Ibrox Stadium History
From the first Ibrox Park of 1887 to a 51,700 all-seater: the ground's history.
Rangers first came to Ibrox in 1887, on a site just east of the present stadium, and opened the current ground as Ibrox Park in 1899. Designed by Archibald Leitch, it suffered a disaster in 1902 when a wooden terrace collapsed, after which huge earth terraces were built, and a red-brick Main Stand, now a listed building, opened on 1 January 1929. A British record crowd of 118,567 watched a league match against Celtic in January 1939.
Quick Facts
- First ibrox park
- 1887 (site east of the current ground)
- Current ground opened
- 1899, as Ibrox Park
- Architect
- Archibald Leitch; Main Stand opened 1 January 1929 (listed)
- Record crowd
- 118,567 v Celtic, January 1939
- Capacity
- 51,700 all-seated
Reader's Guide
Before Ibrox the club played on Glasgow Green, at Burnbank from 1875, at the Clydesdale cricket ground in Kinning Park from 1876 and, after leaving there in February 1887, shared Cathkin Park with Third Lanark. The first match at the original Ibrox, on 20 August 1887, was an 8-1 defeat by Preston North End abandoned after a pitch invasion; that ground hosted the 1890 Scottish Cup final and three Scotland internationals.
The 1899 ground followed the usual Scottish pattern of an oval track, a pavilion and one stand, holding 40,000, and competed with Celtic Park and Hampden to stage cup finals and internationals. It had the worst safety record in Britain: two fans died on Stairway 13 in 1961, and 66 died there in the 1971 Ibrox disaster. Willie Waddell, after visiting West German grounds at the 1974 World Cup, drove a rebuild modelled on Dortmund's Westfalenstadion: the terracing was replaced by three rectangular all-seated stands by 1981, with further work in 1990-91 and 1997, when the ground was renamed Ibrox Stadium. Its all-seated capacity is 51,700, the third largest in Scotland.
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