Kilbowie Park
Encyclopedia
Kilbowie Park, also known as New Kilbowie Park, was a football stadium in Clydebank
Clydebank
Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, Clydebank borders Dumbarton, the town with which it was combined to form West Dunbartonshire, as well as the town of Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire, and the Yoker and...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. It was the home ground of Clydebank F.C.
Clydebank F.C.
Clydebank Football Club are a Scottish football club based in the town of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, near Yoker. The present club, formed in 2003, is a member of the Scottish Junior Football Association, and currently plays in West Super League Premier Division...

.

New Kilbowie was built for Clydebank Juniors in 1939. In 1964, Clydebank merged with East Stirlingshire
East Stirlingshire F.C.
East Stirlingshire Football Club is a Scottish football club originating in Falkirk. Founded in 1880, originally as Bainsford Britannia, the club changed to their current name a year later in 1881...

 and entered the Scottish Football League
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League is a league of football teams in Scotland, comprising theScottish First Division, Scottish Second Division and Scottish Third Division. From the league's foundation in 1890 until the breakaway Scottish Premier League was formed in 1998, the Scottish Football League...

. A record attendance of 14,900 was set by a visit of Hibernian
Hibernian F.C.
Hibernian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Leith, in the north of Edinburgh. They are one of two Scottish Premier League clubs in the city, the other being their Edinburgh derby rivals, Hearts...

 in February 1965. Floodlights were first used in a match against Sunderland
Sunderland A.F.C.
Sunderland Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear who currently play in the Premier League...

 in the same month. The merger collapsed after a legal battle, but Clydebank entered the league in their own right in 1966.

Clydebank was promoted to the Premier Division
Scottish Football League Premier Division
The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system...

 in 1977. A covered plastic-seated stand was built, which was funded by selling star player Davie Cooper
Davie Cooper
David "Davie" Cooper was a professional football player. He was a Scotland international and played as a left winger....

 for £100,000 to Rangers
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...

. To avoid having to apply legislation affecting stadium safety, the club installed wooden benches that reduced the capacity to 9,950. This was below the 10,000 limit at which the legislation started to apply and technically made Kilbowie the first all-seater stadium
All-seater stadium
An all-seater stadium is a sports stadium in which every spectator has a seat. This is commonplace in football stadiums in nations such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands. Most soccer and American football stadiums in the United States and Canada are all-seaters, as are most baseball...

 in the United Kingdom.

Clydebank played its last competitive game at Kilbowie against Hamilton Academical
Hamilton Academical F.C.
Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Academical, or Accies, are a Scottish football club from Hamilton in South Lanarkshire. They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilton Academy. They remain the only professional club in British football to have...

 in 1996 (1-3). The last ever game at Kilbowie was a testimonial match later that summer for Ken Eadie
Ken Eadie
Kenneth William Eadie is a retired Scottish footballer who played for, amongst others, Clydebank, Airdrieonians and Queen of the South during his career....

, against Rangers (2-3). The ground was sold by club owners, the Steedman family, in 1997. Clydebank endured several seasons groundsharing at Cappielow
Cappielow
Cappielow is a district of Greenock in Inverclyde, west central Scotland. It is home to Scottish First Division side Greenock Morton F.C. The name Cappielow, taken alone, usually refers to the Cappielow Park stadium, but it can also refer to a small area of housing or the adjoining industrial...

 in Greenock
Greenock
Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...

 and Boghead Park
Boghead Park
Boghead Park is a former football ground in the town of Dumbarton, Scotland. It was formerly owned by Dumbarton F.C., who had played there since 1879, making it one of the oldest sporting venues in the United Kingdom. It was used by the club until the end of November 2000, when they moved to their...

 in Dumbarton.

Land was purchased on Great Western Road on the outskirts of the town to construct a new stadium for the club, but the necessary approval was never obtained. The sale of Kilbowie Park was the catalyst for the club's decline, which was finally ended in 2002. The club was purchased from its administrator by Jim Ballantyne, who moved it to Airdrie, North Lanarkshire
Airdrie, North Lanarkshire
Airdrie is a town within North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies on a plateau roughly 400 ft above sea level, and is approximately 12 miles east of Glasgow city centre. Airdrie forms part of a conurbation with its neighbour Coatbridge, in the former district known as the Monklands. As of 2006,...

 and renamed it Airdrie United
Airdrie United F.C.
Airdrie United Football Club are a Scottish professional football team based in the town of Airdrie, North Lanarkshire. They are currently managed by ex-Airdrieonians player and former Airdrie United Under 19s coach Jimmy Boyle. They are members of the Scottish Football League and play in the...

. This was done to replace the Airdrieonians
Airdrieonians F.C.
Airdrieonians Football Club, more commonly known as Airdrie, were a Scottish professional football team from the town of Airdrie, in the Monklands area of Lanarkshire....

 club, which had been liquidated earlier in 2002. Clydebank F.C. was reformed as a junior
Scottish Junior Football Association
The Scottish Junior Football Association is an affiliated national association of the Scottish Football Association and is the governing body for the Junior grade of football in Scotland. The term "Junior" refers to the level of football played...

 club by the United Clydebank Supporters and it now plays at Holm Park in Yoker
Yoker
Yoker is a western district of Glasgow, in Scotland, UK, lying on the northern bank of the Clyde to the east of Clydebank. It is located approximately 5 miles west of the City Centre. From the fourteenth century a ferry has linked Yoker with the burgh of Renfrew on the south bank...

.

Kilbowie was purchased by Vico Properties plc, who developed a retail scheme and restaurants on the ground. A single piece of rubble of the old stadium is now on view at the Scottish Football Museum in Hampden Park
Hampden Park
Hampden Park is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 52,063 capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland...

.
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