Ninian Park
Encyclopedia
Ninian Park was a football stadium in Leckwith
Leckwith
Leckwith is a district of western Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It is home to Cardiff City F.C.'s and Cardiff Blues home ground Cardiff City Stadium, and to Fitzalan High School...

, Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. Until 2009, it was the home ground of Cardiff City F.C.
Cardiff City F.C.
Cardiff City Football Club are a Welsh professional football club based in Cardiff, Wales. The club competes in the English football pyramid and is currently playing in the Football League Championship. Cardiff City is the best supported football club in Wales, averaging approximately 22,500 for...

, who compete in the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Football League Championship
Football League Championship
The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League...

. Cardiff City now play at the Cardiff City Stadium.

History

Ninian Park is named after Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart (15 May 1883–2 October 1915), son of John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute
John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute
John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute KT, KSG, KGCHS was a landed aristocrat, industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist and architectural patron.-Early life:...

 (12 September 1847–9 October 1900).

The ground featured large floodlights in each corner and a plasma-screen television showed highlights during the game. The television was bought by the club in 2002 from Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers F.C.
Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the area of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. They began their current spell in the Premier League in 2001....

, who had previously used the screen in their former ground Burnden Park
Burnden Park
Burnden Park was the home of English FA Premier League football club Bolton Wanderers who played home games here between 1895 and 1997. As well as hosting an FA Cup Final replay it was the scene of one of the greatest disasters in English football and the subject of an L. S...

 before moving to the Reebok Stadium
Reebok Stadium
The Reebok Stadium is the home stadium of English Premier League football club Bolton Wanderers, and is located on the Middlebrook Retail Park in Horwich, in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. It is commonly known as 'The Reebok'...

, and was located between the Popular Bank and the Grange End.

The last ever Cardiff City football match played at Ninian Park was a 3-0 defeat to Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town F.C.
Ipswich Town Football Club are an English professional football team based in Ipswich, Suffolk. As of 2011, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02....

, who had Roy Keane
Roy Keane
Roy Maurice Keane is an Irish former footballer and manager. In his 18-year playing career, he played for Cobh Ramblers in the League of Ireland, Nottingham Forest and Manchester United, before ending his career at Celtic in Scotland....

 as their new manager in his first match in charge, on 25 April 2009. The last ever senior player to score at Ninian Park was Jon Stead, then of Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town F.C.
Ipswich Town Football Club are an English professional football team based in Ipswich, Suffolk. As of 2011, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02....

 and the last player for Cardiff City to score at Ninian Park was Ross McCormack
Ross McCormack
Ross McCormack is a Scottish professional footballer currently playing for English football club Leeds United and the Scotland national team. His main position is as a Striker but he can also play as a Winger....

 in a 3-1 victory over Burnley
Burnley F.C.
Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...

 in the penultimate senior game at Ninian Park. The club relocated to their new all-seater stadium (capacity nearly 27,000) for the 2009-10 season, and the 99-year-old Ninian Park was demolished later in 2009 to make way for a housing development.

The last ever football match played at Ninian Park was a Welsh Schools Cup Semi-Final fixture between Radnor Road Primary school and Corneli Primary School, with Corneli Primary School edging the game after penalties in front of the Grange End. This left Corneli Primary School's manager, life-long Cardiff fan Alex Clarke, as the last winning manager at Ninian Park.

Stands

The stadium featured four stands: the Spar
SPAR
Spar , trades from approximately 12400 stores in 34 countries worldwide and is the world's largest independent voluntary retail trading chain. Spar was founded in the Netherlands in 1932 by retailer Adriaan Van Well and now, through its affiliate organisations, operates through most European...

 Family Stand (formerly known as the Canton End), the John Smith's
John Smith's Brewery
John Smith's is a brewery founded in 1758 by Backhouse & Hartley at Tadcaster in North Yorkshire, England. John Smith bought the brewery in 1847. John Smith's is the sixth highest selling beer brand in the United Kingdom, and the highest selling ale brand. The brewery is currently owned by...

 Grange End (formerly known as the Grange End prior to being sponsored by John Smith's Brewery
John Smith's Brewery
John Smith's is a brewery founded in 1758 by Backhouse & Hartley at Tadcaster in North Yorkshire, England. John Smith bought the brewery in 1847. John Smith's is the sixth highest selling beer brand in the United Kingdom, and the highest selling ale brand. The brewery is currently owned by...

), the Popular Bank (commonly known as the "Bob Bank") and the Grandstand.

The Grandstand

The Grandstand was a two-tier, all-seater stand, with old-fashioned wooden seats in the upper tier, and modern plastic seating in the lower tier. This stand also had several supporting poles holding up the roof. This stand also housed the area in which the player dressing rooms and tunnel were incorporated, as well as housing the dugouts, the V.I.P. area and the press/media benches.

