Everything about Easter Road totally explained
Easter Road is the home ground of
Scottish Premier League football club
Hibernian. Located in the
Leith area of
Edinburgh, the stadium has a capacity of 17,500, making it the seventh largest stadium in Scotland and the largest stadium used primarily for football in Edinburgh. It is affectionately known by Hibs fans as "The Leith
San Siro".
Hibs first played at the present site of Easter Road in
1893. The record attendance of 65,860, when the stadium had vast terracing sections, was set by an
Edinburgh derby on
January 2 1950. The stadium was long noted for its pronounced slope, but this was removed at the end of the
1999-2000 season.
History
When
Hibs were formed in
1875, the club played its matches on
the Meadows to the south of the
Old Town of Edinburgh. Hibs first moved to the
Easter Road area in
1880, which was on the outskirts of
Edinburgh at the time, to a ground known as
Hibernian Park. Hibs first leased the present site in
1892, played their first match there in
1893 and have played their home games there ever since.
After
Sir Tom Farmer took control of Hibernian in
1991, the stadium underwent major redevelopment in order to comply with the
Taylor Report. Stands behind each goal (
the Famous Five Stand and the South Stand) were built in
1995, replacing covered terracing at the north end (known as the Cowshed) and open terracing at the south end (known as the
Dunbar End).
The West Stand was rebuilt in
2001 to replace the ageing main stand. The West Stand has a capacity of 6,500 and is similar in design to the North and South Stands. The stadium has dining and conferencing facilities within the West and Famous Five Stands. The
Behind the Goals bar in
the Famous Five Stand is one of the largest match-day bars in the
United Kingdom. An
electronic scoreboard was installed between the two tiers of the South Stand during
the 2005-06 season.
Future
The East Stand was a large terrace which has been greatly reduced, roofed and made all seated. Views of the pitch from this stand are somewhat restricted by the supporting pillars. The club does have
planning permission to replace this stand with a modern facility similar to the other three stands, but weak finances and low attendances meant that the planning permission hasn't been acted upon until recently. The club's finances and attendances have improved in the last four seasons, however, which has led to speculation that the planning permission to develop the east side of the ground would be used.
Hibs
Chairman and then
CEO Rod Petrie said in
October 2006 that the development of a training ground in
East Lothian was the first priority for the club. The training ground was opened by Sir
Tom Farmer on
19 December 2007.
Hibs announced during their
annual general meeting in
October 2007 that they'd hold a consultation process on the redevelopment of the east side of the ground. This process began during
April 2008. Hibs have announced plans which would mean increasing the capacity of the stadium to just over 20,000 and widening the pitch by three metres, making the stadium fully compliant with
UEFA regulations.
Uses other than Hibs matches
Neutral venue for cup ties
Easter Road has sometimes played host to
Scottish League Cup semi-final matches. Recent examples of this include
Dunfermline 1–0
Livingston in 2006,
Hearts 2–3
Motherwell in 2005 and Livingston 1–0
Dundee in 2004.
International football
Scotland have sometimes played full international matches at Easter Road. These have been
friendly matches against less attractive opposition where a relatively small crowd is expected, and it has therefore been unnecessary to play the match at
Hampden Park. Scotland have played four times at the present site of Easter Road.
|score = 1–1
|report=
(Report)
|team2 =
|goals1 =
Darren Jackson 16'
|goals2 =
Jonatan Johansson 10'
|stadium =
International Challenge Match Attendance: 14,315
Referee: Herman van Dijk (
Netherlands)}}
|score = 3–1
|report=
(Report)
|team2 =
|goals1 =
Stephen Crawford 11', 73'
Steven Thompson 49'
|goals2 =
Dwayne De Rosario 9' (
pen)
|stadium =
International Challenge Match Attendance: 16,207
Referee: L Huyghe (
Belgium)}}
|score = 4–1
|report=
(Report)
|team2 =
|goals1 =
Darren Fletcher 6'
Gary Holt 12'
Gary Caldwell 23'
Nigel Quashie 35'
|goals2 =
Stern John 55'
|stadium =
International Challenge Match Attendance: 16,187
Referee: Pieter Vink (
Netherlands)}}
This match had an unusual occurrence: when
Gary Caldwell was substituted, he was replaced by his brother,
Steven Caldwell.
|score = 1–4
|report=
(Report)
|team2 =
|goals1 =
James McFadden 77' (
pen)
|goals2 =
Marcus Allbäck 27', 49'
Johan Elmander 72'
Fredrik Berglund 73'
|stadium =
International Challenge Match Attendance: 15,071
Referee: Jaroslav Jara (
Czech Republic)}}
There was also one
British Home Championship match played during 1888 at
Hibernian's home ground, which was known as
Hibernian Park. This wasn't the site of the present Easter Road stadium, which Hibs first used in
1893.
|score = 5–1
|report=
(Match Details)
|team2 =
|goals1 =
William Paul 6'
Neil Munro 30'
Alex Latta 35', 75'
William Groves 65'
|goals2 =
John Doughty
|stadium =
British Home Championship Attendance: 8,000
Referee: John Charles Clegg}}
The
Scotland under-21 team also sometimes play their matches at Easter Road. This happened most recently when Scotland beat
Lithuania under-21s 3–0 in
October 2007 .
In 2006, the stadium played host to a pre-
World Cup friendly between
South Korea and
Ghana. This match came about because South Korea (coached by the former
Rangers manager
Dick Advocaat) had used Rangers' training ground as a pre-tournament training base, and wanted matches to complete this training process. This match meant that international stars such as
Michael Essien,
Stephen Appiah and
Park Ji-Sung played at the ground. Ghana won the match 3–1.
|score = 1–3
|report=
(Report)
|team2 =
|goals1 =
Lee Eul-Yong 49'
|goals2 =
Asamoah Gyan 35' (
pen)
Sulley Muntari 62'
Michael Essien 81'.
|stadium =
International Challenge MatchAttendance: 7,600
Referee: Dougie MacDonald(
Scotland)}}
Easter Road was briefly the home ground for the
Edinburgh Rugby professional rugby union team in the late 1990s. It was reported in the summer of 2007 that Edinburgh Rugby looked into the possibility of using Easter Road again due to a dispute between Edinburgh Rugby the
Scottish Rugby Union, the owner of
Murrayfield Stadium. This didn't happen, however, because the dispute was resolved and Edinburgh Rugby played their matches in the
2007-08 season at Murrayfield.
Music
Sir Elton John performed Easter Road's first rock concert on
June 25 2005. This had a detrimental effect on the quality of the pitch throughout the following season, and it's doubtful whether further concerts will be held at the stadium.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Easter Road'.
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