The stadium was the focal point of the complex and was part of a personal quest by Ley to establish professional organised baseball in the United Kingdom.

Over the years, additional stands were built around the pitch and were tagged with names corresponding to their orientation with respect to the streets (Vulcan and Columbo) and nearby neighborhoods (Normanton and Osmaston).

[1] Derby had occasionally used Ley's Baseball Ground for their home matches due to horse racing meetings taking priority.

A party of Gypsies were forced to move and legend has it that before leaving they put a curse on the ground preventing Derby County winning the FA Cup.

The record attendance was 41,826 for a match against Tottenham Hotspur in 1969, just after Derby County were promoted under the management of Brian Clough, at the beginning of the most successful era in the club's history.

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.

The 15 feet (4.6 m) 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.

[6] This was inadequate for the ambitions of Derby County, who were chasing promotion to the Premier League during the early to mid-1990s, finally achieving it as Division One runners-up in 1996.