The Popular "Bob" Bank Seating & Terrace

The Popular Bank had a mixture of covered seating to the rear of the stand, and uncovered standing terrace to the front. The seating had many supportive poles keeping the roof up, and in keeping with the tradition of many football teams, many seats were coloured white and when viewed from above spelled the word Cardiff.

John Smiths Grange End

The John Smiths
John Smith's Brewery
John Smith's is a brewery founded in 1758 by Backhouse & Hartley at Tadcaster in North Yorkshire, England. John Smith bought the brewery in 1847. John Smith's is the sixth highest selling beer brand in the United Kingdom, and the highest selling ale brand. The brewery is currently owned by...

 Grange End became the most vocal area of the ground (from the Bob bank up until the 90's) and was a fully covered terrace, previously uncovered for many years, before its renovation in 2001 after Sam Hammam took over as chairman. It also had several supporting poles, and one section housed the away fans. The away section had terracing to the back and seating at the front. In between the home and away fans was a gap separating opposing fans from home fans. There was also netting in the middle just in case anybody wanted to get to the other side or throw anything. This gap in between the opposing fans came in in 2005 where before there was just a metal fence separating home and away fans.

It was officially opened on 1 September 1928 before a league match against Burnley
Burnley F.C.
Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...

 by the Lord Mayor of Cardiff and could hold 18,000 spectators. The area behind the goal where the stand was built was previously an earth embankment. In the 1946/1947 saeson a spectator fell through the roof of the Grange End during a game with Bristol City. This hole remained in the Grange End roof until its demolition.The original stand was demolished during the 1977/78 season as structural engineers deemed it to be unsafe and it was replaced by a small, uncovered concrete terrace.

Spar Family Stand

The Spar
SPAR
Spar , trades from approximately 12400 stores in 34 countries worldwide and is the world's largest independent voluntary retail trading chain. Spar was founded in the Netherlands in 1932 by retailer Adriaan Van Well and now, through its affiliate organisations, operates through most European...

 Family Stand was a fully covered, all-seated stand with several supporting poles along the width of the stand. The club ticket office was also located within this stand where an exterior entrance was provided. The rear of the stand was also home to a number of executive boxes and hospitality areas, although work began in the early 1980s they were not completed until 2001 due to financial difficulties.

Transport

The stadium and surrounding area was served by Ninian Park railway station
Ninian Park railway station
Ninian Park railway station serves the Leckwith and South Canton areas of Cardiff, which lies just outside Cardiff city centre.The station, which is situated west of Cardiff Central, was opened when the City Line reopened to passenger services in 1987, using platforms previously used only for...

 (on the Cardiff City Line
Cardiff City Line
The City Line is a commuter railway line in Cardiff that runs from Coryton to Radyr via Cardiff Central. Regular passenger services on this route started in 1987. Passenger trains run from Monday to Saturday. The line is also used as a diversionary route for trains to Merthyr, Aberdare and...

) on one side of Sloper Road and Grangetown railway station
Grangetown railway station
Grangetown railway station is a railway station serving the Grangetown district of Cardiff in Wales. It is located on the Vale of Glamorgan Line 1 mile south west of Cardiff Central towards Bridgend via Barry, Penarth and Barry Island....

 (on the Vale Line
Vale of Glamorgan Line
The Vale of Glamorgan Line is a commuter railway line in South Wales from Cardiff to Bridgend via Barry, Rhoose and Llantwit Major. There are also branch lines to Penarth and Barry Island. As its names suggests, the line runs through the Vale of Glamorgan....

) on the other side. Trains operate frequently to Central
Cardiff Central railway station
Cardiff Central railway station is a major railway station on the South Wales Main Line in Cardiff, Wales.It is the largest and busiest station in Wales and one of the major stations of the British rail network, the tenth busiest station in the United Kingdom outside of London , based on 2007/08...

 and Queen Street
Cardiff Queen Street railway station
Cardiff Queen Street railway station is Wales' second busiest railway station in Cardiff, Wales. It is one of 20 stations in the city and two in the city centre, the other being Cardiff Central...

 stations.

In addition the stadium was also served by the A4232
A4232 road
The A4232, which is also known either as the Peripheral Distributor Road or the Cardiff Link Road , is a distributor road in Cardiff, the capital of Wales....

 dual carriageway
Dual carriageway
A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...

, which is approximately 0.7 miles (1.13 kilometres) away from the Leckwith Interchange.

Other usage

Since it was built the ground has been used for numerous other events including:
  • It has hosted numerous Wales
    Wales national football team
    The Wales national football team represents Wales in international football. It is controlled by the Football Association of Wales , the governing body for football in Wales, and the third oldest national football association in the world. The team have only qualified for a major international...

     international matches and alongside Wrexham
    Wrexham A.F.C.
    Wrexham Football Club are a professional football team based in Wrexham, north-east Wales, who play in the English football pyramid.Founded in 1872, they are one of the oldest surviving football clubs in Britain and the oldest professional club in Wales...

