Easter Road
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Easter Road | |
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| The Leith San Siro | |
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| Location | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Broke ground | 1893 |
| Opened | 1893 |
| Renovated | 2001 |
| Owner | Hibernian Football Club |
| Surface | Grass |
| Tenants | |
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(Scottish Premier League) |
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| Seats | |
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Easter Road is the home ground of Scottish 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".
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[edit] History
Since Sir Tom Farmer took control of Hibernian Football Club in 1991, the stadium has undergone major redevelopment. Two stands, the Famous Five (North) Stand and the South Stand (previously called the Dunbar End), behind each goal were built in 1995.
The West Stand, built in 2001, is the largest stand, with 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 South stands, and the "Behind the Goals" bar in the South Stand is one of the largest matchday bars in Scotland.
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 often restricted by supporting pillars. The club does have planning permission to replace this stand with a modern facility similar to the other three stands, but the club's weak financial position and low attendances meant that this idea has been shelved.
The club's rising attendances and consequently improved financial position in the last three years have brought this idea back into focus. Hibs Chairman, Rod Petrie, has been recently (as of October 2006) quoted as saying that the development of training facilities at East Mains (in East Lothian) is the first priority for the club. This scheme is expected to be completed in summer 2007, in time for pre-season training.
[edit] Record attendance
The record attendance stands at 65,860 against Hearts on 2 January 1950, dating from when the stadium had large terraces, particularly on the east side of the ground.
[edit] Uses other than Hibs matches
[edit] Neutral venue for cup ties
Easter Road sometimes plays host to Scottish League Cup semi-final matches, depending on the ties drawn. Recent examples of this include Dunfermline 1 v 0 Livingston in 2006, Hearts 2 v 3 Motherwell in 2005 and Livingston 1 v 0 Dundee in 2004.
[edit] International football
Scotland sometimes play full international matches at Easter Road, usually "friendly" matches against less attractive opposition where a relatively small crowd is expected. There are three examples of this in the last five years:
Scotland 1 v 4 Sweden in 2005
Scotland 4 v 1 Trinidad & Tobago in 2004
Scotland 3 v 1 Canada in 2003
The Scotland under-21 team also played one match at Easter Road in recent years, a playoff against the Croatia under-21 team in 2003. Scotland won the match 1-0, but lost 2-1 on aggregate.
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.
[edit] Rugby Union
Easter Road was briefly the home ground for the Edinburgh Rugby professional rugby union team in the late 1990s. It has also been reported recently (as of November 2006) that the club are looking into the possibility of using Easter Road again, due to disputes with the Scottish Rugby Union over the use of Murrayfield.
It is thought to be unlikely that this will happen, however, because the Hibs manager, John Collins is keen for the football side to play a passing game. Playing rugby would mean having to grow the grass longer, and the greater use of the pitch would cause the quality of the pitch to decline, both of which would hinder passing football. Collins' predecessor, Tony Mowbray, was opposed to rugby being played on the ground for these reasons.
[edit] Music
In 2005, Sir Elton John performed Easter Road's first rock concert.
