Windsor Park

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Windsor Park
Windsor
Full name	Windsor Park
Location
Built	1905
Opened	1905
Owner
Tenants	Linfield F.C. Northern Ireland national football team
Capacity	20,332
Field dimensions	110 x 75 yards

Windsor Park - a view from the Kop Stand, showing the two-tiered North Stand and the low Railway stand behind the opposite goal

This article refers to the home ground of the Northern Ireland national football team. For other uses of Windsor Park, see Windsor Park (disambiguation).

Windsor Park is the home ground of the Northern Irish football club, Linfield FC, in Belfast. It is also the home of the Northern Ireland national football team and Irish Cup Finals.

Windsor Park was first opened in 1905, with a match between Linfield and Glentoran. However most of the stadium was designed and built in the 1930s, to a design made by the Scottish architect Archibald Leitch (who also worked on Celtic Park, Ibrox Park and Hampden Park). It had one main seated stand the South Stand, a large open terrace behind the goal to the west called the Spion Kop, to the north a long covered terrace and behind the eastern goal at the Railway End another covered terrace. Windsor Park's peak capacity in this format was as high as 60,000. In the early 60's the Railway End terrace had seats put in while in the early 70's a Social Club/Viewing Lounge was constructed in the corner between the Railway End and South Stand. In the 1980s, the covered terrace opposite the main stand was damaged in a fire so it was demolished and replaced with a modern 6800 seater "North Stand", on two tiers and with a cantilever roof. In the late 1990s, the open west terrace or "Kop" was also demolished and replaced with sleek 5000 seater "Kop Stand".

The current capacity of the ground is 20,332, of which 14,000 is seated. For most Linfield home games only the main stand (now known as the South Stand) and Kop stands are opened. The north stand is usually given to away supporters when a bigger crowd is expected, for example when Linfield play against local rivals Glentoran. The venue usually sees its biggest crowds for Northern Ireland internationals, from which Linfield receive 15%^[1] of the gate receipts.

In 2007, following a series of inspections that questioned the suitability of Windsor Park to host international football^[2], combined with a reduction of capacity due to the closure of the Railway Stand, the IFA made it known that they wished to terminate their contract for the use of the stadium.^[3] There has been speculation about the construction of a new multi-purpose stadium either in Belfast or in Lisburn for football and gaelic games. A report on health and safety in October 2007 proposed that the South Stand be closed for internationals, reducing the stadium's capacity to 9,000.^[4] Given the time that would be needed to build a new stadium, either significant work would have to be done improving Windsor Park, or else Northern Ireland would have to play their home games at a venue in either England or Scotland. A temporary move to the Ravenhill Stadium (home of Ulster Rugby) may be possible^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Notes

There is a popularly held, but incorrect belief that Windsor Park was named after the British Royal Family House of Windsor. Windsor Park was opened twelve years prior to the Royal Family taking the Windsor name in 1917. The ground is in fact named after a long-standing area of South Belfast.
The Kop Stand has been known as the Alex Russell Stand since 2004 in honour of Linfield's former goalkeeper and coach and one-time Northern Ireland international.