    's The Racecourse Ground which was the venue for the Wales U21
    Wales national under-21 football team
    The Wales national under-21 football team, also known as the Wales U21s, is the national under-21 football team of Wales and is controlled by the Football Association of Wales. The team competes in the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years...

     team.
  • As part of his Rastaman Vibration Tour
    Rastaman Vibration Tour
    The Rastaman Vibration Tour was a concert tour organised to support the album Rastaman Vibration by Bob Marley & The Wailers.The tour began at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, on April 23, 1976, and ended in Manchester, England, on June 27, 1976...

     Bob Marley
    Bob Marley
    Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...

     staged a concert at the ground on 19 June 1976. This date had originally been scheduled for Stephen Stills but when he was unable to play Bob Marley filled the date. On the day the concert itself was mostly played through heavy rain.
  • Pope John Paul II
    Pope John Paul II
    Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

     held a rally here during his visit to the United Kingdom in 1982.
  • During the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
    1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
    The 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Cardiff, capital of Wales from 18–26 July 1958.Thirty-five nations sent a total of 1,130 athletes and 228 officials to the Cardiff Games and 23 countries and dependencies won medals, including, for the first time, Singapore, Ghana, Kenya...

     it hosted the show-jumping championships.
  • Cardiff rugby club
    Cardiff RFC
    Cardiff Rugby Football Club is a rugby union football club based in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The club was founded in 1876 and played their first few matches at Sophia Gardens, but soon relocated to Cardiff Arms Park where they have been based ever since...

     played at the ground twice between 1960-1961 due to their ground not having floodlights, and the Cardiff City Blue Dragons
    Cardiff City Blue Dragons
    The Cardiff City Blue Dragons were a rugby league team formed in 1981. Their home ground was Ninian Park which was also used by Cardiff City FC. The club spent three seasons in Cardiff before relocating to Bridgend in 1984 as the Bridgend Blue Dragons, who were finally wound up in 1986. The team...

     rugby league team used the ground as their home between 1981 and 1984.

Statistics

  • Capacity
    Seating capacity
    Seating capacity refers to the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, both in terms of the physical space available, and in terms of limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats...

    : 22,000
  • There was an advert on the roof of the Spar Family Stand for Redrow Homes, former shirt sponsor of the club (2003-2006). There was also an advert on the roof of the Bob Bank for Brace's Bread, a local bread-making firm. Prior to this an advert for Captain Morgan Rum on the Bob Bank roof dominated the ground for many years and it survived despite attempts to paint over it in the early 1980's.
  • There was previously a mechanical scoreboard similar to that found in cricket or baseball.
  • Record Attendance: 62,634; Wales
    Wales national football team
    The Wales national football team represents Wales in international football. It is controlled by the Football Association of Wales , the governing body for football in Wales, and the third oldest national football association in the world. The team have only qualified for a major international...

    -England
    England national football team
    The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...

    , 17 October 1959
  • The record attendance for a Cardiff City match is 57,893 v Arsenal, April 22 1953.
  • The 2005-2006 season's average attendance at the ground, over 23 home Cardiff City matches, was 11,720.
  • Address: Sloper Road, Cardiff CF11 8SX

Demolition and the future of the site

The stadium was handed over to Redrow Homes by Cardiff City chairman Peter Ridsdale on 10 September 2009. Redrow will build 142 new homes on the site, but it will still be known as Ninian Park. It is proposed at the centre of the new housing development will be a planted square, in the area of Ninian Park’s centre spot. It is also possible that street names of Cardiff City legends are being considered, though this is yet to be decided. The first show home of the £24m development will be opened by late spring 2010. The housing will be a mixture of terraced, detached and semi-detached houses.

The new stadium for Cardiff City

Work started on the new Cardiff City Stadium to replace Ninian Park at the end of 2007 on the site of the Cardiff Athletics Stadium
Cardiff Athletics Stadium
The Cardiff Athletics Stadium was an athletics and football stadium in Cardiff, Wales. It opened in 1989 and was demolished in 2007, replaced by the Cardiff International Sports Stadium....

, it was officially opened on 22 July 2009. It holds 26,828 spectators, with foundations in place to increase the capacity to 60,000, if needs be. On 6 August 2008 a contract was signed for naming rights at the stadium after Cardiff City recruited a leading specialist, who provided Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...

 with the Emirates Stadium
Emirates Stadium
Ashburton Grove, currently known as the Emirates Stadium, is a UEFA elite football stadium which is home to Arsenal FC, where they moved from Highbury in 2006. It has an current capacity of 60,361, and there have been rumours of an expansion...

sponsor to find their stadium a sponsor. Although a fee hasn't been released it is reported to be in excess of £3million over a 100 year period. It is currently called the Cardiff City Stadium, although it is proposed that a sponsor's name will eventually go in front of this.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK