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Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium located in the district of Ibrox, Glasgow, Scotland, with a seating capacity of 51,082. It has been the home of Rangers Football Club since 1899. The team previously played at the first Ibrox Park from 1877 to 1899. It was opened as Greater Ibrox Park in 1899 to distinguish it from the original Ibrox Park, just east of the current site. The ground is less than 2 miles from both Glasgow Central and Queen Street railway stations and has hosted numerous Scotland internationals at senior level, the first in 1902 and the most recent in 1999. The ground has also hosted 13 Scottish Cup finals.

A number of disasters have occurred at the ground. The 1902 Ibrox disaster occurred when a wooden terrace collapsed. Vast earthen terraces were built in place of the wooden terraces, while a main stand, which is now a listed building, was built in 1928. A British record crowd of 118,567 gathered in January 1939 for a league match with Celtic. A second major disaster occurred in 1971 causing the deaths of 66 fans, and as a result the stadium was largely rebuilt in the late 1970's. The vast bowl-shaped terracing and running track were removed and replaced by three rectangular, all-seated stands by 1981, resulting in the current stand configuration of the Copland Road Stand, Govan Stand, Broomloan Road Stand and the Bill Struth Main Stand. After renovations were completed in 1997, the ground was renamed Ibrox Stadium.

Aside from football-related uses the stadium has seen various concerts staged by major performers, including Frank Sinatra. Ibrox has been visited by two reigning British Monarchs and is set to host events during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Ibrox also annually hosted The Rangers Sports up until the 1960's, a well-attended athletics event.

The first Ibrox Park 1887-1899
The Ibrox area was not the first home of Rangers. The club played their first match in 1872, on Glasgow Green. For the next 5 years the club led a somewhat nomadic existence playing home matches on public pitches across Glasgow. They first moved to a regular home ground at Burnbank in 1875. A year later, Rangers played at the Clydesdale cricket ground in Kinning Park. This ground was improved from a capacity of 2000 to give a capacity of 7,000, to accommodate Rangers, but it was not owned by Rangers. After hints by the landlords that they wished to develop the site, Rangers left in February 1887. The club shared Cathkin Park with Third Lanark for the remainder of the 1886–87 season. Rangers first moved to the Ibrox area later in 1887, playing on a site only yards to the east of the current site. The centre spot of the first Ibrox Park was roughly where the North East corner of seating is in the current stadium. The move along Paisley Road from Kinning Park to Ibrox was met with much surprise by Rangers fans, as they were seen to be moving so far out of the city. The initial capacity of the first Ibrox Park was 15,000. The first match at this stadium was an 8–1 defeat to English side Preston North End on 20 August 1887, watched by an overcapacity crowd of around 18,000. This inaugural match had to be abandoned after 70 minutes due to a pitch invasion. The first Ibrox Park was a success in the short term, as three Scotland international matches and the 1890 Scottish Cup Final were played at the ground. Celtic Park, built in 1892, was more advanced, however and so Rangers opted to construct a new stadium, raising funds by forming a limited company. The last match at the old ground was played on 9 December 1899. Greater Ibrox Park, as the new Ibrox Park was initially known was formally opened with a 3–1 victory over Hearts on 30 December 1899.

The second Ibrox 1899-present
Ibrox Park, as it was known between 1899 and 1997, has undergone numerous mass redevelopments since its conception. It followed the model of most Scottish stadiums of the time, comprising an oval track around the pitch, with a pavilion and a grandstand along one side. The ground had an initial capacity of 40,000. It consisted of a grandstand and pavilion on the south side of the ground, along with the 'Bovril Stand' on the north side of the ground, such named due to the large advertisement displayed on its roof. Celtic Park, Ibrox Park and Hampden Park all competed with each other to host Scottish Cup Finals and Scotland matches, one of which could generate up to £1,000 in revenue for the host club. To aid their chances of gaining that revenue, Rangers constructed two large terraces, holding 36,000 people, behind the western and eastern goalmouths. The terracing, designed by Archibald Leitch, was formed by wooden planks bolted onto a framework made of iron, giving a total capacity of around 75,000 by 1902.

The new terrace structure was passed by the Govan Burgh Surveyor in March 1902, but there were newspaper reports that it was unstable. A crowd of 68,114 assembled for a Scotland v England match on 5 April 1902, but shortly after 51 minutes of play one section of the terracing "collapsed like a trap door". A gap of 20 square yards appeared, causing about 125 people to fall to the ground 50 feet below the terracing. Most survived due to the fact they fell on top of other bodies, but 25 people were killed. 517 people were injured, some due to being crushed in the panic caused by the collapse. The match continued, as the authorities didn't want to cause widespread panic in the stadium, and finished 1-1.

Strangely, most people in the stadium were unaware that the disaster had happened. People even re-occupied the damaged area, despite the danger of further collapse. A definite reason for the disaster was not agreed upon, partly because there was no public inquiry held. Some experts blamed the quality of wood and the supplier was tried for culpable homicide, but was acquitted. The design was also cited as a possible cause. Generally, wooden structures of that size were not trusted. Rangers removed the wooden terraces, reducing capacity to 25,000. The criticism of the design did not deter Rangers from hiring Leitch in the future. He designed an expansion of Ibrox to a 63,000 capacity by 1910, using slopes made of earth. By this point, the city of Glasgow had the three largest purpose-built football grounds in the world.

The next major redevelopment occurred in 1928, after Rangers had won their first double. A new Main Stand, to the south side of the ground, was opened on 1 January 1929. The Main Stand, which has the familiar Leitch style criss-cross balcony and a red-brick façade, seated 10,000 people and provided standing accommodation in an enclosure below. Simon Inglis, a writer on football stadia, commented in 2005 that the Main Stand is Leitch's "greatest work" and is "still resplendent today in its red brick glory under a modern mantle of glass and steel". The architectural significance of the Main Stand was reflected when it became a Category B listed building in 1987. Original seats in the Main Stand were made of cast iron and oak. When one was auctioned in 2011, it raised a sale price of £1,080.

The banking of the terracing continued to increase in the 1930s along with the capacity. On 2 January 1939, the Old Firm game against Celtic attracted a crowd of 118,567, still a record attendance for any league match played in Britain. By this point, Ibrox was the second-largest stadium in Britain after Hampden Park. Floodlights were first used at Ibrox in December 1953, for a friendly match against Arsenal. The first floodlit Scottish league match was played at Ibrox, in March 1956. A cover was built over the east terracing during the late 1960s, along with a new cover replacing the 'Bovril' cover already over the north stand. No structural changes were made to Ibrox, but capacity was cut to approximately 80,000 by safety legislation in the late 1960's.

Ibrox Park had the worst safety record in Britain. Two fans died in September 1961 when a barrier collapsed on Stairway 13. After this incident, Rangers installed safety measures, but further injuries were sustained in both 1967 and 1969. The worst disaster yet to affect football in Britain happened two years later, after the Old Firm game on 2 January 1971. Sixty-six people died of asphyxiation due to a crush on Stairway 13. The game itself ended in a 1–1 draw, with Colin Stein scoring a late equalising goal for Rangers. This led to a persistent myth that the crush had been caused by fans that had left the game early, but had turned back when they heard the roar that greeted the Rangers goal. A public inquiry discounted this initial story. It established that the crowd had been travelling in the same direction when the crush happened, with it perhaps being precipitated by someone bending over to pick up items that had been discarded during the goal celebrations or by a child falling from the shoulders of an adult. The downward force of the crowd leaving the stadium meant that when people started to fall there was no means of preventing a crush. The inquiry and subsequent compensation cases found that Rangers had been inept in their administration and complacent after the incidents in the 1960s. The disaster also highlighted, however, the fact that there were no established safety standards that should be adhered to, let alone any means of enforcing such standards. This had been first recommended nearly 50 years earlier, after the 1923 FA Cup Final. The Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds was published in 1973, and legislation was enacted with the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975. This law cut the capacity of Ibrox to 65,000. In the short term, Rangers took the stopgap measure of installing benches in the North Stand terracing, which was renamed the Centenary Stand.

The 1971 Ibrox disaster led to the club developing a modern, safe stadium. Willie Waddell visited modern grounds in West Germany during the 1974 World Cup and believed that steep terracing and exits, such as Stairway 13, had to be replaced. The cut in capacity and boardroom changes led to radical plans by architects The Miller Partnership, which were published in November 1977.The plans were modelled on the Westfalenstadion, home ground of Borussia Dortmund. They involved a radical reshaping of the stadium, with the old bowl-shaped terracing and track around the field to be replaced by three new all-seated structures. Only the old Main Stand would remain, with its enclosures providing the only standing room in the ground.

Although later events, such as the Hillsborough disaster and the subsequent Taylor Report, vindicated this plan, Rangers were taking a significant risk. The whole plan was estimated to cost £6 million, which no other club could have afforded in a short space of time. The development was funded by the Rangers football pools operation, which was the largest club-based scheme in Britain. The first phase of the plan, which began in 1978, was the removal of the east terracing and its replacement with the Copland Road Stand. The same process was repeated on the west side of the ground a year later, with the two identical stands each holding 7,500 seats. The redevelopment was completed in 1981 with the replacement of the Centenary Stand by the 10,300 capacity Govan Stand.

The new Ibrox had an initial capacity of 44,000 and was opened with an Old Firm game played on 19 September 1981. By this time, however, the development cost had risen to £10 million, which depleted the club financially. This resulted in a difficult period in the history of Rangers, as the average attendance fell to 18,123 in the 1982-83 season, including a crowd of only 6,000 for a game against St. Mirren. The redeveloped stadium was partly blamed for this, as some fans felt that the new ground lacked atmosphere due to the spaces between the stands. This was during a period of low attendances in Scottish football in general. Despite the relatively low attendance at Ibrox, Rangers had the highest average home attendances in the Premier Division in both 1983–84 and 1984–85.

This all changed when a new regime, chaired by David Holmes, took control of Rangers in 1986. Graeme Souness was appointed player–manager, while several English stars, including Terry Butcher and Chris Woods, were signed. Season ticket sales rose from 7,000 in 1986 to over 30,000 in the 1990s, while commercial income increased from £239,000 in 1986 to over £2 million in 1989. The introduction of computerised ticketing, zonal public address systems and closed-circuit television for monitoring turnstile areas meant that Ibrox was at the forefront of stadium management. Rangers also adopted the American technique of analysing the types of fans in each area of the stadium and adjusted their food stalls accordingly. Greater success on the pitch meant that Ibrox demonstrated that seated stadiums would be welcomed by most fans, if designed and fitted well.

David Murray acquired control of Rangers in November 1988. Argyle House, a £4 million extension used for match day hospitality behind the Govan Stand, was opened in 1990. This added executive boxes, office space and hospitality suites. A further series of developments was started in the early 1990s to increase capacity to over 50,000. Murray commissioned architect Gareth Hutchison to find a way of adding a third tier to the Main Stand. This was a highly complex process, as the Main Stand façade had become a listed building and Murray wanted the existing structure to remain open during construction. The contractors removed the original roof and added a temporary cover while the work carried on above. The Club Deck, which cost approximately £20 million, was opened with a league match against Dundee United in December 1991. The redevelopment of the Main Stand was partially financed by a Football Trust grant of £2 million and a debenture issue that raised £8.5 million. Ordinary fans bought debentures for between £1,000 and £1,650 each, which guaranteed the right to buy season tickets for at least 30 years, along with some other minor benefits. Four columns were built through the existing Main Stand to support the Club Deck, which resulted in approximately 1,000 seats having a restricted view. After opening the Club Deck, Ibrox had a capacity of 44,500. When a new playing surface was installed in 1992, Rangers were able to add a further 1,300 seats to the front of three stands by lowering the pitch slightly. The only standing area of the ground, the enclosure of the Main Stand, was seated in 1994 to comply with the Taylor Report and UEFA regulations. The multi-coloured seats were replaced in 1995 with uniform blue seats. A further 1,200 seats was added in this process by re-configuring passageways, giving a total capacity of 47,998.

The two spaces between the Govan, Copland Road and Broomloan Road Stands were filled in with seats and JumboTron screens. The ground was officially renamed Ibrox Stadium after renovations were completed in 1997, when Ibrox had a capacity of just over 50,000. Three rows of seating were added to the front of the Govan Stand upper tier in 2006, linked to a new 'Bar 72' area, increasing the capacity to its present figure of 51,082. The Main Stand was renamed the Bill Struth Main Stand in September 2006, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death. The JumboTron screens were replaced in 2011.

The Rangers Football Club Plc became insolvent in February 2012 and were unable to reach a company voluntary arrangement with its creditors, principally HM Revenue and Customs. Ibrox Stadium, along with the business and other assets of the company, were sold in June 2012 to a new company run by Charles Green. The new company obtained the SFA membership of the old company and Rangers gained entry to the Scottish Football League Third Division for the 2012-13 season.

