Bolton Wanderers Football Club was founded in 1874 and spent most of its early history at Burnden Park, a ground that became famous for a crush in 1946 in which 33 spectators died — a disaster that led directly to the first major report on football ground safety in England. In 1997 the club moved to its current stadium in Horwich, a purpose-built arena on the edge of the West Pennine Moors that was originally known as the Reebok Stadium after its sponsor. The ground holds around 28,000 spectators.
Bolton Wanderers had their golden years in the 1920s and 1950s — they won the FA Cup three times and produced international players of the calibre of Nat Lofthouse, the "Lion of Vienna," whose statue stands outside the stadium. The club has experienced dramatic fluctuations in fortune since then, including financial collapse and relegation to the fourth tier of English football in the late 2010s, followed by a gradual climb back through the divisions. Attending a match here gives you access to a working-class football culture that differs noticeably from the sanitised experience at larger Premier League grounds.