oldgrounds.co.uk/baseball_ground_derby.htm |archive-date=27 June 2009}}</ref>

In late 2003, several months after the youth team played its final game there, the Baseball Ground was finally demolished to make way for housing. The former ground has since been redeveloped to around 150 new homes and, in September 2010 a commemorative statue was unveiled on the site. The {{convert|15|ft}} high metalwork featuring the silhouettes of three footballers dribbling and shooting was commissioned by the builders Spirita and Strata and designed by artist [[Denis O'Connor (British-Irish sculptor)|Denis O'Connor]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Baseball-Ground-sculpture-unveiled/article-2635227-detail/article.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100916202726/http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Baseball-Ground-sculpture-unveiled/article-2635227-detail/article.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 September 2010 |title=Baseball Ground sculpture has been unveiled |newspaper=[[Derby Telegraph]] |date=13 September 2010 |access-date=28 July 2012 }}</ref> A fan, George Glover, 'made history' by scoring the last goal at the Baseball Ground in a game between fans.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/2940830.stm |title=Farewell to the Baseball Ground |date=27 May 2003 |website=BBC News |access-date=27 May 2018}}</ref>