Structure and facilities
The Ibrox pitch is surrounded by four covered all-seater stands, officially known as the Bill Struth Main (south), Broomloan Road (west), Govan (north) and Copland Road (east) Stands. Each stand has two tiers, with the exception of the Bill Struth Main Stand, which has had three tiers since the Club Deck was added in 1991. The two corner areas, known as the Govan West and Govan East corners, have one tier of seating below a JumboTron screen.

The Bill Struth Main Stand, formerly known as the Main Stand, faces onto Edmiston Drive (A8 road). The red-brick façade, designed by Archibald Leitch, is a Category B listed building. Simon Inglis, writing in 1996, described it as an "imposing red-brick façade, with its mock neo-classical arched, square and pedimented windows, exudes prestige and power." On each end wall the club crest is depicted in a blue and gold mosaic. Stair-towers leading to the Club Deck (third tier) stand at each end of the Main Stand. These towers are also framed in red-brick, but deliberately contrast with the main body of the stand. The two stair-towers also support a 146 m long and 540 t truss, which claimed to be the longest and heaviest clear span girder in the world.

Through the main doors of the Main Stand is a wood-panelled hallway. A staircase leads to the boardroom and trophy room. Inglis compared Ibrox to Highbury, in that it combined corporate power with a sense of tradition and solidity. It was originally constructed as a 10,000-seat stand above a standing enclosure. It was redeveloped in the early 1990s with the addition of the Club Deck and seating in the enclosure. It is now a three-tier all-seated structure, accommodating approximately 21,000 spectators. The front wall of the middle tier is one of the last surviving examples of the Leitch style of criss-cross detailing. The middle tier is split into front and rear sections, while the enclosure is split into east and west sections, either side of the retractable tunnel cover.

Opposite the Bill Struth Main Stand is the Govan Stand. It is a two-tier stand, similar in style to the two end stands, it was completed in 1981. To the rear of the Govan Stand is the Argyle House extension, completed in 1990, which provides executive boxes, hospitality areas and office space. The Bar 72 area was added to the rear section of the Govan Stand in 2006. The Copland Road Stand, at the east end of the stadium, was completed in 1979 and now accommodates just over 8,000 fans. It is traditionally the 'Rangers end' of the ground and the team normally chooses to attack that end in the second half of matches. The western Broomloan Road Stand, which was completed in 1980, is identical to the opposite end. Although constructed as separate structures, the three stands have been linked since the mid-1990s, when two additional areas of seating were added to the corner areas. All of the stands are designed using the 'goalpost' structure, in which a large portal frame supports perpendicular beams on which roof cladding is secured. A Rangers Megastore is located in the corner between the Copland Road and Govan Stands.

Away fans are normally accommodated in the corner of the ground between the Broomloan Road and Govan Stands. For bigger games, such as the Old Firm derbies, the whole of the Broomloan Road Stand can be used by the away support. Ibrox is seen as being an intimidating ground for visiting supporters. Rangers banned Celtic fans in 1994 from attending games at Ibrox, citing the damage caused to the Broomloan Road Stand by the visitors in previous derbies. The ban was lifted after one game, as the Scottish Football League passed a resolution preventing clubs from taking that action. Before the corners were filled in, away fans were accommodated in the lower tier of the Broomloan Road Stand. Rangers had to take action in 1996 to prevent their fans in the upper deck from throwing items at visitors.

Records
Ibrox Park hosted numerous crowds of over 100,000 between the 1930's and 1950's. The highest attendance recorded at Ibrox was 118,567 at a Scottish First Division match between Rangers and Celtic on 2nd January 1939. This is also a record attendance for a league match in British football. However, this was before the ground was converted to an all-seater stadium, allowing many more people to fit into the stadium. Ibrox's record attendance as an all-seater stadium currently stands at 50,488, set at a Scottish Premier League game between Rangers and Aberdeen on 1st October 2006. The record attendance at Ibrox for a European competition match was set when 85,000 fans turned up to watch Rangers play Leeds United on 26th March 1968

The highest average attendance at Ibrox over a league season was 49,955, set in the 2006–07 season. The lowest post-war average attendance at Ibrox came in the 1982-83 season, when an average of 18,123 supporters watched each game. A crowd of 49,913 watched Rangers defeat Stirling Albion at Ibrox on 8th December 2012, a world record for a football match in a fourth tier league.

Future
Since the redevelopments to Celtic Park and Hampden Park were completed in the late 1990s, Ibrox has had the smallest capacity of the three major stadiums in Glasgow. Rangers have since explored options to increase capacity. After opening the Bar 72 area in 2006, chief executive Martin Bain said that the scheme could be replicated in the Copland Road Stand. A report in the Daily Record in April 2007 claimed that Rangers were planning to increase capacity to 57,000, principally by removing the JumboTron screens and lowering the pitch to accommodate more seating. These plans were said to be dependent for finance upon improved performance by the team. In January 2008, Rangers announced that they were investigating three options to further develop Ibrox. One of the proposals would have resulted in a capacity of 70,000, by replacing three of the stands with a bowl-type structure. These plans were shelved by October 2008, however, due to the late-2000s financial crisis.

Alongside changes to the stadium itself, Rangers have also sought to develop land around Ibrox. In partnership with the Las Vegas Sands corporation, the club received outline planning permission from Glasgow City Council for the development of land adjoining Ibrox as the home of a super casino. The casino was planned to be accompanied by a Rangers-themed leisure complex. Britain's Casino Advisory Panel reviewed bids from eight short-listed cities, including Glasgow, and in 2007 awarded the first license to Manchester. There is no immediate prospect of the Ibrox proposal being resurrected, as Gordon Brown dropped the plans for super casinos soon after becoming Prime Minister. Rangers were given approval by Glasgow City Council in October 2008 to purchase land around Ibrox and redevelop the area with hotel and retail outlets. This scheme stalled, however, as regulations constrained what could be built in the area.

Rangers' new owner Charles Green has stated that the club will look to expand Ibrox Stadium above its current 51,082 capacity, once Rangers are back competing in the Champions League regularly. Possible methods of expansion were stated as putting another deck above the Argyle Suite (Govan Stand) and by filling in the rear of the corners where the big screens currently are.

Other uses
Ibrox has been a home venue for the Scotland national football team 17 times, the third most of any ground. The first Ibrox Park (1887–99) hosted three internationals, giving an overall Ibrox total of 20. The ground most recently hosted a Scotland game in October 1999. It hosted several internationals during the 1990s, particularly when Hampden was being redeveloped. Hampden was redeveloped in two phases. Ibrox hosted four Scotland games in the first phase, starting with a 1994 World Cup qualifier against Portugal in October 1992. It was not a happy interlude for Scotland fans, however, as the team failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1970. Although the attendances at Ibrox were higher than at Hampden, some fans resented the fact that they were helping the finances of Rangers, the most powerful club in Scotland. Fans also complained that the ticket prices were too high. During the second period of redevelopment, however, Scotland won an important 1998 World Cup qualifier against Sweden at Ibrox.

During these periods of redevelopment to Hampden, Ibrox also hosted the 1997 Scottish Cup Final and the 1994 and 1997 Scottish League Cup Finals. When Ibrox was used for the 1994 Scottish League Cup Final, its blue perimeter track had to be covered by red matting. This was apparently because the tournament was sponsored by Coca-Cola, whereas blue is the corporate colour of its arch-rival Pepsi. Ibrox was on the approved UEFA list to host major European finals in the 1990s, but it lost out in a bid to host the 1996 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final because a convention threatened a shortage of hotel rooms in Glasgow. Ibrox continues to hold the top UEFA rating, but the Scottish Football Association put forward the redeveloped Hampden for European finals in the 2000s.

King George V visited Ibrox Park in 1917, to thank Rangers for its efforts in the First World War. His son, King George VI, opened the 1938 Empire Exhibition with a speech at Ibrox. This was used as source material by Colin Firth for his performance in The King's Speech movie. Ibrox has been used for concerts, including performances by Frank Sinatra (1990), Rod Stewart (1995), Elton John and Billy Joel (1998). Ibrox will host the rugby sevens event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Ibrox also annually hosted The Rangers Sports up until the 1960's, a well attended athletics event.

Transport
The main railway stations in Glasgow, Central and Queen Street, are both approximately two miles from Ibrox. The Ibrox and Cessnock stations on the Glasgow Subway both serve Ibrox. It is also served by First Glasgow buses 9, 38, 56, 90, 121 and 153 on Paisley Road West along with the route 26 and 89 buses on Sheildhall Road. Ibrox sits near to the M8, M77 and M74 motorways, with junctions 23 and 24 being the closest exits, but the roads around Ibrox become congested on match-days.